Scott V. Edwards

Last updated

Scott V. Edwards
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Harvard University
University of California, Berkeley
Scientific career
FieldsOrnithology, evolutionary biology
Institutions Harvard University

Scott Vernon Edwards is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Curator of Ornithology at Harvard's associated museum, the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Contents

Early life and education

Edwards was born in Honolulu, Hawaii [1] and raised in the Riverdale area of the Bronx in New York City, where he worked for the local public horticultural institution Wave Hill. He attended Harvard University as an undergraduate and received his bachelor's degree in biology in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in zoology from University of California, Berkeley in 1992 and then spent two years as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Florida working with Wayne Potts and Ward Wakeland on molecular evolution in wild bird populations. [2]

Career

Edwards became an assistant professor of zoology at the University of Washington and curator at the Burke Museum in 1994. In 2003 he moved to Harvard University to join the Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology and become the Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In 2013 he was appointed to a two-year position as the Director of the Division of Biological Infrastructure at the National Science Foundation. [1]

Edwards was elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union in 2006, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009, and of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2015. [1] [3] According to The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education , Edwards is one of only two black scientists out of the 84 chosen that year. [4]

He has cited early mentorship as a positive influence in developing his research interests and works actively to increase representation of minorities in his field, particularly through offering research experiences to undergraduates. [5] [6] He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2015 [3] and to the American Philosophical Society in 2020. [7]

Research

Edwards' research focuses on the molecular evolution of birds. Several papers from his group describe the evolution of birds from dinosaurs; for example, genetic evidence was reported for the evolution of genes involved in feather formation much earlier than the common ancestor of modern birds, supporting the hypothesis that non-avian dinosaurs had feathers. [8] [9] Comparative genomics analyses published by the group suggest that dinosaurs have small genomes like modern birds. [10] [11] Edwards has advocated for modernizing methods in phylogenomics by incorporating advancements in sequencing technologies [12] and by using coalescent models that incorporate incomplete lineage sorting (which is widespread among birds). [13]

Edwards' group was also involved in the Avian Phylogenomics Consortium, which in 2014 published a large series of papers on avian phylogenomics. [14] [15] His lab is currently involved in the Earth BioGenome Project. [16]

Edwards has published on the importance of natural history collections for undergraduate education, [17] and he co-developed a program called AIM-UP, which incorporated museum collections into educational programming for undergraduates. [18] He has also edited a book republishing rare early drawings by John Audubon. [19] [20]

Related Research Articles

<i>Archaeopteryx</i> Genus of avian dinosaur

Archaeopteryx, sometimes referred to by its German name, "Urvogel", is a genus of avian dinosaurs. The name derives from the ancient Greek ἀρχαῖος (archaīos), meaning "ancient", and πτέρυξ (ptéryx), meaning "feather" or "wing". Between the late 19th century and the early 21st century, Archaeopteryx was generally accepted by palaeontologists and popular reference books as the oldest known bird. Older potential avialans have since been identified, including Anchiornis, Xiaotingia, and Aurornis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bird</span> Warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates with wings, feathers, and beaks

Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5.5 cm (2.2 in) bee hummingbird to the 2.8 m common ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have wings whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. The study of birds is called ornithology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dinosaur</span> Archosaurian reptiles that dominated the Mesozoic Era

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feather</span> Body-covering structure of birds

Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs. They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. They are among the characteristics that distinguish the extant birds from other living groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feathered dinosaur</span> Dinosaur having feathers

A feathered dinosaur is any species of dinosaur possessing feathers. That includes all species of birds, but there is a hypothesis that many, if not all non-avian dinosaur species also possessed feathers in some shape or form. That theory has been challenged by some research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evolution of birds</span> Derivation of birds from a dinosaur precursor

The evolution of birds began in the Jurassic Period, with the earliest birds derived from a clade of theropod dinosaurs named Paraves. Birds are categorized as a biological class, Aves. For more than a century, the small theropod dinosaur Archaeopteryx lithographica from the Late Jurassic period was considered to have been the earliest bird. Modern phylogenies place birds in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. According to the current consensus, Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, together are the sole living members of an unranked reptile clade, the Archosauria. Four distinct lineages of bird survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, giving rise to ostriches and relatives (Palaeognathae), waterfowl (Anseriformes), ground-living fowl (Galliformes), and "modern birds" (Neoaves).

