University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

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Arnold Kluge

  • Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus
    Ph.D., University of Southern California

Contact information

  • University of Michigan
    3140 Dolph Dr
    Ann Arbor, MI 48103
  • Phone: (734) 994-3252
  • Email: akluge@umich.edu

Fields of study

Systematics and evolution

Research interests

Dr. Kluge continues his interest in phylogenetic inference. His recent contributions include an ideographic character concept, a quantitative rationale for parsimony, and arguments against evidence defined intensionally in terms of the similarity of an organism's properties. In addition, he has published on a new phylogenetic taxonomy, in both theory and practice, and offered a dissenting view on the study of adaptation in an historical context. He continues his empirical research on phylogenetic affinities among squamates, focusing on the relationships of varanoid and pygopod species.

Academic background

Kluge received his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1964; his dissertation was an evolutionary and biogeographic study of Australian gekkonoid lizards under the direction of Jay M. Savage. He taught for one year at San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, CA, before accepting a position at the University of Michigan. He was a founding member and president of the Willi Hennig Society, and editor of Cladistics. He is a Fulbright Fellow and a Guggenheim Scholar, and was awarded U-M's Innovative Teaching Award in 1972.

UM affiliation

  • Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Museum of Zoology
  • College of Literature, Science, and the Arts