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Joseph B. Slowinski
 B.S.,
University of Kansas (1984); Ph.D., University of Miami (1991); Postdoctoral
Fellow (morphological systematics of elapid snakes), National Museum of
Natural History (1991-92); Postdoctoral Research Associate (molecular
systematics of elapid snakes), Museum of Natural Science, Louisiana State
University (1992-94); Instructor of Biology, Louisiana State University
(1994-96); Instructor of Biology, Southeastern Louisiana University (1996-97);
Assistant Curator, Department of Herpetology, California Academy of Sciences
(1997- ). Member of Editorial Board, Systematic Biology (1993-96); Editor
in Chief, Contemporary Herpetology (1997- ); Member, Society for the Study
of Amphibians and Reptiles, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists,
Herpetologists' League, Society of Systematic Biologists, Willi Hennig
Society, International Herpetological Symposium, Society for Molecular
Biology and Evolution.
My research interests include the phylogenetic relationships and evolution
of snakes, theoretical issues in phylogenetic analysis, and the dynamics
of biological diversification. For the past ten years, I have been working
on one particular group of snakes, the highly venomous family Elapidae.
Currently, I am pursuing elapid phylogenetics along both morphological
and molecular avenues. The morphological work involves an extensive examination
of all 60 elapid genera for phylogenetically informative osteological,
hemipenial, and scutellational characters. The molecular work involves
sequencing mitochondrial and nuclear genes from all genera. These studies
should provide sufficient data to construct a robust phylogeny of elapids,
which will then serve as the context for further evolutionary studies
of these fascinating snakes.
Another major line of research involves theoretical studies of phylogenetic
inference. Several issues in this field currently occupy me, including
one that is especially important today; the inference of species phylogenies
from gene phylogenies. It is now well understood that even if once correctly
infers the relationship among a set of sequences for a given gene, the
tree so derived may differ from the actual species phylogeny for several
reasons, including deep coalescences, gene duplications, and lateral transfer
of genes. In a collaboration with Dr. Rod Page of the University of Glasgow,
I have developed a promising method for inferring species phylogenies
from gene trees called "gene tree parsimony," which operates
by finding the species tree that minimizes the number of deep coalescences,
gene duplications, and lateral transfer of a set of gene trees.
A third line of research involves data on the observed distribution of
phylogenetic trees and what this can tell us about the dynamics of biological
diversification. In collaboration with Dr. Craig Guyer (Auburn University),
I have previously developed methods for testing the randomness of speciation
and extinction by comparing topologies (shapes) of phylogenetic trees
to the predictions of a null model of random speciation and extinction.
Currently, we are extending this model to allow variation among lineages
in the rates of speciation and extinction.
Slowinski, J.B. and J.M. Savage. 1995. Urotomy in Scaphiodontophis:
evidence for the multiple tail-break hypothesis in snakes (Serpentes:
Colubridae). Herpetologica 51:338-341.
Zink, R. and J.B. Slowinski. 1995. Tempo of avian diversification in
the Pleistocene. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 92:5832-5835.
Savage, J.M. and J.B. Slowinski. 1996. Evolution of colouration, urotomy,
and coral snake mimicry in the snake genus Scaphiodontophis.Biol.
J. Linn. Soc. 57:129-194.
Slowinski, J.B., A. Knight, and A.P. Rooney. 1997. Inferring species
trees from gene trees: a phylogenetic analysis of the Elapidae (Serpentes)
based on the amino acid sequences of venom proteins. Mol. Phylogen. Evol.
[in press].
Slowinski, J.B. 1998. The number of multiple alignments. Mol. Phylogen.
Evol. 10: 264-266.
Slowinski, J.B. and B.I. Crother. 1998. Is the PTP test useful? Cladistics
14: 297-302.
Arbogast, B.X. and J.B. Slowinski. 1998. Pleistocene speciation and the
mitochondrial DNA clock. Science 282: 1955a.
Slowinski, J.B. Branch lengths of molecular phylogenies. Mol. Phylogen.
Evol. [in press].
Slowinski, J.B. and B.S. Arbogast. Is the rate of molecular evolution
inversely related to body size? Syst. Biol. [in press].
Slowinski, J.B. and R.D.M. Page. How should species phylogenies be inferred
from sequence data? Syst. Biol. [in press].
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