Edward B. 'Ted' Daeschler is an American vertebrate

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

and Associate Curator and Chair of Vertebrate Biology at the

Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. He is a specialist in fish paleontology, especially in the Late

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

, and in the development of the first limbed vertebrates. He is the discoverer of the

transitional fossil A transitional fossil is any fossilized remains of a life form that exhibits traits common to both an ancestral group and its derived descendant group. This is especially important where the descendant group is sharply differentiated by gross a ...

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, extinct theraps ...

'' Hynerpeton bassetti'', and a Devonian fish-like specimen of ''

Sauripterus taylori ''Sauripterus'' ("lizard wing") is a genus of rhizodont lobe-finned fish Sarcopterygii (; ) — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii () — is a taxon (traditionally a class or subclass) of the bony fishes known as the lobe ...

'' with fingerlike appendages, and was also part of a team of researchers that discovered the transitional fossil ''

Tiktaalik ''Tiktaalik'' (; Inuktitut ) is a monospecific genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned fish) from the Late Devonian Period, about 375 Mya (million years ago), having many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals). It may ha ...

''. He received a Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1998. He has held recent research grants from the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

, the

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

, and other donors. He is also known for his work on the preservation of natural history collections."Endangered collections" by Rex Dalton Nature 446, 605-606 (5 April 2007)

Selected publications

*Daeschler, E. B. and N. H. Shubin. 1998. Fish with Fingers?. ''Nature'' 391:133. *Daeschler, E. B. 2000. An early actinopterygian fish from the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation in Pennsylvania, USA''. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences'' 150:181-192. *Daeschler, E. B. 2000. Early tetrapod jaws from the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania, USA.

Journal of Paleontology The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of paleontology. It is published by the Paleontological Society. Indexing The ''Journal of Paleontology'' is indexed in: *BIOSIS Previews *Science Citatio ...

74(2):301-308. *Ahlberg, P. E., Z. Johanson, and E. B. Daeschler. 2001. The Late Devonian lungfish ''Soederberghia'' (Sarcopterygii, Dipnoi) from Australia and North America, and its biogeographic implications.

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology The ''Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that was established in 1980 by Jiri Zidek (University of Oklahoma). It covers all aspects of vertebrate paleontology, including vertebrate origins, evolu ...

21(1):1-12. *Davis, M., N. H. Shubin, E. B. Daeschler. 2001. Immature rhizodontids from the Devonian of North America. ''Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology'' 156(1):171-187. *Downs, J.P. and E.B. Daeschler. 2001. Variation within a large sample of ''Ageleodus pectinatus'' teeth (Chondichthyes) from the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

21(4):811-814. *Daeschler, E. B., A. Frumes and C. F. Mullison. 2003. Groenlandaspidid placoderm fishes from Late Devonian of North America.'' Records of the Australian Museum.''55(1):45-60. *Shubin, N. H., E. B. Daeschler and M. I. Coates. 2004. The early evolution of the tetrapod humerus. ''Science'' 304(5667):90-93. *Davis, M., N. H. Shubin, and E. B. Daeschler. 2004. A new specimen of ''Sauripterus taylori'' (Sarcopterygii; Osteichthyes) from the Famennian Catskill Formation of North America.

24(1):26-40. *Wilson, H. M., E. B. Daeschler and S. Desbiens. 2005. New flat-backed archipolypodan millipedes from the Upper Devonian of North America.

79(4):737-743. *Friedman, M. and E. B. Daeschler. 2006. Late Devonian (Famennian) lungfishes from the Catskill Formation of Pennsylvania, USA.

Palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

49(6):1-17. *Shubin, N. H., E. B. Daeschler and F.A. Jenkins, Jr. 2006. The pectoral fin of ''Tiktaalik roseae'' and the origin of the tetrapod limb. ''Nature'' 440:764-771. *Daeschler, E. B., N. H. Shubin and F. A. Jenkins, Jr. 2006. A Devonian tetrapod-like fish and the evolution of the tetrapod body plan. ''Nature'' 440:757-763. *Downs, J. P., E.B. Daeschler, F. A. Jenkins, Jr, and N. H. Shubin. 2008. The cranial endoskeleton of ''Tiktaalik roseae''. ''Nature'' 445:925-929. *Daeschler, E. B., J. A. Clack, and N. H. Shubin. 2009. Late Devonian tetrapod remains from Red Hill, Pennsylvania, USA: how much diversity?.

Acta Zoologica ''Acta Zoologica'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. It was established in 1920 as ''Acta Zoologica'' and ...

90:306-317.

References

External links

Official website
at the Academy of Natural Sciences.
Daeschler interview on ''The Colbert Report''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daeschler, Ted Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American paleontologists Pingry School alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni