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Education

Ph.D. (Evolutionary Biology): University of Chicago, 1972
M.A. (Geology): University of Texas at Austin, 1968
B.S. (Biology and Geology): Yale University, 1965

Research Interests

Current research interests: completion of the manuscript "The therian skull - a lexicon with emphasis on the odontocetes," formerly titled "Standardizing nomenclature in odontocete cranial osteology." This has been a long term project with Ewan Fordyce and amounts to an illustrated dictionary of osteological landmarks in the dolphin skull. Those skulls are radically different from terrestrial mammals and the terms that have been used in descriptions of them vary tremendously. We found it difficult to decide, from the published literature, if a structure was present or not because of the variability in terms used to describe it. When this work is finished it will be of great value to cetacean systematists.

Recent Publications

Mead, J. G. 2007. Stomach anatomy and use in defining systemic relationships of the Cetacean family Ziphiidae (Beaked whales). Anatomical Record, 290: 581-595.

Perrin, W. F., K. M. Robertson, P. J. H. v. Bree and J. G. Mead. 2007. Cranial Description and Genetic Identity of the Holotype Specimen of Tursiops aduncus (Ehrenberg, 1832). Marine Mammal Science, 23(2): 343-357.

Sokolov, V. E. and V. A. Arsen’ev. Scientific Eds., J. Mead and R. Hofffmann. 2006. Baleen Whales. Mammals of Russia and Adjacent Regions. Smithsonian Institution Libraries- Amerind Publishing Co. Pvt.Ltd. 1-282=283-317 biblio. Pp.

Mead, J. G., and R. L. Brownell, Jr. 2005. Order Cetacea. Vol 1:723-743, in: Mammal Species of the World, Third Edition (D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder, eds.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. 2 Volumes, 2141 pp.

Walker, W. A., J. G. Mead, R. L. Brownell, Jr. 2002. Diets of Baird’s Beaked Whales, Berardius bairdii, in the Southern Sea of Okhotsk and off the Pacific Coast of Honshu, Japan. Marine Mammal Science, 18(4): 902-919.

McLellan, W., A. Friedlaender, J. Mead, C. Potter, and D. A. Pabst. 2002. Analysing 25 Years of Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Strandings along the Atlantic Coast of the USA: Do Historic Records Support the Coastal Migratory Stock Hypothesis. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, 4(3): 297-304.

Dalebout, M. L., J. G. Mead, C. S. Baker, A. N. Baker, and A. L. van Helden. 2002. A New Species of Beaked Whale Mesoplodon perrini Sp.N. (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) Discovered Through Phylogenetic Analyses of Mitochondrial DNA Sequences. Marine Mammal Science, 18(3): 577-608.

Mead, J. G., and J. P. Gold. 2002. Whales and Dolphins in question. The Smithsonian answer book. Photographs by Flip Nicklin. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London. 200 pp.

Laist, D. W., A. R. Knowlton, J. G. Mead, A. S. Collet, and M. Podesta. 2001. Collisions between ships and whales. Marine Mammal Science, 17(1): 35-75.