UMass Amherst Biologist and Fish Expert to Discuss The Evolution of an Icthtyologist

Oct. 4, 2001

AMHERST, Mass. - UMass biology professor William E. "Willy" Bemis, a renowned ichthyologist – an expert in fish anatomy and evolution – will deliver a Distinguished Faculty Lecture at 4 p.m. on Tues. Oct. 16 in Memorial Hall. His talk is the first in this year’s Distinguished Faculty Lecture series. The talk is free and the public is welcome. A reception will follow.

All faculty members in the series receive a Chancellor’s Medal following their lectures. The Chancellor’s Medal is the highest honor bestowed on individuals for exemplary and extraordinary service to the University.

Much of Bemis’s work has centered on recognizing broad patterns of vertebrate evolution using the analysis of the skeletons of living and extinct species. Among the vertebrates whose evolution remains most mysterious to biologists are ray-finned fishes. Bemis has spent 17 years studying them, and is embarking on new research on evolutionary patterns within the 40,000 species of higher ray-finned fishes, or teleosts. His talk, "The Evolution of an Ichthyologist," will focus on this quest.

Bemis is director of the University’s biological collections, and has spearheaded an effort to bring these six collections together in a museum on campus. He has pursued opportunities to preserve skeletons of whales and other marine mammals in addition to fishes. "It is important to accept responsibility for collecting and curating zoological specimens whenever possible, for there is no guarantee that such opportunities will occur again," Bemis says. He has conducted research with the University of Chicago, the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and the Field Museum of Natural History. His work has been detailed in the New Yorker magazine, in an article written by literary journalist John McPhee.

"Humans are remarkably skilled observers of anatomical similarities and differences among animals. With Aristotelian roots and a rich history from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, comparative anatomy is a very old scientific discipline that remains central to systematic and evolutionary biology," notes Bemis. Biologists recognize more than 80,000 living and extinct species of vertebrates, he adds, "and more than 99.9 percent of these were first recognized and named on the basis of anatomical study. Comparative anatomical study is essential for recognition of biological homology – how we recognize the evolutionary ‘sameness’ of parts in different organisms." Because the skeleton is typically the only part of a fossil sufficiently well-preserved for detailed anatomical study, Bemis says, integrated analyses of the skeletons of living and extinct vertebrates are the major tools for recognizing broad patterns of vertebrate evolution.

"Among the ‘frontier groups’ of vertebrates for evolutionary research – frontier in the sense that so much remains to be learned – are the ray-finned fishes or Actinopterygii," says Bemis. Actinopterygii include about half of the 80,000 known species of vertebrates. "When I came to UMass in 1984, I determined to switch my research focus from studies of lungfishes and coelacanths to actinopterygians, chiefly because I saw the great potential for new comparative anatomical and evolutionary research on these fishes." From paddlefishes and sturgeons to bowfins, gars and teleosts, Bemis has worked to help integrate studies of fossil and living forms and to establish the foundations for a new examination of actinopterygian evolution. But only now is Bemis positioned for what he feels is the most challenging area of inquiry: the study of evolutionary patterns within higher actinopterygians. He will describe the approach, methods and projected outcomes of this research program. Also, he will make the case for the fundamental role that comparative anatomy plays in studying the course of evolution.

Upcoming Distinguished Faculty Lectures include presentations by Madeleine Helena Blais of journalism, on Tues. Nov. 27; Don F. Towsley of computer science, on Wed. March 27, 2002; and N. Jay Demerath, sociology, on Wed. April 17, 2002.