Frank E. Anderson | Zoology Program | SIU

Frank E. Anderson

Professor and Director, School of Biological Sciences

My primary research interests are invertebrate phylogeny and phylogeography. I am primarily interested in the extremes of the molluscan and annelidan radiations. While most mollusks are rather sedentary aquatic animals, some (cephalopods) are active, swimming predators with an array of spectacular traits, while others (pulmonate gastropods) have successfully invaded land. Similarly, most annelids are marine, but clitellate annelids (e.g., earthworms and leeches) are abundant in freshwater and terrestrial habitats. How did these taxa radiate into these challenging habitats and develop their unusual traits? Ongoing research projects in my lab include 1) cephalopod phylogenetics/phylogenomics, 2) clitellate phylogenomics and molecular evolution and 3) biodiversity, ecology and phylogeny of eastern North American land snails and earthworms through the SUPERB scholarship program. I also currently serve as an editor for the Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists.

Education

B.S., Biology, University of Michigan; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz; Postdoctoral, Laboratory of Molecular Systematics and Department of Invertebrate Zoology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Courses taught

ZOOL 215 (Sophomore Seminar), ZOOL 220 (Animal Diversity), ZOOL 413 (The Invertebrates), ZOOL 556 (Phylogenetics), ZOOL 580 (Topics in Evolution), ZOOL 589 (Zoology Colloquium)

Areas of interest

Invertebrate Zoology, Molecular Systematics, Molecular Evolution, Malacology

Selected Recent Publications

Pratt**, A. M. and F. E. Anderson. Evolution of ammoniacal buoyancy within oegopsid squids and its relationship with depth. Accepted for publication in Journal of Molluscan Studies.

Sales, J. B. L, F. E. Anderson, B. L. Paiva, Y. T. C. Cunha, A. E. S. Rodrigues, Y. Ferreira; L. Rodrigues-Filho, P. W. Shaw, M. Haimovici, U. Markaida, J. S. Ready, and I. Sampaio. 2024. The vicariant role of the Caribbean formation in driving speciation in American loliginid squids: the case of Doryteuthis pealeii Lesueur 1821. Marine Biology 171:82 (DOI).

Lindgren, A. R., A. Pratt**, M. Vecchione and F. E. Anderson. 2023. Finding a home for the ram's horn squid: phylogenomic analyses support Spirula spirula (Cephalopoda: Decapodiformes) as a close relative of Oegopsida. Organisms Diversity & Evolution 23:91-101 (DOI).

Rankin, A. M., F. E. Anderson, S. A. Clutts**, A. Espíndola, B. C. Carstens, M. Lucid and J. Sullivan. 2021. Comparative phylogeography of the widespread Anguispira kochi occidentalis and the narrow-range A. nimapuna (Gastropoda: Discidae), two Northern Rocky Mountain endemics. Biological Journal of the Linnaean Society 133:817-834 (DOI; open access).

Farhadi, A. and F. E. Anderson. 2021. The dynasty of the pharaoh: phylogeography and cryptic biodiversity of Sepia pharaonis cuttlefish in Northwest Indian Ocean peripheral seas. Pgs. 427-442 in The Arabian Seas: Biodiversity, Environmental Challenges and Conservation Measures (Jawad, L. A., ed.). Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland.

Anderson, F. E. and A. R. Lindgren. 2021. Phylogenomic analyses recover a clade of large-bodied decapodiform cephalopods. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 156:107038 (DOI).

Erséus, C., B. W. Williams, K. M. Horn**, K. M. Halanych, S. R. Santos, S. W. James, M. Creuzé des Châtelliers and F. E. Anderson. 2020. Phylogenomic analyses reveal a Paleozoic radiation and support a freshwater origin for clitellate annelids. Zoologica Scripta 49:614-640 (DOI; open access).

Anderson, F. E. 2020. Cephalopoda, Pp. 549–552; Nautilus, Pp. 553–556; Neocoleoidea, Pp. 557–560; Decapodiformes, Pp. 561–564; Vampyroteuthis, Pp. 565–568; Octopoda, Pp. 569–572 in Phylonyms: A Companion to the PhyloCode (K. de Queiroz, P. D. Cantino, and J. A. Gauthier, eds.). CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL

Horn**, K. M. and F. E. Anderson. 2020. Spiralian genomes reveal gene family expansions associated with adaptation to freshwater. Journal of Molecular Evolution 88:463-472 (DOI).

