Jon E. Ahlquist facts for kids
Jon Edward Ahlquist (born July 27, 1944 – died May 7, 2020) was an American scientist. He was a molecular biologist, which means he studied living things at a very tiny, molecular level. He was also an ornithologist, a scientist who studies birds.
Studying Birds and DNA
Jon Ahlquist was an expert in something called molecular phylogenetics. This is a way of figuring out how different living things are related to each other by looking at their DNA. He worked a lot with another scientist named Charles Sibley, especially at Yale University.
By 1987, both Ahlquist and Sibley had left Yale. Their important work together continued.
A New Way to Classify Birds
In 1988, Ahlquist and Sibley received a special award called the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. This showed how important their research was.
In 1991, Jon Ahlquist and Charles Sibley published a very important book called Phylogeny and Classification of Birds. In this book, they shared a new way to classify birds. They used a special technique called DNA–DNA hybridization. This method compares the DNA of different birds to see how closely they are related. Their new system for grouping birds became known as the Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of birds.
At that time, Jon Ahlquist was a professor of zoology at Ohio University. He retired from his work in 1999.
See also
In Spanish: Jon Ahlquist para niños
- Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy of birds
