 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(July 2012) |
Howard L. Snell | |
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| Born | 1953 (age 69–70) La Mesa, California |
| Occupation | ecologist |
| Nationality | American |
Howard L. Snell (born 1953) is an American ecologist and professor at the University of New Mexico. His research and conservation efforts have focused on the Galapagos land iguanas, which were in danger of extinction.
Snell was born in 1953, in La Mesa, California. He received his BS in Zoology at San Diego State University in 1976. After graduating from San Diego State, he worked in the Galapagos Islands with the Peace Corps (1977 to 1979), and for the Charles Darwin Research Station and the Galapagos National Park from 1977-1980. Subsequently, he earned a Ph.D. in Zoology at Colorado State University, where he was mentored by C. R. Tracy (1979–1983). He was a post-doctoral associate at Texas Christian University working with Gary Ferguson (1984 to 1985). His first academic position was as an assistant professor at Memphis State University (1985 to 1986), after which he moved to the University of New Mexico (UNM). He is currently a full professor at UNM as well as the curator of amphibians and reptiles at the Museum of Southwestern Biology. Snell is also an active member of The Charles Darwin Foundation.
In 1975, he married Heidi Klienschmidt, an artist and photographer. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and is also an active member of The Charles Darwin Foundation.
Snell’s research broadly examines how human activity and exotic species affect native species. Most of his research has been on lizards, especially land iguanas, in the Galápagos Islands, comparing individual variation and differential phenotypic success to identify components of life history, morphology, and behavior susceptible to human activity. He has expanded this research to include archipelago-wide patterns of co-variation among populations and species. Specific projects include researching co-variation of life-history components among Galápagos organisms (primarily reptiles) and their susceptibility to extirpation and examining correlations between spatial patterns of extinction, distribution of organisms, and human activity.
Snell has also conducted extensive research on the efficiency of various restoration strategies for Galápagos vertebrates, and how to control, eradicate, and mitigate introduced species of vertebrates. He has also developed effective methods for ecological monitoring and improving responses by management agencies.
Snell has helped philanthropic organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund and government agencies including the Galápagos National Park Service and the Instituto Nacional de Galápagos to make informed decisions about conservation in the Galápagos. h;k][okl'm, /kp'[8
Snell has been a major advisor for many graduate students. He has advised eleven doctoral students. His former students include Lee Fitzgerald, Professor of Zoology at Texas A&M University. [1]
Howard Snell's publications include:
Snell, H.M., H. L. Snell, G. Davis-Merlyn, T. Simkin, and R. Silbergleid. 1996. Bibliografía de Galápagos: 1535-1995. 300 pages. Fundación Charles Darwin, Quito, Ecuador.
Snell, H. L., H. M. Snell, P. A. Stone, M. Altamirano, A. Mauchamp, and I. Aldáz. 1995. La diversidad biológica de las islas Galápagos, volumen uno: análisis de la flora. 62 pages, Fundación Charles Darwin, Quito, Ecuador.
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador. Located 900 kilometres west of continental Ecuador, the islands are known for their large number of endemic species that were studied by Charles Darwin during the second voyage of HMS Beagle. His observations and collections contributed to the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by means of natural selection.
Darwin's finches are a group of about 18 species of passerine birds. They are well known for their remarkable diversity in beak form and function. They are often classified as the subfamily Geospizinae or tribe Geospizini. They belong to the tanager family and are not closely related to the true finches. The closest known relative of the Galápagos finches is the South American dull-coloured grassquit. They were first collected when the second voyage of the Beagle visited the Galápagos Islands, with Charles Darwin on board as a gentleman naturalist. Apart from the Cocos finch, which is from Cocos Island, the others are found only on the Galápagos Islands.
David Lambert Lack FRS was a British evolutionary biologist who made contributions to ornithology, ecology, and ethology. His 1947 book, Darwin's Finches, on the finches of the Galapagos Islands was a landmark work as were his other popular science books on Life of the Robin and Swifts in a Tower. He developed what is now known as Lack's Principle which explained the evolution of avian clutch sizes in terms of individual selection as opposed to the competing contemporary idea that they had evolved for the benefit of species. His pioneering life-history studies of the living bird helped in changing the nature of ornithology from what was then a collection-oriented field. He was a longtime director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology at the University of Oxford.
The Charles Darwin Foundation was founded in 1959, under the auspices of UNESCO and the World Conservation Union. The Charles Darwin Research Station serves as headquarters for The Foundation, and is used to conduct scientific research and promote environmental education.
Peter Raymond Grant and Barbara Rosemary Grant are a British married couple who are evolutionary biologists at Princeton University. Each currently holds the position of emeritus professor. They are known for their work with Darwin's finches on Daphne Major, one of the Galápagos Islands. Since 1973, the Grants have spent six months of every year capturing, tagging, and taking blood samples from finches on the island. They have worked to show that natural selection can be seen within a single lifetime, or even within a couple of years. Charles Darwin originally thought that natural selection was a long, drawn out process but the Grants have shown that these changes in populations can happen very quickly.