Anderson, F. E. and J. E. A. R. Marian. 2020. The grass squid Pickfordiateuthis pulchella is a paedomorphic loliginid. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 147:106801 (DOI).

Phillips, A. J., A. Dornburg, K. L. Zapfe, F. E. Anderson, S. W. James, C. Erséus, E. Moriarty Lemmon, A. R. Lemmon and B. W. Williams, 2019. Phylogenomic analysis of a putative missing link sparks reinterpretation of leech evolution. Genome Biology and Evolution 11:3082-3093 (DOI).

Horn**, K. M., B. W. Williams, C. Erséus, K. M. Halanych, S. R. Santos, M. Creuzé des Châtelliers and F. E. Anderson. 2019. Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase gene duplications in clitellate annelids are associated with freshwater colonization. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 32:580-591 (DOI).

Nickrent, D. L., F. E. Anderson and J. Kuijt. 2019. Inflorescence evolution in Santalales: integrating morphological characters and molecular phylogenetics. American Journal of Botany 106:1-13 (DOI).

Zembrzuski**, D. C. and F. E. Anderson. 2018. Clarifying the phylogenetic relationships and taxonomy of Stenonema, Stenacron and Maccaffertium, three common eastern North American mayfly genera. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 128:212-220 (DOI).

Taheri, S., R. Rougerie, C.-H. Chang, L. Cunha, F. Anderson, B. Williams, D. Stanton, S. James, V. Roy, D. Baretta, A. Lemmon, G. Brown, J.-H. Chen, I. Barois, L. Dupont, T. Decaens, M. Coulis, M. L. C. Bartz, E. Lapied and E. Da Silva. 2018. Complex taxonomy of the "brush tail" peregrine earthworm Pontoscoloex corethrurus. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 124:60-70 (DOI).

Lindgren, A. R. and F. E. Anderson. 2018. Assessing the utility of transcriptome data for inferring phylogenetic relationships among coleoid cephalopods. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 118:330-342 (DOI).

Khatami, S., P. Tavakoli-Kolour, T. Valinassab, F. E. Anderson and A. Farhadi. 2018. Molecular identification and phylogenetic relationships of Coleoidea (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) from the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea reveals a case of cryptic diversity. Molluscan Research 38:77-85 (DOI).

Anderson, F. E., B. W. Williams, K. M. Horn**, C. Erséus, K. M. Halanych, S. R. Santos and S. W. James. 2017. Phylogenomic analyses of Crassiclitellata support major Northern and Southern Hemisphere clades and a Pangaean origin for earthworms. BMC Evolutionary Biology 17:123 (DOI; BMC Series Blog post).

Su, H.-J., J.-M. Hu, F. E. Anderson, J. P. Der and D. L. Nickrent. 2015. Phylogenetic relationships of Santalales with insights into the origins of holoparasitic Balanophoraceae. Taxon 64:491-506.

Reish, D. J., F. E. Anderson, K. Horn** and J. Hardege. 2014. Molecular phylogenetics of the Neanthes acuminata (Annelida: Nereididae) complex. Proceedings of the 11^th International Polychaete Conference, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 71:271–278.

Perez, K. E., N. Defreitas*, J. Slapcinsky, R. L. Minton, F. E. Anderson and T. A. Pearce. 2014. Molecular phylogeny, evolution of shell shape, and DNA barcoding in Polygyridae (Gastropoda: Pulmonata), an endemic North American clade of land snails. American Malacological Bulletin 32:1-31.

Anderson, F. E., A. Bergman*, S. H. Cheng, M. S. Pankey and T. Valinassab. 2014. Lights out: the evolution of bacterial bioluminescence in Loliginidae. Hydrobiologia 725:189-203.

S. H. Cheng, F. E. Anderson, A. Bergman*, G. N. Mahardika, Z. A. Muchlisin, D. B. Thuy, N. Calumpong, K. S. Mohamed, G. Sasikumar, V. Venktesan and P. H. Barber. 2014. Molecular evidence for co-occurring cryptic lineages within the Sepioteuthis cf. lessoniana species complex in the Indian and Indo-West Pacific oceans. Hydrobiologia 725:165-188.

* - SIU undergraduate student, ** - SIU graduate student (Anderson lab)

For more information on my research program, please contact me directly.