Field Museum of Natural History
Sara Ruane, Ph.D.
Sara leads the Ruane Lab as the Field Museum’s Assistant Curator of Herpetology. She seeks to simultaneously inform reptile and amphibian systematics while also answering broad, contemporary questions in evolutionary biology. Recent research has focused on Malagasy snakes and understanding what promotes diversification in these snakes, examinations of hybridization, species limits, and speciation for American milksnakes, and examining undescribed diversity in poorly known snakes of New Guinea. While Sara's interests in herpetology are broad, her lab focuses primarily on snakes, especially with respect to systematics, phylogenetics, and phylogeography.
Project Summary
Understanding Chicagoland’s Changing Conservation Landscape: Resurveys for Reptiles and Amphibians of Will County, Illinois
Together with conservation ecologist Michelle Thompson (Field Museum), this project will resurvey Chicagoland Forest Preserves for reptile and amphibian biodiversity. Resurveys are powerful to assess the survival and decline of species in response to concerns such as climate change and provide historical records for contemporary and future work. They will determine the status of species by conducting surveys over three years, include students from local colleges, and present results to the Forest Preserves Management for consideration in conservation plans. This will include outreach on urban conservation, natural history, and herpetofauna; specimens and genetic samples will inform biodiversity research for Illinois and the global scientific community.
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