Aaron M. Bauer, PhD
Professor and Gerald M. Lemole Endowed Chair in Integrative Biology
Aaron Bauer, PhD, is a leading expert on reptiles, with a specialty in geckos, systematics and biogeography.
Spotlight
Media
Geckos: The Animal Answer Guide (The Animal Answer Guides: Q&A for the Curious Naturalist)
Q: How do geckos walk across ceilings? A: Millions of hair-like setae on each foot.Q: Where do geckos come from? A: Throughout the world. Usually where it’s warm.Q: How many species of geckos are there? A: Close to 1,500 and counting!Q: What do they eat? A: Insects mostly. Discover the biology, natural history, and diversity of geckos―the acrobatic little lizards made famous by a car insurance ad campaign. Lizard biologist and gecko expert Aaron Bauer answers deceptively simple questions with surprising and little-known facts. Readers can explore color photographs that reveal the natural wonder and beauty of the gecko form and are further informed by images of how geckos live in their natural habitats. Although written for nonexperts, Geckos also provides a carefully selected bibliography and a new list of all known species that will be of interest to herpetologists. Anyone who owns a gecko, has seen them in the wild, or has wondered about them will appreciate this gem of a book.
The Amphibians and Reptiles of Alberta
Amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) are a significant but much-neglected component of the natural economy of the province of Alberta. This second edition, which continues both as a field guide and a comprehensive natural history, builds on the strengths of the first with a richly illustrated text and colour photographs of the species taken by renowned wildlife photographer Wayne Lynch. The award-winning first edition received recognition in the Emerald Awards for Environmental Excellence. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. Nomenclature has been changed to reflect current thinking in the field. New photographs have been added, and maps and illustrations have been updated.
Areas of Expertise (5)
- Reptiles
- Vertebrate Morphology
- Systematics
- Biogeography
- Natural History Collections
Biography
An internationally renowned herpetologist, Professor Bauer has described more new species of reptile than any other living scientist, including over seven percent of the more than 1,600 living geckos. He was part of an international team of scientists that, in 2017 completed the ‘atlas of life’ – the first global review and map of every vertebrate on Earth. His decades of field work in 29 countries, principally in the deserts of Africa, Asia and Australia, have identified patterns of distribution, documented the diversity of reptile species, and identified areas where conservation action is vital. Bauer is the go-to source for information about reptiles, especially geckos, which are his specialty.
Education (2)
- University of California, Berkeley: Ph.D.
- Michigan State University: B.S.
Select Accomplishments (6)
Affiliations (14)
- American Association for Zoological Nomenclature
- American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists
- Bombay Natural History Society
- British, Canadian, Chicago, Japanese, Maryland and New Zealand Herpetological Societies
- International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology
- Pacific Science Association
- Sigma Xi
- Society for the History of Natural History
- Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles
- World Congress of Herpetology
- Zoological Society of London
- Zoological Society of Southern Africa
- Associate in Herpetology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
- Extraoridnary Professor in Botany and Zoology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Select Media Appearances (8)
This tiny Florida gecko is disappearing—can we save it before it’s too late?
National Geographic
6/12/2024
In a phenomenon called coastal squeeze, sea level rise will begin to swallow parts of the state, promoting people to move inland. But geckos can’t follow. (See how sea level rise is already changing the Everglades.) “If you can't travel more than a hundred meters in 10 or 20 generations, you're not really going to be able to outrun potential problems like sea level rise,” says Aaron Bauer, a biology professor at Villanova University who reviewed the Florida listing proposal as an outside expert.
This new species is called the van Gogh gecko. The reason why is a work of art.
National Geographic
4/4/2024
From a global perspective, at least 2,300 Cnemapsis species exist in the scientific literature, a major increase from a thousand species only a few years ago, says Aaron Bauer, an ecologist at Villanova University and gecko expert who was not involved in the study. “There are new geckos being described all the time, and India is one of those areas where there’s really a lot going on,” he says
DNA has revealed the origin of this giant ‘mystery’ gecko
ScienceNews
6/19/2023
The gecko came to scientists’ attention in the 1980s after collections manager Alain Delcourt found the long-forgotten specimen at the Natural History Museum of Marseille in France. Stuffed rather than stored in spirits, the gecko sports a thick trunk, bulbous head and brown skin with faint red bands. Herpetologist Aaron Bauer of Villanova University in Pennsylvania was a graduate student when he arrived at the museum in 1983 to investigate the newly rediscovered specimen.
Earless African pygmy toad discovered on remote mountain in Angola
Mongabay
8/13/2018
Researchers have found a new species of African pygmy toad in Serra da Neve Inselberg, an isolated mountain and Angola’s second-highest peak. The new species, formally named Poyntonophrynus pachnodes, or the Serra da Neve pygmy toad, lacks both external and internal parts of the ear that help frogs hear. While earless toads aren’t rare, this is the first time a Poyntonophrynus species has been reported without ears. Citation: Luis M. P. Ceríaco, Mariana P. Marques, Suzana Bandeira, Ishan Agarwal, Edward L. Stanley, Aaron M. Bauer, Mathew P. Heinicke, David C. Blackburn. A new earless species of Poyntonophrynus (Anura, Bufonidae) from the Serra da Neve Inselberg, Namibe Province, Angola. ZooKeys, 2018; 780: 109 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.780.25859
Skin-ditching gecko inexplicably leaves body armor behind when threatened
Science News
8/4/2017
When trouble looms, the fish-scale geckos of Madagascar resort to what might seem like an extreme form of self-defense -- tearing out of their own skin. Some groups, such as Geckolepis, have also evolved weak skin as a form of defense, said Aaron Bauer, the Gerald M. Lemole Endowed Chair in Integrative Biology at Villanova University and co-author of the study. When a predator strikes, these geckos can rip out of their skin to escape, "like the tear-away football jerseys of the 1970s," he said.
Mid-Cretaceous amber fossils illuminate the past diversity of tropical lizards
Science Advances
3/4/2016
Authors: Juan D. Daza1,*, Edward L. Stanley2,3, Philipp Wagner4, Aaron M. Bauer5 and David A. Grimaldi6 Modern tropical forests harbor an enormous diversity of squamates, but fossilization in such environments is uncommon and little is known about tropical lizard assemblages of the Mesozoic. We report the oldest lizard assemblage preserved in amber, providing insight into the poorly preserved but potentially diverse mid-Cretaceous paleotropics. Twelve specimens from the Albian-Cenomanian boundary of Myanmar (99 Ma) preserve fine details of soft tissue and osteology, and high-resolution x-ray computed tomography permits detailed comparisons to extant and extinct lizards.
New Family Of Gecko Discovered
Science Daily
5/23/2008
A new family of gecko, the charismatic large-eyed lizard popularized by car insurance commercials, has been discovered. Scientists have long been interested in geckos and their evolution because they are key biodiversity indicators and are found on nearly every continent. Graduate students Tony Gamble from the University of Minnesota and Aaron Bauer from Villanova sequenced DNA from 44 species of gecko and used this genetic data to reconstruct the animals' family tree. The resulting new classification is different from previous classifications, which are based solely on foot structure.
How sticky toepads evolved in geckos and what that means for adhesive technologies
Science Daily
6/28/2000
Geckos are known for sticky toes that allow them to climb up walls and even hang upside down on ceilings. A new study shows that geckos have gained and lost these unique adhesive structures multiple times over the course of their long evolutionary history in response to habitat changes. The findings are published in the most recent edition of PLoS ONE. Gamble is a researcher in the College of Biological Sciences' Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development. Aaron Bauer, a professor at Villanova University, is the study's senior author. The research is part of a long-standing collaboration on gecko evolution among biologists at the University of Minnesota, Villanova University and the University of Calgary.
Select Academic Articles (4)
Description of a new species of the genus Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 (Reptilia: Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Nilgala Savannah forest, Uva Province of Sri Lanka
Zootaxa
A new species of Cnemaspis Strauch, 1887 is described from Nilgala Savannah Forest in Sri Lanka. The new species is diagnosed from all other congeners by the following suite of characters: small body size (SVL< 33 mm), dorsal scales on trunk homogeneous, one pair of post mentals separated by a single small chin scale, ventral scales on trunk smooth, subimbricate, 17–19 scales across the belly. Subdigitals scansors smooth, entire, unnotched; lamellae under digit IV of pes 17 –18.
A new species of African snake-eyed skink (Scincidae: Panaspis) from central and northern Namibia
Zootaxa
A recent molecular revision of the snake-eyed skinks of the genus Panaspis Cope, 1868 uncovered extensive cryptic diversity within the P. wahlbergi (Smith, 1849) and P. maculicollis Jacobsen & Broadley, 2000 species complexes. We here describe an unnamed central and northern Namibian lineage of the P. maculicollis group as a new species.
A new earless species of Poyntonophrynus (Anura, Bufonidae) from the Serra da Neve Inselberg, Namibe Province, Angola.
Zookeys
African pygmy toads of the genus Poyntonophrynus are some of the least known species of African toads. The genus comprises ten recognized species endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, five of which are restricted to southwestern Africa. Recent field research in Angola provided new material for three species of Poyntonophrynus, including a morphologically distinctive population from the Serra da Neve Inselberg.
Mid-Cretaceous amber fossils illuminate the past diversity of tropical lizards
Science Advances
Modern tropical forests harbor an enormous diversity of squamates, but fossilization in such environments is uncommon and little is known about tropical lizard assemblages of the Mesozoic. We report the oldest lizard assemblage preserved in amber, providing insight into the poorly preserved but potentially diverse mid-Cretaceous paleotropics.
Contact Aaron M. Bauer, PhD