Scorpion Systematics Research Group

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Visiting Scientists

Carsten Kamenz
Ph.D. Student, Humboldt University, Berlin
(Annette Kade Fellowship, 2005, 2008)

Carsten Kamenz studied Biology in Leipzig and Berlin (Germany). His Diploma-thesis (comparable to a Masters degree) at the Humboldt-University, Berlin, began comparisons of the book lungs (respiratory organs) of Arachnida by histology and electron-microscopy. In 2004, Kamenz continued these investigations within his Ph.D. study. His research interests focus on comparative morphology, development and evolutionary transformations of aquatic-origin, land-adapted organs in Arthropoda (and particularly Chelicerata) from a phylogenetic perspective. Kamenz was awarded an Annette Kade Fellowship to visit the AMNH for three months (November 2005–January 2006) to develop his research on the phylogenetic significance of book lung microstructure in scorpion higher phylogeny by surveying a broad spectrum of recent scorpion genera, supervised by Lorenzo Prendini.

Andrés Ojanguren-Affilastro
Ph.D. Student, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina
(AMNH Collections Study Grant, 2005, 2007)

Andres Ojanguren studied Biology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) and began working on scorpion systematics, particularly in the family Bothriuridae, in 2000. In 2003, he started a Ph.D. at the Museo de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia (Buenos Aires), supported by a CONICET grant. The subject of his Ph.D. research is a revision of the diverse South American bothriurid genus Brachistosternus using morphology, DNA and cytogenetic data. Ojanguren-Affilastro has conducted several collecting trips in South America, especially to the central Andes, the Chaco, the Chilean Atacama, and northern Patagonia. A Collections Study Grant made it possible for him to visit the AMNH for 6 weeks in October–November 2005, to extract, amplify and sequence DNA from bothriurid samples at the AMNH, supervised by Lorenzo Prendini and AMNH Postdoctoral Fellow Camilo Mattoni.

Samuel Mwangi
Student, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi
(Theodore Roosevelt Fellowship and Richard Lounsbery Foundation, 2005)

Samuel Mwangi, a student affiliated to the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, has a keen interest in biodiversity conservation in general, and East African scorpions in particular. He visited the American Museum of Natural History for eight weeks during August–October 2005, supported by a Theodore Roosevelt Fellowship and augmented by funds from a grant from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation to Lorenzo Prendini, where he underwent a molecular systematics training program in the Molecular Systematics Laboratory, supervised by Prendini and AMNH Postdoctoral Fellow, Erich Volschenk. Mwangi learned laboratory techniques of DNA isolation, amplification and sequencing, as well as methods for sorting, packing and labeling morphological specimens. Upon returning to Kenya, he applied these techniques in the identification and delimitation of East African scorpions.

Valerio Vignoli, Ph.D.
University of Siena, Italy
(Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant, 2004, 2006)

Valerio Vignoli completed a B.Sc. at the University of Siena in 2002 and a Ph.D. on the taxonomy, ecology and biogeography of Euscorpius at the same institution in 2006. His first cooperation with the AMNH, assisted by Lorenzo Prendini, was during the summer 2004 when he travelled to Morocco to collect endemic scorpions. He subsequently visited the AMNH for 3 months during November 2004–January 2005, partially supported by a Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant, to revise the endemic North American scorpion family Superstitioniidae, under the Prendini’s supervision. This was followed by trips to Benin, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau (the last two with AMNH volunteer, Jeremy Huff). Vignoli returned to the AMNH on a Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Grant in 2006. His research interests include systematics of Palaearctic buthid scorpions and marine invertebrates, especially Brachyura and Pycnogonida. He has travelled extensively in desert environments in the Middle East, western Asia and northern Africa.

Christian Wirkner, Ph.D.
Research Assistant, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena, Germany
(Annette Kade Fellowship, 2004)

Christian Wirkner studied Biology and Zoology in Erlangen (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). His Master’s thesis assessed the comparative morphology of the circulatory system in Chilopoda, while his Ph.D., conducted at the Humboldt University, Berlin, compared the morphology of the circulatory system in peracarid Malacostraca (Crustacea). Wirkner’s main research interests are the comparative morphology of arthropods from phylogenetic and evolutionary perspectives and, more specifically, organ evolution and transformation. His search for arthropods to compare has taken him to Australia, Bermuda, Borneo, Italy, Norway, Romania, and South Africa. An Annette Kade Fellowship made it possible for him to visit the AMNH to work with Lorenzo Prendini for 8 weeks in August–October 2004, studying the scorpion circulatory system using a corrosion-casting technique and micro computer tomography.

Christina Bisulca
M.S. in Art Conservation, University of Delaware
(Winterthur Art Conservation Fellowship, 2003)

Christina Bisulca completed a B.A. in Chemistry and Art History at Rutgers University in 1999 and is presently undertaking an M.S. in Art Conservation at the University of Delaware. She has been working with AMNH in the Department of Natural Sciences Conservation since 2003, as part of the requirements for her M.S. degree. During her internship, Bisulca surveyed the state of curation of the non-spider Arachnid and Myriapod Collection, co-supervised by Lorenzo Prendini and Conservator for Natural Sciences Collections Lisa Kronthal. The results of her study were written up as a report motivating the need for new glassware and closures to rehouse the collection. The report was so persuasive that the necessary upgrades were supported financially by the administration.

Amazonas Chagas Jr.
Ph.D. Student, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro Brazil
(Collections Study Grant, 2003)

Amazonas Chagas Jr. studied Biology at the Pontificia Universidade Católica, Paraná, Brazil. In 2001, he began a Masters in Zoology at the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, revising the Neotropical scolopocryptopine centipedes. After completing his Masters in 2003, Amazonas travelled to the U.S.A. to work with Dr. Rowland Shelley at the North Carolina State Museum, Raleigh, for four months, during which time he also visited the AMNH, supported by a Collections Study Grant. At the AMNH, Amazonas studied more than 100 scolopendromorph centipedes from many localities around the world and has since published three papers based on the material he examined. In 2004, Amazonas enrolled for a Ph.D. on the systematics of the centipede subfamily Scolopocryptopinae at the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio. He also continues to work on the systematics of Neotropical Scolopendromorpha more generally.

Lionel Monod
Researcher, Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva
(supported by Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva, 2002)

Lionel Monod visited the AMNH to work in the specimen collections and Molecular Systematics Laboratory for 5 weeks in November–December 2002, supervised by Lorenzo Prendini. During this time, he learned how to isolate, amplify, sequence and edit DNA sequences. His trip was supported by the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Geneva.