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Terry Lamon Yates (March 17, 1950 – December 11, 2007) was an American biologist and academic who is credited with discovering the source of the hantavirus in the American Southwest in 1993. [1] Yates' specialty as a biologist was the study of rodents and other small mammals. [1]
Terry Yates was born in Mayfield, Kentucky. [1] He earned his bachelor's degree from Murray State University before completing his master's degree in biology from Texas A&M in 1975. He later received his doctorate in biology from Texas Tech University in 1978. [1]
Residents living in the Four Corners region, which encompasses parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, began to experience a mysterious illness in the spring of 1993. [1] The then unknown virus killed 32 people in just a few weeks, and sickened many others. [1] The illness was originally nicknamed "Sin Nombre," after a New Mexican canyon where Spanish settlers massacred Native Americans during the colonial era. [1]
Terry Yates, a professor at the University of New Mexico, joined an interdisciplinary research team charged with finding the source of the mysterious illness by the National Science Foundation. [1] Yates, along with his research assistant, Robert Parmenter, isolated the source of the illness, which became known as the hantavirus, by using animal specimens which he had collected throughout the American Southwest. [1] Yates found that the hantavirus was carried by the deer mouse, a species which had a higher than usual population in early 1993 due to unusually wet weather in the region. [1] The discovery of the hantavirus' origin by Yates has helped to save lives and warn residents about the risks of the disease. [1] The virus has killed more than 125 people between 1993 and 2007. [1]
Yates spent the later years of his life studying the connection between wet weather patterns and deer mice populations. [1]
The National Science Foundation named Yates' discovery of the cause of the hantavirus as one of the top fifty projected funded by the NSF which had the greatest impact on peoples' lives. [1]
Yates was affiliated with the University of New Mexico for 29 years before his death in 2007. [1] He served as a professor of biology and pathology, before becoming the UNM's vice president for research and economic development, a position he held until his death. [1]
Additionally, Yates directed the National Science Foundation's Division of Environmental Biology from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2000 to 2001. [1] In 2006, he was appointed to the board of directors on life sciences of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. [1]
Yates lived in Placitas, New Mexico. [1] He died of cancer on December 11, 2007, at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 57. [1]
In 2017, a recently discovered species of the Oligoryzomys genus (O. yatesi) was named after him as an homage for his "important contribution to the Chilean mammalogy research". [2] In 2014, a new species of subterranean rodent from South America was named after Dr. Yates which is called Yates's tuco-tuco, Ctenomys yatesi Gardner et al., 2014 [3] [4] [5]
Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now accepted as a genuine part of the rodents. Caviomorphs include the extinct Heptaxodontidae and extant families of chinchilla rats, hutias, guinea pigs and the capybara, chinchillas and viscachas, tuco-tucos, agoutis, pacas, pacaranas, spiny rats, New World porcupines, coypu and octodonts.
A tuco-tuco is a neotropical rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. Tuco-tucos belong to the only living genus of the family Ctenomyidae, Ctenomys, but they include approximately 60 different species. The common name, "tuco-tuco" comes from the "tuc-tuc" sound they make while they dig their burrows.
The Brazilian tuco-tuco is a tuco-tuco species from South America. It is found mainly in the state of Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil, though Charles Darwin mentions it during his trip through present-day Uruguay.
Oligoryzomys chacoensis, also known as the Chacoan colilargo or Chacoan pygmy rice rat, is a rodent species from South America. It is found in the Gran Chaco region of southeastern Bolivia, southwestern Brazil, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina. Its karyotype has 2n = 58 and FNa = 74.
Oligoryzomys nigripes, also known as the black-footed colilargo or the black-footed pygmy rice rat, is a rodent in the genus Oligoryzomys of family Cricetidae. Oligoryzomys nigripes is a species that has been further divided into different sister taxa throughout history. It is found in different countries in South America. It is a large species with long ears, dark yellow to dark brown upperparts, sharply delimited from the whitish underparts, and often a pink girdle on the chest. This species of rat spends much of its life among the trees. The karyotype is 2n = 62, FNa = 78–82.
The Jaliscan cotton rat or Mexican cotton rat is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is found only in Mexico. They commonly have brown fur with white fur on the belly. They are ground-dwelling and prefer open habitats.
The southern tuco-tuco is a species of rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. It is endemic to Argentina.
The reddish tuco-tuco is a species of rodent in the family Ctenomyidae. Five subspecies have been recognized, some formerly designated as separate species. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia at altitudes from 600 to 4,500. This tuco-tuco is fossorial, like others in its genus. Its diet consists of underground tubers and roots. Its karyotype has 2n = 52 and FN = 78.
The Mendoza tuco-tuco is a species of rodent in the family Ctenomyidae.
The Talas tuco-tuco is a species of tuco-tuco endemic to eastern Argentina.
Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is one of two potentially fatal syndromes of zoonotic origin caused by species of hantavirus. These include Black Creek Canal virus (BCCV), New York orthohantavirus (NYV), Monongahela virus (MGLV), Sin Nombre orthohantavirus (SNV), and certain other members of hantavirus genera that are native to the United States and Canada.
Ctenomys andersoni, also called Anderson's cujuchi, is a species of tuco-tuco native to Bolivia. Found only in Cerro Itahuaticua, Department of Santa Cruz, at an elevation of around 810 metres (2,700 ft), the species measures 271 millimetres in length and has coarse brown and grey hair. It was named after Sydney Anderson, curator of the Department of Mammalogy at the American Museum of Natural History.
Erika's tuco-tuco, is a species of tuco-tuco native to Bolivia. Found only in the Cordillera Oriental mountain ranges in the Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca Departments, at elevations of around 810 to 1,800 metres, the species measures around 287 millimetres in length and has soft brown and ochraceous orange hair. It was named after Erika Cuéllar, a conservation biologist from Bolivia.
Lessa's Tuco-Tuco is a species of tuco-tuco native to Bolivia. Only found near Lluthu Pampa, Cochabamba Department, at elevations of around 2,500 to 2,750 meters, the species measures about 255 millimeters in length and has soft brown hair. It was named after Dr. Enrique P. Lessa.
Ctenomys yatesi, also called Yates' tuco-tuco, is a species of tuco-tuco native to Bolivia. Only found near Roboré, Department of Santa Cruz, at an elevation of around 550 metres (1,800 ft), the species measures about 220 millimetres in length and has soft hazel and grey hair. It was named after Terry Yates, a former curator at the University of New Mexico.
The Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) is a research and teaching facility in the Department of Biology of the University of New Mexico (UNM). The museum's collections include vascular plants, invertebrates and vertebrates from the American West, Central and South America, and from throughout the world. It is open to visitors by appointment.
Yates's big-eared bat is a species of leaf-nosed bat found in Bolivia.