Marvalee Wake

Last updated
Marvalee Wake
Born
Marvalee Hendricks

(1939-07-31) July 31, 1939 (age 84)
Alma mater University of Southern California
Known forResearch in caecilian biology and vertebrate morphology
Spouse David B. Wake
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsZoology
Institutions University of California, Berkeley
Theses
Doctoral advisor Jay M. Savage
Website ib.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/wakem

Marvalee Hendricks Wake (born July 31, 1939) is an American zoologist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, known for her research in the biology of caecilians (limbless amphibians) and vertebrate development and evolution. A 1988 Guggenheim Fellow, she has served as president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, International Union of Biological Sciences, and the International Society of Vertebrate Morphology. [1] [2] She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the California Academy of Sciences, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Contents

Life

Marvalee Hendricks was born in Orange, California on July 31, 1939. [3] She attended the University of Southern California (USC), earning a B.A. 1961; M.S. in 1964; and completing her Ph.D. in 1968 under herpetologist Jay Savage. [4] While at USC she met and married biologist David B. Wake and gave birth to a son. Wake became assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and later she and her husband moved to the University of California, Berkeley, where David assumed directorship of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and Marvalee became a professor. She was rapidly promoted, eventually assuming the chair of the Department of Zoology and its successor, the Department of Integrative Biology. [1] She nominally retired as professor in 2003, but remained active in research and since 2004 has held the position of Professor of the Graduate School at UC Berkeley. [1] [4]

Wake is known as an expert in caecilians—a relatively little-known group of limbless amphibians—and her research has included the developmental biology, evolution, reproduction, and anatomy of these creatures. [5] [6] Her research has been credited with stimulating renewed world-wide interest in the group which has historically received little research. [1] In her doctoral dissertation and a series of early papers she explored comparative aspects of caecilian reproductive anatomy, and in 1972 co-described the first evidence of caecilians in the fossil record. [7] She is also recognized for her contributions towards the field of vertebrate morphology. Biologist Brian K. Hall writes: "Consistently, passionately and effectively, Marvalee Wake has advocated the teaching of morphology as a multifaceted modern science that informs evolutionary biology and evolutionary theory, and is foundational to integrative biology." [2] : 271  She has formally collaborated with her husband—an expert in salamanders—since 1975, although the two maintain separate labs and graduate students. [8]

Wake has published or co-published over 200 journal articles and book chapters, edited a revision of the textbook Hyman's Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (originally written by Libbie H. Hyman), and co-edited a general biology textbook (Biology, 1979) as well as the scholarly book The Origin and Evolution of Larval Forms (1999). [1]

Wake is commemorated in the name of the caecilian Microcaecilia marvaleewakeae , [9] and she and her husband are jointly commemorated in the names of the frog genus Wakea [10] and the lizard Cyrtodactylus wakeorum (Wakes' gecko). [5] [11] A festschrift of papers in her honor was published in the journal Zoology in 2005. [1]

Since 2013, Wake has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education. [12]

Wake has served as advisor to 17 doctoral students and 15 post-doctoral students. In 2014 she received the Henry S. Fitch Award for Excellence in Herpetology from the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. [6]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amphibian</span> Class of ectothermic tetrapods

Amphibians are ectothermic, anamniotic, four-limbed vertebrate animals that constitute the class Amphibia. They are a paraphyletic group encompassing all tetrapods excluding the amniotes. All extant (living) amphibians belong to the subclass Lissamphibia, with three living orders: Anura (frogs), Urodela (salamanders), and Gymnophiona (caecilians). Evolved to be mostly semiaquatic, amphibians have adapted to inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living in freshwater, wetland or terrestrial ecosystems. Their life cycle typically starts out as aquatic larvae with gills known as tadpoles, but some species have developed behavioural adaptations to bypass this.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Libbie Hyman</span> American zoologist

