James Hanken

Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology, Curator in Herpetology, and Director, Museum of Comparative Zoology
Professor of Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology

Phone: 617-495-2496
E-mail:
Office: 109C MCZ, 26 Oxford Street

Website: http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/hanken

I study the evolution of morphology, developmental biology, and systematics. Most work by my group focuses on amphibians but otherwise addresses a wide range of topics, taxa, and methodologies. The latter range from laboratory-based molecular analyses to extensive field surveys. Current subjects include the evolution of craniofacial patterning in vertebrates; the developmental basis of life-history evolution; systematics, taxonomy and evolution of African frogs and neotropical and Asian salamanders; and amphibian declines and conservation. Active field programs are maintained in Mexico, Argentina, China, Africa, and Sri Lanka, and my laboratory serves as a community research facility for NSF’s AmphibiaTree project.

Recent Publications

Kerney, R., B.K. Hall and J. Hanken. 2009. Regulatory elements of Xenopus col2a1 drive cartilaginous gene expression in transgenic frogs. Int. J. Dev. Biol. In press.

Wu, Y., S. M. Rovito, T.J. Papenfuss, and J. Hanken. 2009. A new species of the genus Paramesotriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China. Zootaxa. In press.

Meegaskumbara, M., R. Pethiyagoda, J. Chanson, D. Wake, and J. Hanken.  2008.  Pickled frogs help biodiversity assessment.  In Threatened Amphibians of the World (S. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J. Chanson, N. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B. Young, eds.), p. 45. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, Spain; IUCN, Gland, Switzerland; and Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, USA.

Gross, J. B. and J. Hanken.  2008.  Segmentation of the vertebrate skull: neural-crest derivation of adult cartilages in the clawed frog, Xenopous laevis. Integrative and Comparative Biology.  48(5): 681-696.

Zimmermann, J., M. Hajibabaei, D. Blackburn, J. Hanken, E. Cantin, J. Posfai, and T. Evans, Jr.  2008.  DNA damage in preserved specimens and tissue samples: A molecular assessment.  Front. Zool. 5: 5–18.

Blackburn, D. C., J. Hanken and and F. A. Jenkins, Jr.  2008.  Concealed weapons: erectile claws in African frogs.  Biol. Lett.  4: 355–357.

Kerney, R. and J. Hanken.  2008.  Gene expression reveals unique skeletal patterning in the limb of the direct-developing frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui (Anura: Leptodactylidae).  Evol. Dev. 10: 439–448.

Gross, J. B. and J. Hanken.  2008.  Review of fate-mapping studies of osteogenic cranial neural crest in vertebrates.  Dev. Biol. 317: 389–400.

Bininda-Emonds, O. R. P., J. E Jeffery, M. R. Sanchez-Villagra, J. Hanken, M. W. Colbert, C. Pieau, L. Selwood, C. J. ten Cate, A. Raynaud, C. K. Osabutey, and M. K. Richardson. 2007.  Forelimb-hindlimb developmental timing differences across tetrapod phylogeny.  BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007, 7:182.

Wake, D. B., J. M. Savage, and J. Hanken.  2007.  Montane salamanders from the Costa Rica-Panamá border region, with descriptions of two new species of Bolitoglossa.  Copeia 2007: 556–565.

Parra, G., R. Brown, J. Hanken, B. Hedges, R. Heyer, S. Kuzmin, E. Lavilla, S. Lötters, B. Pimenta, S. Richards, M. O. Rödel, R. O. de Sá, and D. B. Wake.  2007.  Systematics and conservation.  In Amphibian Conservation Action Plan (C. Gascon, J. P. Collins, R. D. Moore, D. R. Church, J. E. McKay, and J. R. Mendelson III, eds.), pp. 45-48.  IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, Gland, Switzerland, and Cambridge, UK.

Kerney, R. R., M. Meegaskumbura, K. Manamendra-Arachchi and J. Hanken. 2007. Cranial ontogeny in Philautus silus (Anura: Ranidae: Rhacophorinae) reveals few similarities with other direct-developing anurans. Journal of Morphology 268: 715–725.

Kerney, R., J. Gross, and J. Hanken. 2007. Runx2 is essential for larval hyobranchial cartilage formation in Xenopus laevis. Developmental Dynamics 236: 1650–1662.

Gross, J. B., J. Hanken, E. Oglesby, and N. Marsh-Armstrong. 2006. Use of a ROSA26:GFP transgenic line for long-term Xenopus fate-mapping studies. Journal of Anatomy 209: 401–413.

Courses Taught

FRSEMR 41u: Museums
OEB 167: Herpetology
OEB 269: Biodiversity in Crisis: Worldwide Amphibian Declines and Extinctions
OEB 261r: Developmental Mechanisms of Evolutionary Change