Rachel Arnold

Current Research

Dissertation focuses on the evolutionary history and taxonomy of the stargazers (Family Uranoscopidae). The goals of this study include:

1. bring together all available specimens in natural history collections around the world
2. compile data of taxonomic significance and to compare these attributes among all specimens
3. determine how the various species of the family may be best differentiated and provide efficient, reliable identification keys
4. describe the numerous new species presently known to exist, and the many more certainly to be discovered in unexamined collections
5. provide redescriptions for taxa in need of revision and determine which nominal species are synonyms
6. determine evolutionary and biogeographic intrageneric relationships through a detailed examination of characters
7. make the results of the work known to the scientific and lay community through hardcopy publication as well as by electronic presentation on the Internet, e.g. contribution to the Tree of Life web project.

Publications

• Pietsch, T. W., and R. J. Arnold. In Press. Family Antennariidae. pp. 000-000, In: Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean, P. C. Heemstra and J. E. Randall, editors. Macmillan South Africa Ltd., 25 ms pp., 12 figures.


• Rogers, C., T. W. Pietsch, R. J. Arnold, and J. E. Randall. 2010. The Sargassum Frogfish (Histrio histrio Linnaeus) observed in mangroves in St. John, US Virgin Islands. Coral Reefs DOI 10.1007/s00338-010-0636-z.


• Miya, M., T. W. Pietsch, J. W. Orr, R. J. Arnold, T. P. Satoh, A. M. Shedlock, H.-C. Ho, M. Shimazaki, M. Yabe, and M. Nishida. 2010. Evolutionary history of anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes): A Mitogenomic Perspective. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 10(58):1-27.


• Pietsch, T. W., J. W. Johnson, and R. J. Arnold. 2009. A New Genus and Species of the Shallow-Water Anglerfish Family Tetrabrachiidae (Teleostei: Lophiiformes: Antennarioidei) from Australia and Indonesia. Copeia (3):483-493.


• Pietsch, T. W., R. J. Arnold, and D. J. Hall. 2009. A Bizarre New Species of Frogfish of the Genus Histiophryne(Lophiiformes: Antennariidae) from Ambon and Bali, Indonesia. Copeia (1): 37-45.