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CLAS : Biological Sciences : Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Faculty

Jensen

Kirsten Jensen- Organismal Biology
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Phone:  (785) 864-5826
Fax:  (785) 864-5860

Area of Interest and Research

Field of Specialization: Parasitology

Research Interests:
Cestode systematics/phylogeny; diversity; morphology; coevolution; biogeography; life cycles

Current Research Projects:

  • A survey of sharks and rays of Borneo and their metazoan parasites
    (see project website).
  • Towards the elucidation of life-cycles of tapeworms of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) in the Gulf of Mexico (see project website).
  • A survey of the elasmobranchs and their metazoan parasites of Indonesian Borneo (Kalimantan).
  • Taxonomy and diversity of lecanicephalidean cestodes from around the world.

For additional information on tapeworms of sharks and rays see www.tapeworms.org

Representative Publications

Caira, J. N. and K. Jensen. Erection of Triloculatum n. gen. (Tetraphyllidea: Onchobothriidae) and description of five new species from whaler sharks (Carcharhinidae). Journal of Parasitology. (Accepted)

Healy, C. J., J. N. Caira, K. Jensen, B. L. Webster, D. T. J. Littlewood. 2009. Proposal for the new tapeworm order Rhinebothriidea. International Journal for Parasitology 39(4): 497:511.

Bullard, S. A., K. Jensen, and R. M. Overstreet. 2009. Historical account of the two family-group names in use for the single accepted family comprising the “fish blood flukes”. Acta Parasitologica 54(1): 78–84.

Bullard, S. A. and K. Jensen. 2008. Blood flukes (Digenea: Aporocotylidae) of stingrays (Myliobatiformes: Dasyatidae): Orchispirium heterovitellatum from Himantura imbricata in the Bay of Bengal and Myliobaticola richardheardi n. gen., n. sp. from Dasyatis sabina in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Parasitology 94(6): 1113–1321.

Jensen, K. and J. N. Caira. 2008. A revision of Uncibilocularis Southwell, 1925 (Tetraphyllidea; Onchobothriidae) with the description of four new species. Comparative Parasitology 75(2): 157–173.

Bullard, S. A., S. D. Snyder, K. Jensen, and R. M. Overstreet. 2008. New genus and species of Aporocotylidae (Digenea) from a lower actinopterygian, the American paddlefish, Polyodon spathula, (Acipernseriformes: Polyodontidae) from the Mississippi Delta. Journal of Parasitology 94(2): 487–495.

J. N. Caira, K. Jensen, and C. Rajan. 2007. Seven new Yorkeria species (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea) from Borneo and Australia and their implications for identification of Chiloscyllium (Elasmobranchii, Orectolobiformes) species. Journal of Parasitology 93(2): 357–376.

Jensen, K. and J. N. Caira. 2006. The status of Rhoptrobothrium Shipley et Hornell, 1906 (Cestoda: Tetraphyllidea), with redescription of the type species R. myliobatidis, and description of three new species from eagle rays in the genus Aetomylaeus from Malaysian Borneo. Folia Parasitologica. 53: 189–207.

Jensen, K. 2006. A new species of Aberrapex Jensen, 2001 (Cestoda: Lecanicephalidea) from Taeniura lymma (Forsskål) (Myliobatiformes: Dasyatidae), from Sabah, Malaysia. Systematic Parasitology 64(2): 117–123.

Jensen, K. 2005. A Monograph on the Lecanicephalidea (Platyhelminthes: Cestoda). Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum. Volume 18, 240 pp.

Caira J. N., K. Jensen and K. E. Holsinger. 2003. On a new index of host specificity. In: Taxonomie, écologie et évolution des métazoaires parasites. (Livre hommage à Louis Euzet), C. Combes and J. Jourdane, Eds. PUP Perpignan, Tome 1, pp. 161–201.

Siddall, M. E. and K. Jensen. 2003. Incorrect assessment of the information value of multistate characters. Cladistics 19: 269–272.

Jensen, K. 2001. Four new genera and five new species of lecanicephalideans (Cestoda: Lecanicephalidea) from elasmobranchs in the Gulf of California, Mexico. Journal of Parasitology 87: 845–861.

Caira, J. N., K. Jensen and C. J. Healy. 2001. Interrelationships among tetraphyllidean and lecanicephalidean cestodes. In: Interrelationships of the Platyhelminthes, D. T. J. Littlewood and R. Bray, Eds. Taylor and Francis, London, pp. 135–158.

Caira, J. N. and K. Jensen. 2001. An investigation of the coevolutionary relationships between onchobothriid tapeworms and their elasmobranch hosts. International Journal for Parasitology 31: 959–974.

Caira, J. N., K. Jensen and C. J. Healy. 1999. On the phylogenetic relationships among tetraphyllidean, lecanicephalidean and diphyllidean tapeworm genera. Systematic Parasitology 42: 77–151.