Ángel Valdés:
Associate Curator
e-mail: avaldes@nhm.org
B.S. Biology: Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, 1993
Ph.D. Zoology: Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, 1996
Dr. Valdés
became curator of mollusks in 2001 after a three-year postdoc at the California
Academy of Sciences, San Francisco. His research interest is the phylogenetic
systematics and biogeography of opisthobranch mollusks. He has published more
than 60 papers on this subject, describing more than 70 new taxa and unraveling
the phylogentic relationships of several opisthobranch clades. He is currently
working on the systematics of nudibranchs, a highly diverse group of opisthobranchs.
His work attempts to provide light on the classification and evolution of the
group using both molecular and morphological characters, but also to understand
the biogeographic implications of the phylogenetic hypotheses produced.
Selected Publications
Valdés, A. & Gosliner, T. M. 2001. Systematics and phylogeny of the
caryophyllidia-bearing dorids (Mollusca, Nudibranchia), with the description
of a new genus and four new species from Indo-Pacific deep waters. Zoological
Journal of the Linnean Society, 133: 103-198.
Valdés, A. 2001. Depth–related adaptations, speciation processes and evolution of color in the genus Phyllidiopsis (Mollusca, Nudibranchia). Marine Biology, 139: 485-496.
Valdés,
A. 2001. Deep-sea dorid nudibranchs (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) from the tropical
West Pacific, with descriptions of two new genera and nineteen new species.
Malacologia, 43: 237-311.
Valdés, A. 2002. Phylogenetic systematics of "Bathydoris" s.l. Bergh, 1884 (Mollusca, Nudibranchia), with the description of a new species from New Caledonian deep waters. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 80: 1084-1099.
Valdés, A. 2002. A phylogenetic analysis and systematic revision of the cryptobranch dorids (Mollusca, Nudibranchia, Anthobranchia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 136: 535-636.
Valdés, A. 2003. Preliminary molecular phylogeny of the radula-less dorids (Gastropoda: Opisthobranchia), based on 16S mtDNA sequence data. Journal of Molluscan Studies, 69: 75-80.