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Caecilians are a group of limbless, vermiform (worm-shaped) or serpentine (snake-shaped) amphibians with small or sometimes nonexistent eyes. They mostly live hidden in soil or in streambeds, and this cryptic lifestyle renders caecilians among the least familiar amphibians. Modern caecilians live in the tropics of South and Central America, Africa, and southern Asia. Caecilians feed on small subterranean creatures such as earthworms. The body is cylindrical and often darkly coloured, and the skull is bullet-shaped and strongly built. Caecilian heads have several unique adaptations, including fused cranial and jaw bones, a two-part system of jaw muscles, and a chemosensory tentacle in front of the eye. The skin is slimy and bears ringlike markings or grooves, which may contain tiny scales.

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<i>Dermophis</i> Genus of amphibians

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Rhinatrema is a genus of caecilians in the family Rhinatrematidae. Their common name is two-lined caecilians. The genus is known from the Guyanas and adjacent Brazil. Most Rhinatrema are known to inhabit and live in areas of tropical forests where there is an abundance of dense, dead vegetation matter.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schwenk, Kurt; Korff, Wyatt; Matthias Starck, J. (2005). "Integrative organismal biology: Papers in honor of Professor Marvalee H. Wake" (PDF). Zoology. 108 (4): 261–267. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2005.09.002. PMID   16351974. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-01.
  2. 1 2 Hall, Brian K. (2005). "In Goethe's Wake: Marvalee Wake's conceptual contributions to the development and evolution of a science of morphology". Zoology. 108 (4): 269–275. doi:10.1016/j.zool.2005.09.005. PMID   16351975.
  3. ↑ American Men & Women of Science : Physical and Biological Sciences (14th ed.). New York: R. R. Bowker & Company. 1979. p. 5327. ISBN   0835211193.
  4. 1 2 "Dr. Marvalee H. Wake, Curriculum Vitae". The Lab of Marvalee H. Wake. University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 278–279. ISBN   978-1-4214-0135-5.
  6. 1 2 Frost, Darrel (2015). "Marvalee H. Wake: Henry S. Fitch Award for Excellence in Herpetology—2014". Copeia. 103 (1): 2. doi:10.1643/OT-15-252. S2CID   198150148.
  7. ↑ Estes, Richard; Wake, Marvalee H. (1972). "The first fossil record of caecilian amphibians". Nature. 239 (5369): 228–231. Bibcode:1972Natur.239..228E. doi:10.1038/239228b0. S2CID   4260251.
  8. ↑ Wake, David B. (2010). "BIO" (PDF). Evolution & Development. 12 (3): 244–245. doi:10.1111/j.1525-142X.2010.00409.x. PMID   20565534. S2CID   221679002.
  9. ↑ Maciel, Adriano O.; Hoogmoed, Marinus S. [in French] (2013). "A new species of Microcaecilia (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Siphonopidae) from the Guianan region of Brazil". Zootaxa. 3693 (3): 387–94. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3693.3.9. PMID   26185857. It is with great pleasure that we name this species in honor of Dr. Marvalee H. Wake... one of the most important present day researchers of caecilians and author of many publications on development, morphology, phylogeny, and reproductive biology of these secretive animals.
  10. ↑ Glaw, Frank; Vences, Miguel (2006). "Phylogeny and genus-level classification of mantellid frogs (Amphibia, Anura)". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 6 (3): 236–253. doi: 10.1016/j.ode.2005.12.001 . We are pleased to dedicate this genus to David and Marvalee Wake, Berkeley, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the understanding of amphibian biology.
  11. ↑ Bauer, Aaron M. [in French] (2003). "Descriptions of seven new Cyrtodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) with a key to the species of Myanmar (Burma)" (PDF). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences. 54 (25): 463–498. for their contributions to herpetology, vertebrate morphology, and evolutionary biology and for their valuable mentoring of many graduate students
  12. ↑ "Advisory Council". ncse.com. National Center for Science Education. Archived from the original on 2013-08-10. Retrieved 2018-10-30.
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