Associate Curator, Amphibians and Reptiles
Biography
Jennifer Sheridan is the Associate Curator for the Section of Amphibians and Reptiles at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Sheridan is a tropical conservation ecologist. Her research interests are ecological responses to changes in climate and land use. She utilizes frogs as study organisms but with an eye for how they fit into the ecosystem as a whole.
The main goals of her research are to understand and quantify threats to biodiversity to better focus conservation efforts and mitigate change. To those ends, Sheridan currently examines 1) the effects of habitat alteration on amphibian communities and 2) the effect of climate change on organism size. Understanding how species are separated in ecological space and how species are affected by changes in their environment allow for better predictions of biodiversity losses and potential mitigation techniques.
The majority of her research has been in Southeast Asia (mainly Sabah, Malaysian Borneo), but Sheridan also examines impacts of climate change and land use change on amphibians in Pennsylvania utilizing CMNH collections along with field work at Powdermill Nature Reserve.
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Publications
Sheridan, J.A., T.U. Grafe, R. Marquez, P.M. Narins, P. Vázquez-Garcia, and P. Yambun. 2024. Call descriptions of two species of Meristogenys (Anura: Ranidae) from Sabah, Malaysia with novel notes on species morphology. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology.
Sheridan, J.A., and M. Kendrick. 2024. Relationships of primary productivity with anuran abundance, richness, and community composition in tropical streams. PLoS One. 19:e0303886.
Sheridan, J.A., P. Vázquez-Garcia, A. Karolus, M. H. Bin Rosman, and P Yambun. 2023. Species-richness, abundance, and body size of stream-breeding anurans across land-use types in Sabah, Malaysia (Borneo). Global Ecology and Conservation. 47:e02678.
Sheridan, J.A. S. Phimmachak, N. Sivongxay, and B.L. Stuart. 2023. Systematics of the Lao Torrent Frog, Amolops cremnobatus Inger & Kottelat, 1998 (Anura: Ranidae), with descriptions of four new species. Vertebrate Zoology. 73:931–956.
Sheridan, J.A., C.D. Mendendhall, and P. Yambun. 2022. Frog body size responses to precipitation shift from resource-driven to desiccation-resistant as temperatures warm. Ecology and Evolution. 12(12):e9589
Sheridan, J.A., A. Martin, C. James, and S.R. Kennedy-Gold. 2022. Temperature and precipitation interact to predict size responses to climate change in fence lizards. Herpetological Conservation and Biology. 17(3):553–559.
Martin, A., and J.A. Sheridan. 2022. Seasonal amphibian species richness and population fluctuations at Powdermill Nature Reserve, Pennsylvania, USA. American Midland Naturalist. 188:212–233.
Martin, A. and J.A. Sheridan. 2022. Tandem effects of changes in climate and land use on body size. Global Change Biology. 00:1–14.
Martin, A.K, D.F. Hughes, and J.A. Sheridan. 2021. Changes in an amphibian community at Powdermill Nature Reserve, southwest Pennsylvania, over a 37-year period. Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 87(2):157–166
Yi, J.D., A. Cobo-Cuan, R. Márquez , J.A. Sheridan, T. U. Grafe, A. Farina, and P.M. Narins. 2021. Novel Acoustic Snapshot of a Sarawak Forest. Journal of Ecoacoustics. 5(1):1. doi:10.35995/jea5010001
Siler, C.C., E.S. Freitas, J.A. Sheridan, S.N. Maguire, D.R. Davis, J.L. Watters, K. Wang, A.C. Diesmos, and R.M. Brown. 2020. Additions to Philippine slender skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) IV: Resurrection and redescription of Brachymeles burksi. Philippine Journal of Systematic Biology. 14(2): 10.26757/pjsb2020b14005
Yeo, Z.Y., and J.A. Sheridan. 2019. Effects of traffic noise on vocalizations of Kurixalus appendiculatus. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 67:77–82.
Sheridan, J.A., and B.L. Stuart. 2018. Hidden species diversity in Sylvirana nigrovittata (Amphibia: Ranidae) highlights the importance of taxonomic revisions in biodiversity conservation. PLoS ONE 13(3): e0192766.
Karraker, N., S. Fischer, A. Awophol, J.A. Sheridan, and S. Poo. 2018. Signals of forest degradation in the demography of common Asian amphibians. PeerJ. 6:e4220.
Sheridan, J.A., N. Caruso, J.J. Apodaca, and L. Rissler. 2018. Changes in body size and breeding date of wood frogs linked to climate change. Ecology and Evolution. 8:1316–1327.
Sheridan, J.A., N. Rakotopare, and R. Mebberson. 2017. Preliminary estimation of home range size for Meristogenys orphnocnemis, a common Bornean ranid, using radiotelemetry. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 65: 539-544.
Karraker, N.E., D. Bickford, S. Fischer, A. Devan-Song, A. Tan, J.A. Sheridan, P. Yambun, and M. Lakim. 2017. Activity patterns and habitat use of Ansonia hanitschi on Gunung Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. Herpetological Conservation & Biology. 12:233-240.
Stuart, B. L., S. Phimmachak, S. Seateun, and J. A. Sheridan. 2013. A new Philautus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from northern Laos allied to P. abditus (Inger, Orlov & Darevsky, 1999). Zootaxa 3745: 73-83.
Sheridan, J.A., S.D. Howard, P. Yambun, J.L. Rice, R. Cadwallader-Staub, A. Karolus, and D. Bickford. 2012. Novel behaviors of Southeast Asian rhacophorid frogs (Anura, Rhacophoridae) with an updated anuran species list for Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Tropical Natural History. 12 (1) 1-8.
Sheridan, J.A. and D. Bickford. 2011. Shrinking body size as an ecological response to climate change. Nature Climate Change. 1 (8) 401-406.
Bickford, D., J.A. Sheridan, and S. Howard. 2011. Climate change responses: Forgetting frogs, ferns, and flies? Trends in Ecology and Evolution. 26 (11) 553-554.
Sheridan, J.A., D. Bickford, K.F.Y. Su, and R. Meier. 2010. An examination of call and genetic variation in three wide-ranging Southeast Asian anuran species. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 58 (2) 197-207.
Bickford, D., S.D. Howard, D.J.J.Ng, and J.A. Sheridan. 2010. Impacts of climate change on the amphibians and reptiles of Southeast Asia. Biodiversity and Conservation. 19 (4) 1043-1062.
Sheridan, J.A. 2009. Reproductive variation corresponding to breeding season length in three tropical frogs. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 25 583-592.
Sheridan, J.A. and J.F. Ocock. 2008. Parental care in Chiromantishansenae (Anura, Rhacophoridae). Copeia. 2008 (4) 733-736.
Sheridan, J.A. 2008. Ecology and behavior of Polypedates lecuomystax (Anura: Rhacophoridae) in northeast Thailand. Herpetological Review. 39 (2) 165-169.
McLeod, D.S., J.A. Sheridan, W. Jiraungkoorskul, and W. Khonsue. 2008. Survey for chytrid fungus in Thai amphibians. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 56 (1) 191-196.
Sheridan, J.A., S.R. Beissinger, and C.R. Hughes. 2004. Weak association between measures of health and reproductive success in green-rumped parrotlets (Forpus passerinus) in Venezuela. The Auk. 121 (3) 717-725.
