Andrea L. Cirranello
Papers
1
Total Citations
10
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1
About
Andrea L. Cirranello is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist whose work sits at the intersection of biodiversity, phylogenetics, and the digital revolution in science. Her research focuses on the evolution of mammals, particularly bats, and on developing innovative methods to reconstruct the Tree of Life. One of her most notable contributions is the 2017 study “Crowds Replicate Performance of Scientific Experts Scoring Phylogenetic Matrices of Phenotypes,” which demonstrated that non-specialist volunteers can accurately score complex anatomical traits for phylogenetic analysis—a task traditionally reserved for trained experts. This work, cited over 10 times, has profound implications for scaling up biodiversity research, as the sheer volume of phenotypic data from millions of living and fossil species far exceeds the capacity of individual scientists. By validating crowdsourcing as a reliable tool, Cirranello has helped open new pathways for collaborative, large-scale evolutionary studies. Her career reflects a commitment to both fundamental paleontological discovery and the methodological innovations needed to tackle the grand challenges of 21st-century biology.
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Top Papers
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