Brad Shaffer

H. Bradley Shaffer

Director, UCLA La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science

Distinguished Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Personal Website

Education

1982 – PhD – University of Chicago – Evolutionary Biology
1976 – BS – University of California, Berkeley – Zoology

Research Interests

Evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation biology of amphibians and reptiles. Recent research projects include comparative phylogeography of amphibians and reptiles in California and the central U.S., systematics of freshwater turtles and tortoises in Australia, California, and the rest of the globe, and conservation genetics of endangered California amphibians and reptiles. Recently, we have focused a great deal of ecological and genetical work on the California tiger salamander, an endangered species native to central California grassland habitat.

Recent Articles

Recent News

Bradley Shaffer for Gizmodo—Has the Dire Wolf Truly Been Resurrected? We Asked the Experts

La Kretz Center Director Brad Shaffer on NPR Discussing Wildfires impact Wildlife

Brad Shaffer for KQED — ‘Moonshot for Biology’ Aims to Sequence a Genome of Every Type of Plant and Animal on Earth

Brad Shaffer & Rachel Blakey quoted in Pepperdine Graphic: Funding Biodiversity Research Provides More Understanding Amid Climate Change Effects

Projects

The Endangered Species Act at 50

At the 13th annual Public Lecture hosted by the La Kretz Center, Drs. Cat Darst, Scott Morrison, and Brad Shaffer marked the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Endangered Species Act…

ucla la kretz 2021 annual lecture

UCLA La Kretz 2021 Annual Lecture

This event celebrates ten years of conservation research, featuring 3 minute lightening talks by each of our 13 past, current, and future La Kretz postdoctoral fellows. The presentations are followed…

western pond turtle at-risk species assessment

Western Pond Turtle at-risk species assessment

The western pond turtle is California’s only native freshwater turtle. The turtle’s numbers have been declining due to urbanization, limited water availability, and competition or predation from invasive species —…

science to safeguard species

Science to safeguard species

UC Natural Reserve System research has laid the foundation for conserving species across the state. A prime example: UCLA professor Brad Shaffer’s work on California tiger salamanders was instrumental in…

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Recent Publications

Phylogenetic uncertainty and taxonomic re-revisions: an example from the Australian short-necked turtles (Testudines: Chelidae)

P.Q. Spinks, A. Georges and H. B. Shaffer

Copeia 103:536-540, 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Turtles and tortoises of the world during the rise and global spread of humanity: first checklist and review of extinct Pleistocene and Holocene chelonians. In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Sau- mure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Iverson, J.B., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group

Turtle Extinctions Working Group [Rhodin, A.G.J., Thomson, S., Georgalis, G., Karl, H.-V., Danilov, I.G., Takahashi, A., De La Fuente, M.S., Bourque, J.R., Delfino M., Bour, R., Iverson, J.B, Shaffer, H. B., and Van Dijk, P.P.].

Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(8):000e.1–66, 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Comment on Spracklandus Hoser, 2009 (Reptilia, Serpentes, ELAPIDAE): request for confirmation of the availability of the generic name and for the nomenclatural validation of the journal in which it was published

Rhodin, A. G. J. (and 69 coauthors)

Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 72:65-78, 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Desert Tortoises in the Genomic Age: Population Genetics and the Landscape

H. B. Shaffer, E. McCartney-Melstad, P. Ralph, G. Bradburd, E. Lundgren, J. Vu, B. Hagerty, F. Sandmeier, C. Weitzman, R. Tracy

2015.

Progress Report, Permalink

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Conservation genetics and genomics of amphibians and reptiles

H. B. Shaffer, M, Gidiş E. McCartney-Melstad, K. M. Neal, H. M. Oyamaguchi, M. Tellez, and E. M. Toffelmier

Annual Reviews of Animal Biosciences 3:113-138, 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Determinants of size at metamorphosis in an endangered amphibian and their projected effects on population stability

C.A. Searcy, H. Snass, and H. B. Shaffer

Oikos 124:724-731., 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Multiple sources of uncertainty affect metrics for ranking conservation risk under climate change

A. N. Wright, R. J. Hijmans, M. W. Schwartz, and H. B. Shaffer

Diversity and Distributions 21:111-122, 2015.

Published Work, Permalink

Cryptic diversity in metropolis: Confirmation of a new leopard frog species (Anura: Ranidae) from New York City and surrounding Atlantic Coast regions

J. A. Feinberg, C. E. Newman, G. J. Watkins-Colwell, M. D. Schlesinger, B. Zarate, B. R. Curry, H. B. Shaffer, and J. Burger.

PLoS ONE 9(10): e108213., 2014.

Published Work, Permalink

Field of genes

H. B. Shaffer

BOOM: The journal of California 4:133-138, 2014.

Published Work, Permalink

Turtles of the world, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status

Turtle Taxonomy Working Group [P. P. van Dijk, J. B. Iverson, A. G. J. Rhodin, H. B. Shaffer, and R. Bour]

Chelonian Research Monographs 5(7):000.329–479, 2014.

Published Work, Permalink