Transcript Joel Cracraft

Joel Cracraft
American Museum of Natural History
Chair, Division of Vertebrate Zoology
Curator-in-Charge, Department of Ornithology
Academic affiliations: RGGS (AMNH), Columbia
University (EEEB), CUNY (Graduate Program)
Research interests
Avian phylogenetics
Biogeography
Speciation analysis
Diversification
Ontology interests (the what's out there? kind)
Species
Homology
Paula's questions
1. An ontology consumer
As a contributor (taxa, species)
2. Must have ontology/ontologies straight to do
science and communicate
3. Tools: not a lot formally (character databases)
4. Roadblocks: ontology itself (few take it seriously, i.e.,
species), complexiy of phenotype (& homology)
5. Vision: people adopt phylospecies (for Brent)
We have an ontology table for phenotypic characters
across birds
6. Collaborators: avian morphological community