Ph.D., Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, 1999
A.M., Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, 1995
B.A., Anthropology, Columbia University, 1989

Awards:

National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, 1998
L. S. B. Leakey Foundation Research Grant, 1998
Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, 1998

Research Interests:

Systematics; rates and patterns of molecular evolution

Current Research:

My current research, in collaboration with Dr. John Flynn, MacArthur Curator and Chair of Department of Geology, focuses on the evolution of the order Carnivora. The preliminary focus of this project is systematics, and there are unanswered questions at multiple levels. Problematic affinities include the inter- and intra-familial relationships of taxa within the two major lineages of Carnivora (Feliformia and Caniformia), as well as interordinal relationships between Carnivora and other eutherian mammals. Once a robust phylogeny is generated using molecular and morphological characters, models and rates of taxic and molecular evolution can be examined. The Carnivora are particularly well suited to the study of molecular rates because an extensive fossil record exists for the group, and clade ages can be calibrated paleontologically at several nodes. An additional focus deals with the phylogenetic relationships of carnivore species endemic to the island of Madagascar.

Publications:

Zehr, S. 1999. A nuclear and mitochondrial phylogeny of the lesser apes (Primates, genus Hylobates). Ph.D. Dissertation. Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Zehr, S., M. Ruvolo, J. Heider, and A. Mootnick. 1996. Gibbon phylogeny inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences. Abstract. American Journal of Physical Anthropology Sup. 22:251.

Ruvolo, M., D. Pan, S. Zehr, B. Chang, M. vonDornum, T. Disotell, J. Lin, and T. Goldberg. 1994. Gene trees and hominoid phylogeny. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 91:8900-8904.

Ruvolo, M., S. Zehr, M. vonDornum, D. Pan, B. Chang, and J. Lin. 1993. Mitochondrial COII sequences and modern human origins. Molecular Biology and Evolution 10(6):1115-1135.

Disotell, T. R., S. M. Zehr, and M. Ruvolo. 1992. Double-stranded dideoxy
sequencing from "dirty" DNA - done in a day. Biotechniques 13:48-50.