May 9, 2013

George Washington University Biologist Maps the Family Tree of All Known Snake and Lizard Groups




Assistant Professor of Biology Alex Pyron’s Published Study Shows the Evolution of Over 4,000 Reptiles

A George Washington University biologist and a team of researchers have created the first large-scale evolutionary family tree for every snake and lizard around the globe.

The findings were recently published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Alex Pyron, the Robert F. Griggs Assistant Professor of Biology in GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, along with researchers from the City University of New York and Arizona State University, detail the cataloguing of 4,161 species of snakes and lizards, or squamates.