Jon Armbruster

Dr. Jonathan Armbruster is the Director of the Auburn University Museum of Natural History and Curator of Fishes. Jon got his start with aquarium fishes while he was in high school. One of his defining memories that got him interested in plecos was when he was working in a pet store and a large shipment of common plecos were delivered. When he came in the next morning, many of them had jumped out of the tank and lay dry on the floor. As he was cleaning them up, one managed to twitch. They were alive thanks to a respiratory stomach that he would later go on to describe.

Jon is a veteran of many trips to collect fishes including all across the United States and South America as well as trips to Africa, Asia, and New Guinea. His main work has been on loricariid catfishes, where he has described over 50 species, several genera, and a subfamily. He has also published on the relationships of the species using morphology and genetics and studied their anatomy and ecology. He has recently begun to get interested in other neotropical taxa such as the pencil catfishes (Trichomycterus), the South American darters (Characidium), and has published several papers with his former graduate student, Dr. Edward Burress, on cichlid morphology, ecology, and phylogenetic relationships.

In addition, Jon has been examining North American Cavefishes of the genus Typhlichthys. There are multiple undescribed species that are present in the group. He is also working on North American minnow ecology and relationships, and is examining the taxonomy of the African small barbs of Enteromius and related genera.

Dr. Jon Armbruster is sponsored by Aqua-Fest.

Links

Armbruster Lab

Biography at Auburn

CNN: See the resemblance? Catfish named for ‘Star Wars’ character