Elizabeth Jockusch

Last updated

Elizabeth Jockusch
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields Evolutionary biology
Institutions University of Connecticut
Academic advisors David Wake

Elizabeth L. Jockusch is an American evolutionary biologist who studies plethodontidae salamanders and other organisms. While working with David Wake and others, she has identified multiple new species of Batrachoseps salamanders. [1] [2] She works as a professor and lab director of the Jockusch Lab in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. [3] [4]

In 2014, she was elected to the council of the Society of Systematic Biologists for a three-year term. [5]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plethodontidae</span> Family of amphibians

Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from British Columbia to Brazil, although a few species are found in Sardinia, mainland Europe south of the Alps, and South Korea. In terms of number of species, they are by far the largest group of salamanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slender salamander</span> Genus of amphibians

Batrachoseps is a genus of lungless salamanders (plethodontids) often called slender salamanders. They can be distinguished from other lungless salamanders by the four toes they have on each foot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black-bellied slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The black-bellied slender salamander is a small species of salamander that is endemic to California.

David Burton Wake was an American herpetologist. He was professor of integrative biology and Director and curator of herpetology of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley. Wake is known for his work on the biology and evolution of salamanders as well as general issues of vertebrate evolutionary biology. He has served as president of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the American Society of Naturalists, and American Society of Zoologists. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Linnean Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and in 1998 was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the 2006 Leidy Award from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The California slender salamander is a lungless salamander that is found primarily in coastal mountain areas of Northern California, United States as well as in a limited part of the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, California, in patches of the northern Central Valley of California, and in extreme southwestern Oregon. This species resides primarily in a limited range within California as one of a handful quasi-endemic amphibians in the state.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climbing salamander</span> Genus of amphibians

Climbing salamanders is the common name for plethodontid (lungless) salamanders of the genus Aneides. It contains 10 species native to North America, distributed between the Pacific Coast, Sacramento Mountains, and Appalachian Mountains. As their common name suggests, most of these species have prehensile tails and are quite mobile in trees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inyo Mountains salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Inyo Mountains salamander or Inyo slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae that is endemic to the Inyo Mountains of California in the western United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabilan Mountains slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Gabilan Mountains slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is distributed along the Central Coast region from Santa Cruz to northern Kern County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregarious slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The gregarious slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. Its natural habitats are California interior chaparral and woodlands and temperate grasslands in the lower foothills of the western Sierra Nevada and the eastern Central Valley in California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Lucia Mountains slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The Santa Lucia Mountains slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California in the United States, where it is known only from Monterey County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garden slender salamander</span> Species of slender salamander

The Garden slender salamander or Southern California slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to northern Baja California in Mexico and Southern California in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Relictual slender salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The relictual slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, found only a small area in Kern County, California.

<i>Bolitoglossa</i> Genus of amphibians

Bolitoglossa is a genus of lungless salamanders, also called mushroom-tongued salamanders, tropical climbing salamanders, or web-footed salamanders, in the family Plethodontidae. Their range is between northern Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, northeastern Brazil, and central Bolivia. Neotropical salamanders of the Bolitoglossa make up the largest genus in the order Caudata, consisting of approximately one-fifth of all known species of salamanders. Adult salamanders range anywhere from 45mm to 200mm in length depending on their specific species. They are notorious for their ability to project their tongue at prey items, as indicated from their name. They are also known for their webbed feet, having significantly more webbing than any other species outside their genus with the exception of the cave-dwelling Mexican bolitoglossine Chiropterotriton magnipes. Although webbed feet are a common characteristic of these salamanders, only about half of the species in this genus contain webbed feet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seepage salamander</span> Species of amphibian

The seepage salamander is a small, terrestrial species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the United States. They are found in small areas of Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Its natural habitats are temperate forests, intermittent rivers, and freshwater springs. It gets its name from the seepages around which it lives. It is very similar in its appearance and life history to the pygmy salamander. These two species differ greatly from the other Desmognathus species. They are the smallest salamanders in the genus, measuring only 3–5 cm (1–2 in) in length. They are also the only two terrestrial, direct-developing Desmognathus species. However, the two species are not often seen to coexist, differing in distribution by elevation; although there are exceptions. The seepage salamander is currently listed as Near Threatened, with its numbers declining in most of states in which it is found. It is threatened by habitat loss, with logging having a major effect.

Pseudoeurycea lineola, commonly known as the Veracruz worm salamander or Mexican slender salamander, is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to the eastern slope of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt near Cuautlapan, in the west-central Veracruz, Mexico, at elevations of 800–1,250 m (2,620–4,100 ft) above sea level. Molecular evidence suggests that it consists of two distinct species. It was the type species of genus Lineatriton.