<i>Waimanu</i> Extinct genus of birds waimanu

Waimanu is a genus of early penguin which lived during the Paleocene, soon after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, around 62–60 million years ago. It was about the size of an emperor penguin. It is one of the most important bird fossils for understanding the origin and evolution of birds because of the time period it comes from, and the position of penguins near the base of the bird family tree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origin of birds</span> Evolution, adaptation, and origin of birds

The scientific question of within which larger group of animals birds evolved has traditionally been called the "origin of birds". The present scientific consensus is that birds are a group of maniraptoran theropod dinosaurs that originated during the Mesozoic Era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origin of avian flight</span> Evolution of birds from non-flying ancestors

Around 350 BCE, Aristotle and other philosophers of the time attempted to explain the aerodynamics of avian flight. Even after the discovery of the ancestral bird Archaeopteryx which lived over 150 million years ago, debates still persist regarding the evolution of flight. There are three leading hypotheses pertaining to avian flight: Pouncing Proavis model, Cursorial model, and Arboreal model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Feduccia</span> American academic

John Alan Feduccia is a paleornithologist specializing in the origins and phylogeny of birds. He is S. K. Heninger Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina. Feduccia's authored works include three major books, The Age of Birds, The Origin and Evolution of Birds, Riddle of the Feathered Dragons, and many peer-reviewed papers in ornithological and biological journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neoaves</span> Clade of birds

Neoaves is a clade that consists of all modern birds with the exception of Palaeognathae and Galloanserae. Almost 95% of the roughly 10,000 known species of extant birds belong to the Neoaves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aequornithes</span> Clade of birds

Aequornithes, or core water birds, are defined as "the least inclusive clade containing Gaviidae and Phalacrocoracidae".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennaraptora</span> Clade of dinosaurs

Pennaraptora is a clade defined as the most recent common ancestor of Oviraptor philoceratops, Deinonychus antirrhopus, and Passer domesticus, and all descendants thereof, by Foth et al., 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eucavitaves</span> Clade of birds

Eucavitaves is a clade that contains the order Trogoniformes (trogons) and the clade Picocoraciae. The name refers to the fact that the majority of them nest in cavities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cavitaves</span> Clade of birds

Cavitaves is a clade that contain the order Leptosomiformes and the clade Eucavitaves. The name refers to the fact that the majority of them nest in cavities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picocoraciae</span> Clade of birds

Picocoraciae is a clade that contains the order Bucerotiformes and the clade Picodynastornithes supported by various genetic analysis and morphological studies. While these studies supported a sister grouping of Coraciiformes and Piciformes, a large scale, sparse supermatrix has suggested alternative sister relationship between Bucerotiformes and Piciformes instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbimorphae</span> Clade of birds

Columbimorphae is a clade discovered by genome analysis that includes birds of the orders Columbiformes, Pterocliformes (sandgrouse), and Mesitornithiformes (mesites). Previous analyses had also recovered this grouping, although the exact relationships differed. Some studies indicated a sister relationship between sandgrouse and pigeons while other studies favored a sister grouping of mesites and sandgrouse instead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picodynastornithes</span> Clade of birds

Picodynastornithes is a clade that contains the orders Coraciiformes and Piciformes. This grouping also has current and historical support from molecular and morphological studies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Mindell</span> American ornithologist

David P. Mindell is an American evolutionary biologist and author. He is currently a senior researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Mindell's work is focused on the systematics, conservation and molecular evolution of birds, especially birds of prey. He is known for his 2006 book, The Evolving World in which he explained, for the general public, how evolution applies to everyday life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary J. O'Connell</span> Irish genomicist

