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Dr Jon Ahlquist B.S., M.S., Ph.D.

Molecular biologist, ornithologist and artist.

Ahlquist

Dr Ahlquist’s degrees are all in biology: B.S. (Cornell University), M.S., Ph.D. (Yale University), specializing in ornithology and molecular phylogenetics. A former evolutionist, he taught and researched at Yale, then held professorships at Ohio University, the University of Louisville (Kentucky), and several South Carolina universities. The subjects he taught while still an evolutionist include: comparative vertebrate anatomy, avian biology, mammalogy, animal ecology, conservation biology, principles of systematic biology, systematic zoology, molecular evolu­tion, and molecular systematics. In 1991, he and his frequent collaborator Dr Charles Sibley (1917–1998), formerly of Yale University, published Phylogeny and Classification of Birds, which presented a new and subse­quently very influential phylogeny (evolutionary history) for birds. Known as the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy, it was based on DNA-DNA hybridi­zation techniques. He is author or co-author of 62 scientific publications. He subsequently became a creationist and is now retired—see Wieland, M., Convert to Creation (interview with Dr Ahlquist), Creation 40(3):36–39, 2018.

Dr Ahlquist died on 7th May 2020.

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