David M. Sever is an American

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

histologist Histology, also known as microscopic anatomy or microanatomy, is the branch of biology that studies the microscopic anatomy of biological tissues. Histology is the microscopic counterpart to gross anatomy, which looks at larger structures visi ...

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

reproductive biologist Reproductive biology includes both sexual and asexual reproduction. Reproductive biology includes a wide number of fields: * Reproductive systems * Endocrinology * Sexual development (Puberty) * Sexual maturity * Reproduction * Fertility Human ...

. He has been a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

and

department head Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public adminis ...

in the Department of Biological Sciences at

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it beca ...

since 2004, and held the Kenneth Dyson Endowed Professorship in Biological Sciences from 2012 to 2015. He is well known for over 30 years of research on the secondary sexual characteristics of salamanders and more generally on comparative histoanatomy of the urogenital systems of vertebrates. and was recognized as the 2013 Distinguished Herpetologist of the Year by the Herpetologists' League.

Early life

A native of

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, eighth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 70,872 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Canton–Massillo ...

, Sever was interested in dinosaurs at an early age, but, "You couldn't find dinosaurs, but you could find lizards and turtles, things that looked like dinosaurs." His early exposure to herpetology came from the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts or Boy Scout may refer to: * Members, sections or organisations in the Scouting Movement ** Scout (Scouting), a boy or a girl participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America ...

, and he is an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of Scouting America. Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Scout rank has been earned by over ...

Academic career

Sever earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

Tulane University The Tulane University of Louisiana (commonly referred to as Tulane University) is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by a cohort of medical doctors, it b ...

in 1974 where he studied the secondary sexual characters of

plethodontid Plethodontidae, or lungless salamanders, are a family of salamanders. With over 500 species, lungless salamanders are by far the largest family of salamanders in terms of their diversity. Most species are native to the Western Hemisphere, from B ...

salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All t ...

s under Harold A. Dundee. He worked at his first academic post at Saint Mary's College (Indiana) from 1974 to 2004, serving as chair from 1980 to 1989. He has been the Department Head of Biological Sciences at

since 2004.

Research

Stanley E. Trauth, in his capacity as president of the Herpetologist's League, stated that Sever's research contributions were why he was chosen. "Early in his studies, Dave's histological research focused primarily on salamander cloacal anatomy and, specifically, the spermatheca or sperm storage structure in these animals," said Trauth. "His numerous papers on these structures have dominated the international literature on this subject for decades," and "I consider Dave to be today's world leading authority on vertebrate reproductive histology". "He is without question the foremost histo-herpetologist that has ever lived." Sever discovered and described the plethodontid Junaluska salamander (''Eurycea junaluska''), which lives in the southern

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, are a mountain range in eastern to northeastern North America. The term "Appalachian" refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range, and its surrounding terrain ...

Selected bibliography

Sever is the author of over 150 books, articles and volumes in over 100 different outlets. According to

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of Academic publishing, scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in Beta release, beta in November 2004, th ...

, he has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with success indicators such as winning t ...

of 23.

Edited books

* Sever, D. M., editor. 2003. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Urodela. Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, NH. 627 pp. * Aldridge, R. D. and Sever, D. M., editors. 2011. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 759 pp.

Peer-reviewed articles

* Sever, D. M. and Siegel, D. S. 2015. Histology and ultrastructure of the caudal courtship glands of the Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon cinereus (Amphibia: Plethodontidae). Journal of Morphology 276:319-330. *Rheubert, J. L., Sever, D. M., Siegel, D. S., Trauth, S. E. 2015. Male reproductive anatomy: The gonads, gonadoducts, sexual segment of the kidney, and cloaca. pp. 253–301. In: Rheubert, J. L., Siegel, D. S. and Trauth, S. E. (eds), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Lizards. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. * Siegel, D. S., Miralles, A., Rheubert, J. L., Sever, D. M. 2015. Female reproductive anatomy: cloaca, oviduct, and sperm storage. pp. 144–195. In: Rheubert, J. L., Siegel, D. S. and Trauth, S. E. (eds), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Lizards. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. * 143. Rheubert, J. L., Cree, A., Downs, M., and D. M. Sever. 2013. Reproductive morphology of the male Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus. Acta Zoologica 94:454-461. * 142. Sever, D. M. 2013. Cloacae, cloacal glands and female sperm storage in giant salamanders. pp 1–40 In: O. P. Jenkins (ed), Advances in Zoology Research, Vol. 5,

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Nova Science Publishers is an academic publisher of books, encyclopedias, handbooks, e-books and journals, based in Hauppauge, New York. It was founded in 1985. Nova is included in Book Citation Index (part of Web of Science Core Collection) ...