Mary J. O'Connell is an evolutionary genomicist and Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham. She is the Principal Investigator of the Computational & Molecular Evolutionary Biology Group in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Edwards, Scott V. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Edwards Laboratory. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ Edwards, Scott V. "Scott V. Edwards". Edwards Laboratory. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Kacoyanis, Stephanie (May 5, 2015). "Harvard faculty elected to NAS". Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Two Black Scholars Elected Members of the National Academy of Sciences". Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. May 11, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2015.
  5. ↑ Parks, Clinton (May 12, 2006). "Directing Minorities Toward Careers in Evolutionary Biology". Science Careers. Science. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  6. ↑ Parker, Mary (March 19, 2013). "Scott Edwards' job is for the birds". Member Spotlight. AAAS MemberCentral. Retrieved May 26, 2015.
  7. ↑ "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2020".
  8. ↑ Zimmer, Carl (November 20, 2014). "Your Inner Feather – Phenomena: The Loom". Phenomena: The Loom. National Geographic. Archived from the original on November 21, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  9. ↑ Lowe, Craig B.; Clarke, Julia A.; Baker, Allan J.; Haussler, David; Edwards, Scott V. (January 1, 2015). "Feather Development Genes and Associated Regulatory Innovation Predate the Origin of Dinosauria". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 32 (1): 23–28. doi:10.1093/molbev/msu309. ISSN   0737-4038. PMC   4271537 . PMID   25415961.
  10. ↑ Bradt, Steve (March 8, 2007). "Despite their heft, many dinosaurs had surprisingly tiny genomes". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  11. ↑ Organ, Chris L.; Shedlock, Andrew M.; Meade, Andrew; Pagel, Mark; Edwards, Scott V. (March 8, 2007). "Origin of avian genome size and structure in non-avian dinosaurs". Nature. 446 (7132): 180–184. Bibcode:2007Natur.446..180O. doi:10.1038/nature05621. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   17344851. S2CID   3031794.
  12. ↑ Edwards, Scott V.; Shultz, Allison J.; Campbell-Staton, Shane C. (2015). "Next-generation sequencing and the expanding domain of phylogeography". Folia Zoologica. 64 (3): 187–206. doi:10.25225/fozo.v64.i3.a2.2015. ISSN   0139-7893. S2CID   27832022.
  13. ↑ Liu, Liang; Anderson, Christian; Pearl, Dennis; Edwards, Scott V. (2019). "Modern Phylogenomics: Building Phylogenetic Trees Using the Multispecies Coalescent Model". Evolutionary Genomics. Methods in Molecular Biology. Vol. 1910. pp. 211–239. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9074-0_7 . ISBN   978-1-4939-9073-3. ISSN   1064-3745. PMID   31278666.
  14. ↑ Zhang, Guojie; Jarvis, Erich D.; Gilbert, M. Thomas P. (December 12, 2014). "A flock of genomes". Science. 346 (6215): 1308–1309. Bibcode:2014Sci...346.1308Z. doi:10.1126/science.346.6215.1308. ISSN   0036-8075. PMC   4407557 . PMID   25504710.
  15. ↑ "Avian Phylogenomics Project". avian.genomics.cn. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  16. ↑ Lewin, Harris A.; Robinson, Gene E.; Kress, W. John; Baker, William J.; Coddington, Jonathan; Crandall, Keith A.; Durbin, Richard; Edwards, Scott V.; Forest, Félix; Gilbert, M. Thomas P.; Goldstein, Melissa M.; Grigoriev, Igor V.; Hackett, Kevin J.; Haussler, David; Jarvis, Erich D.; Johnson, Warren E.; Patrinos, Aristides; Richards, Stephen; Castilla-Rubio, Juan Carlos; van Sluys, Marie-Anne; Soltis, Pamela S.; Xu, Xun; Yang, Huanming; Zhang, Guojie (2018). "Earth BioGenome Project: Sequencing life for the future of life". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115 (17): 4325–4333. Bibcode:2018PNAS..115.4325L. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1720115115 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   5924910 . PMID   29686065.
  17. ↑ Cook, Joseph A.; Edwards, Scott V.; Lacey, Eileen A.; Guralnick, Robert P.; Soltis, Pamela S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Welch, Corey K.; Bell, Kayce C.; Galbreath, Kurt E. (August 1, 2014). "Natural History Collections as Emerging Resources for Innovative Education". BioScience. 64 (8): 725–734. doi: 10.1093/biosci/biu096 . ISSN   0006-3568.
  18. ↑ "RCN-UBE: Advancing Integration of Museums into Undergraduate Programs (AIM-UP!)". National Science Foundation. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  19. ↑ Maxwell Braun, David (November 3, 2008). "Rare Early Audubon Drawings Published for First Time". Voices: Ideas and Insight from Explorers. National Geographic. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 27, 2015.
  20. ↑ Rosen, Jonathan (December 7, 2008). "Audubon". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved May 27, 2015.
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