Jacques Armand Gauthier (born June 7, 1948, in New York City) is an American vertebrate paleontologist, comparative morphologist, and Systematics, and one of the founders of the use of cladistics in biology.
Life and career
Gauthier is the son of Edward Paul Gauthier and Patricia Marie Grogan. He received a B.S. degree in zoology at San Diego State University in 1973, a master's in biological science at the same institute in 1980, and a PhD in paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984.
[Gauthier (1984)] Currently he is a professor of geology and geophysics and ecology and evolutionary biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology and vertebrate zoology at
Yale University. His master's thesis, the content of which was published in 1982, is a classic work on the paleontology and phylogeny of the lizard clade
Anguimorpha that remains a core reference for morphological research on
Xenosauridae and
Anguidae in particular. His PhD thesis constituted the first major
cladistic analysis of
Diapsida, as well as arguing for the
monophyly of the
. He followed this with an important paper on the origin of
from
.
[Gauthier (1986)] This was the first detailed cladistic analysis of the theropod dinosaurs, and initiated a revolution in dinosaur
phylogeny, in which cladistics replaced the Linnaean system in the classification and phylogenetic understanding of the dinosaurs.
Gauthier's corpus contributed the foundational phylogenetic studies of Archosauria and Lepidosauria, two major amniote clades; and he was the primary author of the foundational and still widely cited phylogenetic study of Amniota[Gauthier, Kluge & Rowe (1988); Gauthier (1994)] as a whole. The phylogenetic character sets from his 1984 and 1986 works, the 1988 amniote paper, and the 1988 lepidosaur and squamate papers still form the core of essentially all gross-anatomy-based phylogenetic analyses of these groups, and as such are among the most highly cited papers in amniote morphology and paleobiology. The 1988 amniote paper is also frequently cited to demonstrate the importance of taxon sampling in phylogenetic analysis, in particular the importance of sampling rare or fossil taxa that can break 'long branches' along which convergence can occur.
Gauthier has argued together with Kevin de Queiroz for replacing Linnaean taxonomy with the PhyloCode.[Foer, Joshua. "Pushing Phylocode." Discover 26.4 (2005): 46–51. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.][Donoghue, Michael J., and Jacques A. Gauthier. "Implementing The Phylocode." Trends In Ecology & Evolution 19.6 (2004): 281–282. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Mar. 2013.] In addition to his theoretical work on systematics and taxonomy, Gauthier continues to study the anatomy and relationships of diapsids, particularly lepidosaurs. His lizard work currently focuses on Scincomorpha, following on a career-long interest in the unusual clade Xantusiidae. He is a principal investigator on the National Science Foundation-funded effort to reconstruct the phylogeny of lizards and snakes (Squamata) using gross anatomy and molecular structure, building on his earlier work in collaboration with Richard Estes and Kevin de Queiroz, which established the most widely accepted phylogeny of the group.
Footnotes
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(1988): Phylogenetic relationships within Squamata. In: : The Phylogenetic Relationships of the Lizard Families: 15–98. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.
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(1982): Fossil xenosaurid and anguid lizards from the early Eocene of Wyoming, and a revision of the Anguioidea. Contributions to Geology, University of Wyoming 21: 7–54.
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(1984): A cladistic analysis of the higher systematic categories of the Diapsida. PhD. Available from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, #85-12825, vii + 564 pp.
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(1988): A phylogenetic analysis of Lepidosauromorpha. In: : The Phylogenetic Relationships of the Lizard Families: 15–98. Stanford University Press, Palo Alto.
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(1990): Ceratosauria. In: : The Dinosauria: 151–168. University of California Press, Berkeley.
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(1992): Phylogenetic taxonomy. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 23: 449–480.
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(1994): The diversification of the amniotes. In: : Major Features of Vertebrate Evolution: Short Courses in Paleontology: 129–159. Paleontological Society.
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