Ichthyology Staff & Associates
Staff
John's research focuses on fish diversity of South America. His taxonomic specialties are catfishes and electric fishes. He is a Co-Principal Investigator on the NSF funded All Catfsih Species Inventory. With previous funding from the National Science Foundation he has conducted ichthyological expeditions to explore the deep river channels of the Amazon River in Brazil and the Orinoco River in Venezuela. He also investigates fossil fishes from South America that show that many living groups of fishes are much older than once thought, that many fishes were more widespread in the past than today, and that local extinction has been a major factor in the modernization of the South American aquatic biota.
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Mark Henry Sabaj Pérez
Interim Curator of Ichthyology
sabaj@ansp.org
215-299-1026
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Mark has primary responsibility for the care and maintenance of our extensive collections. He also is involved in a taxonomic revision of the neotropical catfish family Doradidae (thorny catfishes) with descriptions of several new species, modern and fossil. Mark has field and collecting experience in freshwater ecosystems throughout the United States and on four continents including a total of 40 expeditions to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Guyana, Mongolia, Peru, Suriname, Thailand, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Mariangeles specializes in the taxonomy, systematics and evolution of catfishes. She is researching the evolution of morphological traits across Siluriformes and wants to establish the ontogenetic origin and development of catfish bones to test the validity of homologies across the order. She has reviewed and validated taxa and described three new species of thorny catfishes. She assembled a molecular phylogeny for the family, and is working toward a total evidence analysis that includes osteological and myological characters. She recently assembled a total evidence analysis of the North American catfishes, coauthored a detailed anatomical description of the Widemouth Blindcat Satan eurystomus and is working towards stablishing the phylogenetic position and taxonomic validity of subterranean species of North American catfishes. Her main duties include the care, maintenance and management of the fish collection as well as supervision of Drexel co-op students in Ichthyology.
Kyle's first experiences at the museum came through the Academy's REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program, funded by the National Science Foundation, during the summer of 2002 in the Botany Department where he did some work with the collection as well as digital imaging and illustration. Kyle is currently assisting John Lundberg, through a NSF grant, in his research involving the discovery and description of the world's catfish species. His duties include digital imaging of preserved specimens and skeletal material, X-raying specimens, clearing and staining specimens, preparing skeletons, and preparing figures for publication. He is also working with Mark Sabaj, assisting with care and maintenance of the fish collection. Kyle's other interests include teaching, through the Scout Badge program here at the Academy, and working as a freelance scientific illustrator. He has done work for the Paleontology Dept. at the American Museum of Natural History, and is currently working with Academy Paleontologist Ted Daeschler, providing illustrations for his publications.
Research Associates
Tiago Carvalho, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia
Kerin Claeson, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
Dan Fromm, Cherry Hill, NJ
Dan Fromm and his wife Pat have collected fish in the new world tropics and have donated preserved specimens, primarily fish but also amphibians and aquatic insects, to the Academy and to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Their specimens have been used in a variety of studies including descriptions of new species. Dan, now retired, comes to the Academy to work up some of their specimens and to try to understand better what they’ve found.
Eileen Grogan, St. Joseph's University
Michael Hardman, Tammisaari 10650, Finland
Scott Schaefer, American Museum of Natural History
His principal research interests focus on the diversity of tropical freshwater fishes, which has involved fieldwork to the Amazon and other major river systems ofBrazil, Bolivia, and Venezuela, and most recently at high elevations in the Andes of Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on the systematics and evolution of catfishes.
John Sullivan, National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Bethesda
Jacqueline Webb, University of Rhode Island
Cecile Gama, Instituto de Pesquisas Científicas e Tecnológicas do Estado do Amapá (IEPA), Brazil
Katriina Ilves, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa
Volunteers
Ann Campbell