B.S. in Zoology – Cal Poly Pomona (2011)
M.S. in Biology – Villanova University (2014)
James is a native Californian who grew up loving all the odd creatures everyone else was grossed out or spooked by. He has a fascination with reptiles and amphibians. His undergrad taught him much about the arid herpetofauna and ecology of Southern California from its native costal scrub and chaparral to the many deserts of the South-west US.
James did his Master’s at Villanova University under Dr. Aaron Bauer and Dr. Todd Jackman, where he became accustom to phylogenetics and systematics. Initial field study was hamper by the Arab Springs uprisings in Egypt and Libya. Luckily he made it down to South Africa for field work, where he hopped in the back of a pick up truck and journeyed the 2500 km to make it out into the field of Angola. His Master’s thesis focused on the taxonomy/systematics of Palearctic naked-toed geckos and the phylogeography and phylogenetics of Prosymna snakes.
Contact:
Office: ERB 449
Lab: ERB 475
Office Phone:
e-mail: james.mcquillan(at)mavs.uta.edu
Mailing address:
James McQuillan
Department of Biology
University of Texas at Arlington
Box 19498
Arlington, TX 76019-0498
Research Interests
James’s interests in his PhD, under Dr. Fujita, are the dynamics of gene flow between populations and trait evolution using genomic data and model based statistics to elucidate evolutionary change in populations and species of geckos in Oceania.
Publications and Presentations
Taylor, D. J., Titus-Mcquillan, J., & Bauer, A. M. (2012). Diet of Chalcides ocellatus (Squamata: Scincidae) from Southern Egypt. Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, 53(2), 383-388.
Bauer, A. M., Masroor, R., Titus-Mcquillan, J., Heinicke, M. P., Daza, J. D., & Jackman, T. R. (2013). A preliminary phylogeny of the Palearctic naked-toed geckos (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) with taxonomic implications. Zootaxa, 3599(4), 301-324.
1st Joint Congress on Evolution 2012, Ottawa, Canda
– Poster: Molecular Phylogenetics of the Palearctic Naked-toed Geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae)
Biodiversity: From Evolutionary Origins to Ecosystems Function at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
– Poster: Molecular Phylogenetics of the Palearctic Naked-toed Geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae)
World Congress of Herpetology 7, Vancouver, Canada
– Presention: Molecular Phylogenetics of the Palearctic Naked-toed Geckos (Squamata: Gekkonidae)