, NY. * Sever, D. M., Rheubert, J. L., Hill, T. A., and D. S. Siegel. 2013. Observations on variation in the ultrastructure of the proximal testicular ducts of the Ground Skink, Scincella lateralis (Reptilia: Squamata). Journal of Morphology 274:429-446. * Sever, D. M., Rheubert, J. L., Gautreaux, J., Hill, T. G., and L. R. Freeborn. 2012. Observations on the sexual segment of the kidney of snakes with emphasis on ultrastructure in the Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake, Pelamis platurus. Anatomical Record 295:872-885. * Trauth, S. E. and D. M. Sever. 2011. Male urogenital ducts and cloacal anatomy. In Aldridge, R. D. and D. M. Sever (eds.), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. pp. 411–475. * Sever, D. M. and N. L. Staub. 2010. Horomones, Sex Accessory Structures, and Secondary Sexual Characteristics in Amphibians. Chapter 5 in D. O. Norris and K. H. Lopez (eds.), Horomones and Reproduction of Vertebrates, vol. 2, pp. 83–98. Elsiever, Academic Press, NY. * Eckstut, M. E., D. M. Sever, M. E. White, and B. I. Crother. 2009. Phylogenetic analysis of sperm storage in female squamates. In: Animal Reproduction: New Research Developments, L. T. Dahnof (ed). Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Hauppauge, NY. pp. 185–218. * Sever, D. M. 2007. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Gymnophiona (Caecilians). Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny Series, Volume 5. Quarterly Review of Biology 82:160 (book review). *Hamlett, W.C., D. P. Knight, F.T.V. Pereira, J. Steele, and D. M. Sever. 2005. Oviducal glands in Chondrichthyans. pp 301–335 In W. C. Hamlett (ed), Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Chondrichthyes Sharks, Batoids and Chimaeras. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny Vol. 3, Science Publishers, Inc., Enfield, NH. * Ryan, T. J., and D. M. Sever. 2005. Eurycea junaluska, Junaluska Salamander. pp. 745–746. In Lannoo, M. J. (Ed.). Amphibian Declines. The Conservation Status of United States Species. University of California Press, Berkeley, California. 1094 pp. * Sever, D. M. and W. C. Hamlett. 2003. Sperm storage in the class Reptilia. pp. 439–446. In Legakis, A., Sfenthourakis, S., Polymeni, R., and M. Thessalou-Legaki (eds), The New Panorama of Animal Evolution. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow. * Sever, D. M., Rania, L. C., and R. Brizzi. 2003. Sperm storage in the class Amphibia. pp. 431–438 In Legakis, A., Sfenthourakis, S., Polymeni, R., and M. Thessalou-Legaki (eds), The New Panorama of Animal Evolution. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia-Moscow. * Sever, D. M. 2002. Female sperm storage in amphibians. J. Exper. Zool. 292:165–179. * Sever, D. M., and W. C. Hamlett. 2002. Female sperm storage in reptiles. J. Exper. Zool. 292:187–199. * Sever, D. M. 1992e. Comparative anatomy and phylogeny of the cloacae of salamanders (Amphibia: Caudata). VI. Ambystomatidae and Dicamptodontidae. J. Morphol. 212:305–322. * Sever, D. M. 1983b. Eurycea junaluska. Cat. Amer. Amphib. Rept. 321.1--2. * Sever, D. M. 1984. The discovery of Eurycea junaluska. Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc. 19:75–84.

References

External links

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at Southeastern Louisiana University {{DEFAULTSORT:Sever, David M. Living people People from Canton, Ohio People from Hammond, Louisiana Tulane University alumni Ohio University alumni American herpetologists American anatomists 21st-century American zoologists Year of birth missing (living people)