Keywords

  • amphibians
  • curation
  • fish
  • herpetology
  • herpetoogy
  • ichthyology
  • ichthyology and herpetology
  • museum
  • phylogenetics
  • reptiles
  • systematics
  • taxonomy

Friel, John Patrick

Research Associate
I oversee the curation of fish, amphibian and reptile collections at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates and conduct research on the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationship of fishes.

research

research and scholarship focus

Currently my main interest is documenting the remarkable diversity of catfishes and elucidating their evolutionary relationships using morphology. This involves both field work to collect new specimens as well as detailed examinations of preserved specimens from museums around the world. My speciality are catfishes of the families Aspredinidae (South American banjo catfishes), Mochokidae (African squeakers and suckermouth catfishes) and Amphiliidae (African loach catfishes and whiptail catfishes). All of these groups contain new species that I am studying and formally describing.||This research is part of the All Catfish Species Inventory (ACSI), a global effort to facilitate the discovery, description and dissemination of knowledge of all catfish species. This five year project has recently been funded by the National Science Foundation and involves over 200 participants from around the world. As one of the principal investigators of the ACSI project, I`m conducting major expeditions to collect fishes in East and Central Africa.

research areas

affiliations

academic staff in

publications

selected publications (listing in progress)

  • Friel, J. P., Fermon, Y. and D. DeWeirdt. In Press. Atopochilus. in "The Fresh and Brackish Water Fishes of Lower Guinea, West-Central Africa" (M.L.J. Stiassny, G. G. Teugels, and C.D. Hopkins, eds.). pp. XX-XX.  IRD Éditions, Paris.
  • Friel, J. P., Fermon, Y. and D. DeWeirdt. In Press. Chiloglanis. in "The Fresh and Brackish Water Fishes of Lower Guinea, West-Central Africa" (M.L.J. Stiassny, G. G. Teugels, and C.D. Hopkins, eds.). pp. XX-XX.  IRD Éditions, Paris.
  • Fermon, Y., D. DeWeirdt and J.P. Friel. In Press. Synodontis. in "The Fresh and Brackish Water Fishes of Lower Guinea, West-Central Africa" (M.L.J. Stiassny, G. G. Teugels, and C.D. Hopkins, eds.). pp. XX-XX.  IRD Éditions, Paris.
  • Friel, J.P. and T.R. Vigliotta. 2006. Synodontis acanthoperca, a new species from the Ogôoué River system, Gabon with comments on spiny ornamentation and sexual dimorphism in mochokid catfishes (Siluriformes: Mochokidae). Zootaxa 1125:45-56.
  • Sullivan, J.P., S. Lavoué and J.P. Friel, 2004. A la découverte des poissons du parc national d'Odzala. Canopée 26: 17-21.
  • Lundberg, J.G., T.M. Berra and J.P. Friel. 2004. First description of small juveniles of the primitive catfish Diplomystes (Siluriformes: Diplomystidae), Ichthyological Explorations of Freshwaters, 15(1):71-82.
  • Friel, J.P. 2003. Family Aspredinidae (Banjo catfishes). In "Check List of the Freshwater Fishes of South and Central America" (R. Reis, S. Kullander, & C. Ferraris, Jr., eds.), pp. 261-267. EDIPUCRS, Porto Alegre.
  • Wainwright, P.C., and J.P. Friel. 2001. Behavioral characters and historical properties of motor patterns. In "The Character Concept in Evolutionary Biology" (G. Wagner, ed.), pp. 285-301. Academic Press, San Diego.
  • Wainwright, P.C. and J.P. Friel. 2000. Effect of prey type on motor pattern variance in tetraodontiform fishes. Journal of Experimental Zoology, 286:563-571.
  • Fine, M.L., C.B. King, J.P. Friel, K.E. Loesser, and S. Newton. 1999. Sound production and locking of the pectoral spine of the channel catfish. pp. 105-114 in Catfish 2000: Proceedings of the International Ictalurid Symposium, E.R. Irwin, W.A. Hubert, C F. Rabeni, H L. Schramm, Jr., and T. Coon, editors.
  • Friel, J.P. and P.C. Wainwright. 1999. Evolution of complexity in motor patterns and jaw musculature of tetraodontiform fishes. Journal of Experimental Biology, 202:867-880.
  • Friel, J.P. and P.C. Wainwright. 1998. Evolution of motor pattern in tetraodontiform fishes: Does muscle duplication lead to functional diversification? Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 52(3):159-170.
  • Fine, M.L., J.P. Friel, D. McElroy, C.B. King, K.E. Loesser, and S. Newton. 1997. Pectoral spine locking and sound production in the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Copeia, 1997(4): 777-790.
  • Friel, J.P. and P.C. Wainwright. 1997. A model system of structural duplication: homologies of adductor mandibulae muscles in tetraodontiform fishes. Systematic Biology, 46(3):441-463. 
  • Wetzel, J., J. Wourms, and J.P. Friel. 1997. Comparative morphology of cotylephores in Platystacus and Solenostomus; modifications of the integument for egg attachment in skin-brooding fishes. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 50:13-25.
  • Friel, J.P. and J.G. Lundberg. 1996. Micromyzon akamai, gen. et sp. nov., a small and eyeless banjo catfish (Siluriformes: Aspredinidae) from the river channels of the lower Amazon Basin. Copeia, 1996(3): 641-648.
  • Friel, J.P. 1995. Acanthobunocephalus nicoi, a new genus and species of miniature banjo-catfish from the upper Orinoco and Casiquiare Rivers, Venezuela (Siluriformes: Aspredinidae). Ichthyological Explorations of Freshwaters, 6(1): 89-95.
  • Friel, J.P. 1994. A Phylogenetic Study of the Neotropical Banjo Catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Aspredinidae. Ph.D thesis, Duke University, 256 pp. [35.4 MB PDF]
Keywords: amphibians, curation, fish, herpetology, herpetoogy, ichthyology, ichthyology and herpetology, museum, phylogenetics, reptiles, systematics, taxonomy