The marine iguana, also known as the sea iguana, saltwater iguana, or Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador). Unique among modern lizards, it is a marine reptile that has the ability to forage in the sea for algae, which makes up almost all of its diet. Marine iguanas are the only extant lizard that spends time in a marine environment. Large males are able to dive to find this food source, while females and smaller males feed during low tide in the intertidal zone. They mainly live in colonies on rocky shores where they bask after visiting the relatively cold water or intertidal zone, but can also be seen in marshes, mangrove swamps and beaches. Large males defend territories for a short period, but smaller males have other breeding strategies. After mating, the female digs a nest hole in the soil where she lays her eggs, leaving them to hatch on their own a few months later.
Santiago Island is one of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, named after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Sea, or as James Island. The island, which consists of two overlapping volcanoes, has an area of 585 square kilometers (226 sq mi) and a maximum altitude of 907 meters (2,976 ft), atop the northwestern shield volcano. The volcano in the island's southeast erupted along a linear fissure, and is much lower. The oldest lava flows on the island date back to 750,000 years ago.
Grapsus grapsus is one of the most common crabs along the western coast of the Americas. It is known as the red rock crab, or, along with crabs such as Percnon gibbesi, as the Sally Lightfoot crab.
Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ is a liberal-arts, private university located in Quito, Ecuador. It was the first totally private self-financed university in Ecuador and the first liberal-arts institution in the Andean region.
The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise is a species of very large tortoise in the genus Chelonoidis. The species comprises 15 subspecies. It is the largest living species of tortoise, with some modern Galápagos tortoises weighing up to 417 kg (919 lb). With lifespans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates. Captive Galapagos tortoises can live up to 177 years. For example, a captive individual, Harriet, lived for at least 175 years. Spanish explorers, who discovered the islands in the 16th century, named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning "tortoise".
Eugenia María del Pino Veintimilla is a developmental biologist at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador in Quito. She was the first Ecuadorian citizen to be elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (2006). She was awarded the 2019 Prize of the Latin American Society for Developmental Biology for her strong contributions to research in Ecuador, and in general to promoting Developmental Biology in Latin America.
Cinchona pubescens, also known as red cinchona and quina (Kina), is native to Central and South America. It is known as a medicinal plant for its bark's high quinine content- and has similar uses to Cinchona officinalis in the production of quinine, most famously used for treatment of malaria.
Wolf Volcano, also known as Mount Whiton, is the highest peak in the Galápagos Islands. It is situated on Isabela Island and reaches 1,710 m (5,610 ft). It is a shield volcano with a characteristic upturned soup bowl shape.
Conolophus pallidus is a species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is one of three species in the genus Conolophus and is endemic to Santa Fe Island in the Galapagos.
The Galápagos land iguana is a very large species of lizard in the family Iguanidae. It is one of three species of the genus Conolophus. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, in the dry lowlands of the islands of Fernandina, Isabela, Santa Cruz, North Seymour, Baltra, and South Plaza.
Conolophus marthae, the Galápagos pink land iguana, is a species of lizard of the family Iguanidae. This critically endangered iguana is native only to the Wolf Volcano in northern Isabela Island of the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador). It has a pink body with some dark stripes, prompting some to call it the pink iguana or the Galápagos rosy iguana. The species was first discovered in 1986 and was identified as a separate species, distinct from the Galápagos land iguana, early in 2009. This species is the only example of ancient diversification in the genus Conolophus.
The World Summit on Evolution is an evolutionary biology meeting hosted at the Galapagos Islands by Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), an Ecuadorian private liberal arts university. Its focus is on recent research and new advances in our understanding of evolution and the diversity of life.
Lee Fitzgerald is Professor of Zoology and Faculty Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. His biological specialty is the evolutionary ecology and conservation biology of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology). Fitzgerald is a former editor of Herpetological Monographs.
C. Richard (Dick) Tracy is an American biologist, a professor of biology at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Juan Manuel Guayasamin is an Ecuadorian biologist. He earned his Ph.D. in 2007 from University of Kansas, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and as of 2017 he is working as professor at Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. His research interests include the evolution of glass frogs (Centrolenidae) and direct-developing anurans. His main contributions have been: phylogenetic taxonomy of glassfrogs, description of the variation of skin texture in frogs, description of numerous species of amphibians and reptiles, and a monographic review of all Ecuadorian glassfrogs. A team led by Juan M. Guayasamin discovered Hyalinobatrachium yaku in May 2017, a glassfrog with transparent venter. To date (2020), he has described a total of 6 amphibian genera, 55 species of amphibians, and 11 reptiles, including two geckos from the Galápagos Islands.
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