<i>Aquiloeurycea</i> Genus of amphibians

Aquiloeurycea is a genus of salamanders in the family Plethodontidae. They are endemic to Mexico. The genus corresponds to the former "Pseudoeurycea cephalica species group", which was established in order to preserve Ixalotriton and Bolitoglossa while avoiding paraphyly of Pseudoeurycea.

<i>Isthmura</i> Genus of amphibians

Isthmura is a genus of salamanders in the family Plethodontidae. They are endemic to Mexico. The genus, which corresponds to the former "Pseudoeurycea bellii species group" and was first described as a subgenus of Pseudoeurycea, was raised to full generic level in 2015 in order to preserve Ixalotriton and Bolitoglossa while avoiding paraphyly of Pseudoeurycea.

Nonadaptive radiations are a subset of evolutionary radiations that are characterized by diversification that is not driven by resource partitioning. The species that are a part of a nonadaptive radiation will tend to have very similar niches, and in many cases will be morphologically similar. Nonadaptive radiations are driven by nonecological speciation. In many cases, this nonecological speciation is allopatric, and the organisms are dispersal-limited such that populations can be geographically isolated within a landscape with relatively similar ecological conditions. For example, Albinaria land snails on islands in the Mediterranean and Batrachoseps salamanders from California each include relatively dispersal-limited, and closely related, ecologically similar species often have minimal range overlap, a pattern consistent with allopatric, nonecological speciation. In other cases, such as certain damselflies and crickets from Hawaii, there can be range overlap in closely related species, and it is likely that sexual selection plays a role in maintaining species boundaries.

The Arguello slender salamander is a species of salamander in the family Plethodontidae. It is endemic to California, where it is found only in a small area of coastal Santa Barbara County.

References

  1. 1 2 Jockusch, Elizabeth L.; Wake, David B. (2002). "Falling apart and merging: diversification of slender salamanders (Plethodontidae: Batrachoseps) in the American West". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 76 (3): 361–391. doi: 10.1046/j.1095-8312.2002.00071.x . ISSN   1095-8312.
  2. 1 2 Sweet, Samuel S.; Jockusch, Elizabeth L. (September 2021). "A New Relict Species of Slender Salamander (Plethodontidae: Batrachoseps) with a Tiny Range from Point Arguello, California". Ichthyology & Herpetology. 109 (3): 836–850. doi: 10.1643/h2020027 . ISSN   2766-1512. S2CID   238638252.
  3. Severance, Jaclyn (December 9, 2019). "UConn Study: Wing Genes Responsible for Tiny Treehopper's Extraordinary Helmet". University of Connecticut. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  4. Wu., Katherine J. (December 9, 2019). "Treehoppers' Bizarre, Wondrous Helmets Use Wing Genes to Grow". Smithsonian Magazine . Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  5. "Society of Systematic Biologists Announcements". Systematic Biology. 63 (4): A4. July 2014. doi: 10.1093/sysbio/syu037 via Academic Search Complete.
  6. Elizabeth L. Jockusch (April 22, 1997). "An Evolutionary Correlate of Genome Size Change in Plethodontid Salamanders". Proceedings: Biological Sciences. 264 (1381): 597–604. doi:10.1098/rspb.1997.0085. PMC   1688400 .
  7. Galis, Frietson; Wagner, Günter P.; Jockusch, Elizabeth L. (2003). "Why is limb regeneration possible in amphibians but not in reptiles, birds, and mammals?". Evolution & Development. 5 (2): 208–220. doi: 10.1046/j.1525-142X.2003.03028.x . PMID   12622738. S2CID   18565964.
  8. Evans, Annette E.; Urban, Mark C.; Jockusch, Elizabeth L. (April 1, 2020). "Developmental temperature influences color polymorphism but not hatchling size in a woodland salamander". Oecologia. 192 (4): 909–918. Bibcode:2020Oecol.192..909E. doi:10.1007/s00442-020-04630-y. ISSN   0029-8549. PMID   32162072. S2CID   253974806.
  9. Jockusch, Elizabeth L.; Hansen, Robert W.; Fisher, Robert N.; Wake, David B. (August 14, 2020). "Slender salamanders (genus Batrachoseps) reveal Southern California to be a center for the diversification, persistence, and introduction of salamander lineages". PeerJ. 8: e9599. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9599 . ISSN   2167-8359. PMC   7430267 . PMID   32864205.
  10. Jockusch, Elizabeth L; Fisher, Cera R (August 1, 2021). "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something red: the origin of ecologically relevant novelties in Hemiptera". Current Opinion in Genetics & Development. Developmental Mechanisms, patterning and evolution. 69: 154–162. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2021.04.003 . ISSN   0959-437X. PMID   34058515. S2CID   235268984.