Gavin Naylor
Director | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Gavin Naylor studies the diversity of the world's sharks and their biology, movement, genetics and evolution.
Biography
Gavin Naylor is director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Gavin is interested in evolution, genetics, biogeography and the natural history of sharks. Gavin is also interested in the exploration of the biodiversity chondrichthyan fishes, phylogenetic inference, protein folding, molecular evolution and the origin of architectural novelty.
Areas of Expertise (4)
Sharks
Shark Evolution
Shark Biology
Shark Attack Files
Media Appearances (4)
America's One Fatal Shark Attack of 2022
Nesweek online
2022-12-29
Sharks have a fearsome reputation as deadly predators but attacks on humans are rare. Sharks don't actively seek out humans as prey and prefer to hunt fish or seals.
47 years later, Spielberg says he regrets impact ‘Jaws’ had on sharks
The Washington Post online
2022-12-19
Months after “Jaws” debuted in June 1975, the thriller became the highest-grossing film ever. Critics still classify director Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster as one of the most influential pictures in movie history.
Welcome to shark class
Florida Museum online
2020-02-27
Last summer, the University of Florida and Florida State University set aside their longstanding rivalry to offer students a unique opportunity – a sharks field course.
Submarine diving with giant deep-sea sharks (bigger on average than great whites)
OceanX online
2019-10-17
Hundreds of meters below the surface lurks a predator older than the dinosaurs and bigger on average than the great white. This is the story of a group of scientists who came together to achieve the unthinkable: tagging the cryptic bluntnose sixgill shark in its natural environment using a submarine.
Articles (3)
Tiger shark attack on a scuba diver in New Caledonia
Wilderness & Environmental MedicineClaude Maillaud, et. al
2022-09-13
Herein we report an unprovoked shark attack on a scuba diver in New Caledonia. The species responsible for the attack was identified as a tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier), based on both the victim’s testimony and forensic examination. The victim suffered significant loss of soft tissues from one thigh, which resulted in hemorrhagic shock.
The phylogeny of rays and skates (chondrichthyes: elasmobranchii) based on morphological characters revisited
DiversityEduardo Villalobos-Segura, et. al
2022-06-06
Elasmobranchii are relatively well-studied. However, numerous phylogenetic uncertainties about their relationships remain. Here, we revisit the phylogenetic evidence based on a detailed morphological re-evaluation of all the major extant batomorph clades (skates and rays), including several holomorphic fossil taxa from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic and an extensive outgroup sampling, which includes sharks, chimaeras and several other fossil chondrichthyans.
Deciphering reticulate evolution of the largest group of polyploid vertebrates, the subfamily cyprininae (Teleostei: Cypriniformes)
Molecular Phylogenetics and EvolutionLei Yang, et. al
2021-10-08
Despite the rarity of polyploidy in animals, some groups with polyploid species exhibit complicated and interesting patterns of reticulate evolution. Here we focus on fishes in the subfamily Cyprininae, the largest polyploid group of vertebrates. The large number of polyploid taxa poses significant challenges for phylogenetic and evolutionary studies on this subfamily. In this study, we cloned and sequenced three single-copy nuclear loci to investigate the evolution of polyploidy in the Cyprininae.
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