Associate Curator, Division of Vertebrate Zoology, and Curator of the Irma and Paul Milstein Hall of Ocean Life

Robert S. Voss studies the systematics and biogeography of neotropical mammals that inhabit moist-forest habitats in Amazonia and the Andes. He is actively involved in long-term revisionary taxonomic research on several clades that have radiated extensively in lowland and montane rain forests, including didelphid marsupials, caviomorph rodents, and murid rodents. For several of these groups, he is collaborating with molecular researchers on phylogenetic studies that are designed to provide a stable basis for higher-level classifications, historical biogeography, and comparative analyses of ecobehavioral adaptations. Separate and combined analyses of genomic sequences and morphological data, for example, have recently provided novel insights into didelphid marsupial relationships that underscore the importance of using new characters and denser taxon sampling to resolve longstanding problems with the systematic biology of these animals. Recent field projects led by Dr. Voss have focused on intensive mammalian-faunal inventory efforts at two rain forest localities within the Amazon. Collaboration with the local indigenous culture is an important aspect of the fieldwork at these locations. Dr. Voss received a B.S. in zoology from the University of Arizona in 1976 and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1983. He joined the American Museum of Natural History in 1985. He is an adjunct faculty member at CUNY and Columbia University, and a member of several professional organizations and editorial and advisory boards.