John S. Sparks

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John Stephen Sparks (born December 20, 1963 ) is an American ichthyologist . He is a curator at the American Museum of Natural History . His main research interests are very diverse and range from the cichlids of Madagascar and South Asia to the bioluminescence of marine fish.

Life

In 1984 Sparks began studying economics at the University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , Michigan , graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts. After studying biology for two years at the same university from 1995 on, he obtained his Master of Science degree in 1997 and in 2001 he received his Phylogeny and biogeography of the Malagasy and South Asian cichlid fishes (Teleostei: Perciformes: Cichlidae), including a survey of the freshwater fishes of Madagascar. for Ph.D. PhD. From 1997 to 2001 (excluding 1998), Sparks was a curatorial research fellow in the Fish Department at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. In 1998 he was a PhD student and research fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. From 1998 to 2000 he was Carl L. & Laura C. Hubbs Research Associate in the Fish Department at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, Ann Arbor, Michigan. From 2002 to 2007 he was assistant lecturer at the Consortium for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) and at the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology (EEEB) at the University of Columbia in New York City. Since 2007 he has been teaching as an adjunct professor at the CERC and the EEEB. From 2002 to 2007 he was Assistant Curator of Ichthyology in the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. From 2007 to 2012 he was curator-in-charge and associate curator at the Department of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Since 2012 he has been a senior curator in the ichthyological department of the American Museum of Natural History.

John S. Sparks' research focuses on the systematics, evolution, and biogeography of both freshwater fish and offshore marine fish and deep-sea marine fish. His projects included the development and function of gender-specific bioluminescence signaling systems in pony fish (Leiognathidae) as well as the bioluminescence in other marine fish clades , the origin and biogeography of freshwater fish and coastal marine fish in Madagascar, as well as synthetic studies showing the development of biofluorescence and biogeographic Investigate the history of marine fish of the western Indian Ocean. In addition, Sparks conducts phylogenetic studies of cichlids (Cichlidae), earfish-like (Atheriniformes) and cave gobies, in which both morphological and molecular evidence are combined. In 2011, together with ichthyologist Prosanta Chakrabarty , Sparks examined the symbiogenesis between pony fish and symbiotic luminous bacteria, which generate light in a complex luminous organ along the fish's esophagus.

More recent field studies have included biotic studies and inventory of both freshwater and marine fish in Madagascar, the Indo-Pacific region, South America and the Caribbean.

Dedication names

In 2006 Paul Loiselle named the Madagascan toothpid species Pachypanchax sparksorum after John S. Sparks and his wife Karen Riseng Sparks, who had collected the type specimens.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chakrabarty, P., Davis, MP, Smith, Wm. L., Berquist, R., Gledhill, KM, Frank, LR and Sparks, JS (2011), Evolution of the light organ system in ponyfishes (Teleostei: Leiognathidae) . J. Morphol., 272: 704-721. doi : 10.1002 / jmor.10941 .
  2. ↑ Paul V. Loiselle: A review of the Malagasy Pachypanchax (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes, Aplocheilidae), with descriptions of four new species . In: Zootaxa , No. 1520, 2006, ISSN  1175-5326 (print) ISSN  1175-5334 (online), pp. 30-34, ( PDF, 676 kB ).
personal data
SURNAME Sparks, John S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sparks, John Stephen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American ichthyologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1963