Contact Information

• greynold@unca.edu
• 5153
• 140 Karpen Hall

Office Hours

• Wednesday 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
• Note: And by appointment

Biography

Dr. Reynolds’ research program uses genetic data, both lab-generated and simulated in silico, to study the evolution, ecology, and conservation of reptiles and amphibians in the southeastern United States and Caribbean. He is especially interested in pairing modern genetic and statistical methods with good old fashioned natural history and field research, with special focus on boid snakes and Anolis lizards in the West Indies. His field work carries him to swamps and mountaintops around the southeast, as well as all over the Caribbean- from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Central America, and beyond. Dr. Reynolds is the co-editor of the books The Amphibians of Tennessee and The Reptiles of Tennessee, and the co-discoverer of the Silver Boa, a new species of boid snake from a remote corner of the Bahamian Archipelago.

Dr. Reynolds earned a Ph.D. in 2011 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville studying population genetics of reptiles in the Turks and Caicos Islands. He earned a B.A. from Duke University in 2004, where he studied poison dart frog behavior in Panama. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Boston from 2011-2013, where he studied phylogenetics and conservation genetics of Caribbean reptiles. Dr. Reynolds was most recently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2014-2016, where he held appointments in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Herpetology at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. There he worked on the genetics and evolution of the Cuban Brown Anole, Anolis sagrei, across the Caribbean.

Education

• Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee Knoxville 2011
• B.A. in Biology, Duke University 2004

Courses Taught

• BIOL 135 Concepts of Ecology and Evolution
• BIOL 210 Principles of Zoology
• BIOL 350 Vertebrate Field Zoology
• BIOL 379 Herpetology
• BIOL 480 Senior Seminar

Selected Publications

• Miller, A.H., H.R. Davis, D.H. Quyên, L.M. Anh, P.Q. Tiến, C.T. Pham, J. Lee, K. de Queiroz, R.G. Reynolds, T.Q. Nguyen. 2020. Discovery of a new species of enigmatic odd-scaled snakes (Serpentes: Xenodermidae: Achalinus) from Ha Giang Province, Vietnam. Copeia (in press).
• Reynolds, R.G. and S.T. Giery. 2020. Amphibians of the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands. Chapter 15 in Volume 9: Status of the Decline and Conservation of Amphibians: Western Hemisphere, Part 5. The Caribbean. Edited by N. Ríos López and H. Heatwole. Pelagic Press, Exeter, UK. (in press).
• Donihue, C.M., A. Kowaleski, A. Algar, S. Baeckens, R.W. Buchkowski, A.-C. Fabre, H.K. Frank, A.J. Geneva, D.L. Mahler, R.G. Reynolds, J.T. Stroud, J.A. Velasco, J.J. Kolbe, J.B. Losos, and A. Herrel. 2020. Hurricane effects on Neotropical lizards span geographic and phylogenetic scales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 117: 10429–10434. [doi] [Cover Article]
• Reynolds, R.G., J.P. Burgess, G. Waters, B.N. Manco, and G.P. Gerber. 2020. Remarkable color pattern polymorphism and color variation in Turks Island Boas, Chilabothrus c. chrysogaster. Journal of Herpetology (in press)
• Freitas, E., A.H. Miller, R.G. Reynolds, and C.D. Siler. 2020. A taxonomic conundrum: Characterizing a cryptic radiation of Myanmar Asian gracile skinks (Squamata: Scincidae: Riopa). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 146: xx–xx. [doi]
• Aungst, E., A.R. Puente-Rolón, and R.G. Reynolds. 2020. Genetic diversity in captive populations of the endangered Puerto Rican Boa, Chilabothrus inornatus. Zoo Biology 39: 205–213. [doi]
• Reynolds, R.G., J.J. Kolbe, R.E. Glor, M. López-Darias, C.V. Gómez Pourroy, A.S. Harrison, K. de Queiroz, L.J. Revell, and J.B. Losos. 2020. Phylogeographic and phenotypic outcomes of brown anole colonization across the Caribbean provide insight into the beginning stages of an adaptive radiation. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 33: 468–494. [doi]
• Quach, Q.N., R.G. Reynolds, and L.J. Revell. 2020. Historical allopatry and secondary contact or primary intergradation in the Puerto Rican Crested Anole, Anolis cristatellus, on Vieques Island. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 129: 114–127. [doi]
• Miller, A.H., A. Jackson, M.P. van den Burg, C.R. Knapp, M.E. Welch, and R.G. Reynolds. 2019. The complete mitogenome of the critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima; Squamata:Iguanidae). Mitochondrial DNA Part B 4: 2479–2481. [doi]
• Reynolds, R.G., and R.W. Henderson. 2018. Boas of the world (superfamily Booidea) with systematic, taxonomic, and conservation assessments. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 162: 1–58. [doi]

Honorifics

• National Geographic Explorer ( 2019-2022)
• Associate, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
• Associate Editor, Biological Invasions
• Associate Editor, Journal of Herpetology

Positions Held

• Harvard University, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Museum of Comparative Zoology, 2014-2016
• University of Massachusetts Boston, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Biology, 2011-2013

Reynolds Lab Website

https://www.caribbeanboas.org