Volume 25
January 2012 April 2012
this month’s speaker
Matthew E. Kaplan, Ph.D. Facility Manager Functional Genomics Core University of Arizona
Population history of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard and its malarial parasite: climate change, parasite invasion, and dispersal
M
7:15 PM Tuesday, 17 April University of Arizona, BIO5/Keating Building 1657 East Helen Street
att completed his B.S. in Biological Science at the University of Vermont in 1992. After graduation Matt spent a summer as a research assistant on a small island in the Lesser Antilles studying the ecological and evolutionary aspects of lizard malaria in a population of Anolis lizards. In 1993 Matt came to Tucson to see the west and take herpetology in the desert. After a few months in town he was hired as a research technician in the University of Arizona’s Laboratory Molecular Systematics and Evolution. In this capacity Matt provided technical support and training to a wide assortment of researchers working on projects in the field of evolutionary genetics.
Number 14
After a year Matt entered the doctoral program in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology where he began his work on Sceloporus jarrovii that he will be discussing during the program. As a graduate research assistant to Dr. Michael Hammer, Matt worked on several research projects using the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA to investigate the population genetics and population history of human populations. In the fall of 1999 Matt started a collaborative project between the University of Arizona and Family Tree DNA in Dr. Hammer’s laboratory testing DNA for genealogical reconstruction. Over the following five years this project grew at a very rapid rate, testing tens of thousands of individuals. In April of 2005 Family Tree DNA and the University of Arizona teamed up to provide all of the public DNA testing for National Geographic and IBM’s Genographic Project. In 2010 when the work on the human DNA testing slowed, Matt shifted his focus back to his work on Sceloporus jarrovii and completed his doctorate this past December. Tonight Matt will share with us the findings of his doctoral dissertation, “Population structure of Yarrow’s Spiny Lizard, Sceloporus jarrovii, and its malarial parasite, Plasmodium chiricahuae.”
Book review 33
Life in Cold Lane: Hibernation in Anurans
R e c e n t ly P u b l i s h e d Pa p e r s 34
Frequency of Reproduction in Female Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnakes from the Sonoran Desert of Arizona is Variable in Individuals: Potential Role of Rainfall and Prey Densities
minutes 35
February 2012
Membership 36
April 2012
next month’s Sp e a k e r
Young Cage Some thoughts on nature photography Tuesday, 15 May Tucson Herpetological Society meetings are open to the public and are held on the third Tuesday of each month starting at 7:15 PM
Matt meets Welwitschia mirabilis in northern Namibia. Photo by Hans-Werner Herrmann.
SONORAN HERPETOLOGIST 25 (4) 2012
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