Speaker: John McCormack
Affiliation: Biology Department, Occidental College

Breathing New Life Into Biological Museum Specimens

Deciding how to divide biodiversity into nameable units (taxonomy) has implications for people who love birds and for conservation. Professor John McCormack will discuss best practices for applying the latest technologies to the naming and discovery of species and subspecies with a focus on two case studies of local interest: the western Scrub Jay and the controversial coastal California Gnatcatcher, which land developers have long ago sought to remove from the Endangered Species List.

About the Speaker

Professor McCormack is Director and Curator of the Bird and Mammal Collection at the Moore Laboratory of Zoology and an Associate Professor of Biology at Occidental College. The McCormack Lab has pioneered the use of new DNA sequencing technologies to better resolve the Tree of Life and is currently applying these advanced technologies to unlock the genomes of museum specimens dating back to the 1800s.