Kevin de Queiroz is a

vertebrate Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxon, taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () (chordates with vertebral column, backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the ...

evolutionary Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

, and

systematic Systematic may refer to: Science * Short for systematic error * Systematic fault * Systematic bias, errors that are not determined by chance but are introduced by an inaccuracy (involving either the observation or measurement process) inheren ...

biologist. He has worked in the

phylogenetics In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

and evolutionary biology of squamate reptiles, the development of a unified

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

concept and of a phylogenetic approach to biological nomenclature, and the philosophy of systematic biology.

Early life and Career

De Queiroz was born and raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

. He received a B.S. in

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

(1978), a M.S. in

Zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

from

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California. Founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) syste ...

(1985), and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

(1989). He was a Tilton Postdoctoral Fellow at the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, California, that is among the largest museums of natural history in the world, housing over 46 million specimens. The Academy began in 18 ...

and is currently a Research Zoologist and a

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of the collection of Amphibians and Reptiles at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. He is a former president of the Society of Systematic Biologists and was the first president of the

International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature The International Society for Phylogenetic Nomenclature was established to encourage and facilitate the development and use of, and communication about, phylogenetic nomenclature. It organizes periodic scientific meetings and is overseeing the co ...

Research

Empirical research

De Queiroz’s research has focused primarily on the phylogeny and evolutionary biology of squamate reptiles, including his Master’s research on the phylogeny of iguanine

lizard Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia al ...

s and his Ph.D. research on the phylogeny of phrynosomatine sand lizards. He worked with his mentors Richard Estes and Richard Etheridge on the phylogeny of

Squamata Squamata (, Latin ''squamatus'', 'scaly, having scales') is the largest order of reptiles, comprising lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians (worm lizards), which are collectively known as squamates or scaled reptiles. With over 10,900 species, i ...

and

Iguanidae The Iguanidae is a family of lizards composed of the iguanas, chuckwallas, and their prehistoric relatives, including the widespread green iguana. Taxonomy Iguanidae is thought to be the sister group to the collared lizards (family Crotaph ...

, respectively, and with

Jacques Gauthier Jacques Armand Gauthier (born June 7, 1948 in New York City) is an American vertebrate paleontologist, comparative morphologist, and systematist, and one of the founders of the use of cladistics in biology. Life and career Gauthier is the s ...

on the phylogeny of

Lepidosauromorpha Lepidosauromorpha (in PhyloCode known as ''Pan-Lepidosauria'') is a group of reptiles comprising all diapsids closer to lizards than to archosaurs (which include crocodiles and birds). The only living sub-group is the Lepidosauria, which cont ...

. He conducted research, including several publications with Jonathan Losos, on the phylogeny and adaptive radiation of ''

Anolis ''Anolis'' is a genus of anoles (), iguanian lizards in the family Dactyloidae, native to the Americas. With more than 425 species, it represents the world's most species-rich amniote tetrapod genus, although many of these have been proposed t ...

'' lizards.

Theoretical research

De Queiroz also has interests in theoretical and conceptual topics in systematic and evolutionary biology. He published an article early in his career on the relationship between the sequence of

ontogenetic Ontogeny (also ontogenesis) is the origination and development of an organism (both physical and psychological, e.g., moral development), usually from the time of fertilization of the egg to adult. The term can also be used to refer to the s ...

transformations and phylogenetic inference. Beginning in 1998, he published a series of articles proposing how to achieve a unified species concept and outlining several of its consequences. In collaboration with

and Philip Cantino, de Queiroz has published another series of articles proposing and defending an approach to biological nomenclature based on definitions that specify the meanings of taxon names in terms of clades and

common ancestry Common descent is a concept in evolutionary biology applicable when one species is the ancestor of two or more species later in time. All living beings are in fact descendants of a unique ancestor commonly referred to as the last universal comm ...

as an alternative to traditional approaches that are based on

taxonomic rank In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While ol ...

s. He is coauthor of a draft Phylogenetic Code of Biological Nomenclature (aka the PhyloCode) with Cantino. De Queiroz has published several articles on the history and philosophy of biology, related primarily, but not exclusively, to his own theoretical and conceptual contributions. He published a paper early in his career proposing that the

Darwinian Revolution Evolutionary thought, the recognition that species change over time and the perceived understanding of how such processes work, has roots in antiquity—in the ideas of the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Church Fathers as well as in medieva ...

in systematic biology was not a sudden event but rather an extended process that is not yet completed. He has examined Charles Darwin’s writings on species and argued that his own ideas about how to achieve a unified species concept represent the ongoing development of the evolutionary view of species articulated by Darwin. He has examined the class versus individual interpretations of species and clades in light of his work on phylogenetic definitions of

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from '' taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular n ...

names, proposing that contrary to how those interpretations are commonly presented, they are not mutually exclusive, which suggests that the same is true of

ostensive Ostension is the act of showing or demonstrating something. In communication In communication theory and especially in relevance theory, ''ostensive behaviour'' or ''ostension'' is a behaviour that signals the intention to communicate something. ...

and intensional definitions. He has argued that the philosopher Karl Popper’s concept of degree of

corroboration Corroborating evidence, also referred to as corroboration, is a type of evidence in law. Types and uses Corroborating evidence tends to support a proposition that is already supported by some initial evidence, therefore confirming the propositio ...

is analogous to the

likelihood The likelihood function (often simply called the likelihood) represents the probability of random variable realizations conditional on particular values of the statistical parameters. Thus, when evaluated on a given sample, the likelihood funct ...

ratio of nested hypotheses and that in phylogenetics the

probability Probability is the branch of mathematics concerning numerical descriptions of how likely an Event (probability theory), event is to occur, or how likely it is that a proposition is true. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and ...

of the evidence given the background knowledge in the absence of the hypothesis of interest (a critical component of Popper’s "Degree of Corroboration") is represented by the likelihood of a star tree.

Personal life

De Queiroz is married to

Molly R. Morris Molly R. Morris is an American behavioral ecologist who has worked with treefrogs and swordtail fishes in the areas of alternative reproductive tactics and sexual selection. Morris received a Bachelor of Arts from Earlham College and a PhD ...

, an evolutionary animal behaviorist and

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

of Biology at

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subsequ ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Queiroz, Kevin de Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American biologists Evolutionary biologists University of California, Los Angeles alumni San Diego State University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni