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William E. Bemis

Lead Instructor, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University

Cornell University

Areas of expertise

  • - Comparative vertebrate anatomy
  • - Ichthyology
  • - Marine vertebrate zoology
  • - Paleontology
  • - Systematics

Major works

Farina, S. C., M. L. Knope, K. A. Corn, A. P. Summers, and W. E. Bemis. (2019) Functional coupling in the evolution of suction feeding and gill ventilation of sculpins (Perciformes: Cottoidei). Integrative and Comparative Biology, icz022. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icz022 __

Bemis, K. E., S. M. Burke, C. A. St. John, E. J. Hilton, and W. E. Bemis. (2019) Tooth development and replacement in the Atlantic Cutlassfish, Trichiurus lepturus, with comparisons to other Scombroidei. Journal of Morphology 280: 78–94. https://doi.org//10.1002/jmor.20919 __

Fox, C. H., A. C. Gibb, A. Summers, and W. E. Bemis. (2018) Benthic walking, bounding, and maneuvering in flatfishes (Pleuronectiformes: Pleuronectidae): New vertebrate gaits. Zoology 130: 19-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.zool.2018.07.002 __

Bemis, K. E, B. Marcy-Qua, J. Galbraith, M. J. Wuenschel, P. J. Sullivan, and W. E. Bemis. (2018) Deep-water dragonets (Teleostei: Callionymidae: Foetorepus) of the Mid Atlantic Bight: A little-known genus from the edge of the continental shelf. Copeia 106, No. 1, 2018, 188–198. https://doi.org//10.1643/ci-17-662 __

Bemis, K. E., J. C. Tyler, W. E. Bemis, K. Kishor, R. S. Rana, and T. Smith. (2017) A gymnodont fish jaw with remarkable molariform teeth from the early Eocene of Gujarat, India (Teleostei, Tetraodontiformes). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 37(6): e1369422. https://doi.org//10.1080/02724634.2017.1369422 __

Bemis, W. E. (2016) Species and the fossil record of fishes. In Species and Speciation in the Fossil Record. W. D. Allmon and M. M. Yacobucci, eds. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310934344_Species_and_the_Fossil_Record_of_Fishes

Moyer, J. K., M. Riccio, and W. E. Bemis (2015) Development and microstructure of tooth histotypes in the Blue Shark, _Prionace glauca (Carcharhiniformes: Carcharhinidae) and the Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Lamniformes: Lamnidae). Journal of Morphology. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20380_

Farina, S. C., T. J. Near, and W. E. Bemis (2015) Evolution of the branchiostegal membrane and restricted gill openings in actinopterygian fishes. Journal of Morphology. DOI: 10.1002/jmor.20371

Hilton, E. J., L. Grande, and W. E. Bemis (2011) Skeletal Anatomy of the Shortnose Sturgeon, _Acipenser brevirostrum Lesueur, 1818, and the Systematics of Sturgeons (Acipenseriformes, Acipenseridae). Fieldiana Life and Earth Sciences, Number 3:1-168. 2011._

Liem, K.F., W. E. Bemis, W.F. Walker, Jr. and L. Grande (2001) __Functional Vertebrate Anatomy_ , 3rd Edition. Harcourt College Publishers, Philadelphia. Pages 1-703. _

Grande, L. and W. E. Bemis (1998) __A Comprehensive Phylogenetic Study of Amiid Fishes (Amiidae) Based On Comparative Skeletal Anatomy. An Empirical Search for Interconnected Patterns of Natural History._ Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Special Memoir #4 (supplement to Vol. 18). Pages 1-690 + ix. _

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About me

Willy is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. He received his B.A. in Biology from Cornell University (1976), M.S. in Zoology from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (1978), Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California Berkeley (1983) and spent two years as an instructor and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Organismal Biology at the University of Chicago. He served 20 years as Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught comparative anatomy, embryology, ichthyology and trained doctoral students in vertebrate biology. He has traveled extensively for research and worked with specimens in more than 50 natural history collections on six continents. From 2005 to 2013, Bemis served as Kingsbury Director of Shoals Marine Laboratory at Cornell. In 2013, Bemis returned to the faculty of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, where he conducts research in comparative anatomy, trains undergraduate and graduate research students, and teaches course in vertebrate biology, anatomy, paleontology, and evolution, including courses on the biology of fishes and the biology of sharks.