Research
Herpetology's research strengths are in Systematic herpetology (phylogeny and taxonomy), biogeography, biodiversity, and morphology.
Rafe Brown, Curator-in-Charge
Brown uses phylogenetic and comparative methods to address questions related to the evolution of morphological, ecological, and behavioral character diversity. He is particularly interested in patterns of evolution in mate-recognition systems, attributes of organismal functional morphology, and historical biogeography. A phylogenetic analysis is an investment in future research because of the variety of questions that can be addressed in an historical context once knowledge of relationships is available. He strives to identify study groups that maximize the quality, quantity, and relevance of evolutionary phenomena of interest—and amphibians and reptiles served this purpose particularly well. His interest in collection-based research compliments his interest in biodiversity conservation and he maintains a commitment to basic taxonomic works in a few regions were biodiversity is particularly underestimated. By studying amphibians and reptiles in Southeast Asia, he hopes to make contributions that help to ameliorate the biodiversity crises affecting megadiverse nations such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
Linda Trueb, Curator
Trueb's general research interests are centered on the systematics and morphology of fossil and recent amphibians, with particular emphasis on amphibian osteology and on anurans. Working with colleagues in the U.S., Argentina, and South Africa, she has described several new taxa of Mesozoic pipoid anurans from South America and Africa. She currently collaborates with Dr. Carol Meteyer of the U.S.G.S. Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin to describe developmental malformations in natural populations anuran larvae from the East Coast and upper Midwest. With the support of an NSF Tree-of-Life grant, AmphibiaTree, KU is cooperating with Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Texas in Austin in studies devoted to resolution of the phylogenetic history and relationships of lissampibians. As part of this work, she collaborates with German colleagues on the description of new taxa of New World microhylid frogs and ontogenetic descriptions of the skeletal development of some Old World microhylid taxa. In addition to these research projects, she shares with David Wake and David Vieglais the responsibilities for directing and overseeing the activities of HerpNET, an NSF-funded initiative to implement a distributed database of specimen data (including georeferenced localities) for some 3.9 million specimens of amphibians and reptiles housed in 38 North American institutions.
William E. Duellman, Curator Emeritus
Although broadly interested in biology of amphibians, much of Duellman's research centers on systematic studies of Neotropical amphibians and reptiles, principally frogs of the families Centrolenidae, Dendrobatidae, Hemiphractidae, Hylidae, and Leptodactylidae. In addition he is working on the evolution of marsupial frogs and their allies with special emphasis on the diverse reproductive modes. He also studies herpetofaunal assemblages in the neotropics. These endeavors commonly have been in collaboration with European and South American colleagues.