Matthew Heinicke, PhD

Dr. Heinicke joined UM-Dearborn in 2012. Current focal areas of research include the systematics and biogeography of amphibians and reptiles in southwestern Africa (including Angola, Namibia, and South Africa), evolution of gliding in geckos, and phylogeny of New World direct-developing frogs. His research combines field, museum, laboratory, and computational approaches. Undergraduate and Master’s students interested in research opportunities are encouraged to email Dr. Heinicke for more detailed information.

Pennsylvania State University, Biology, Ph.D., 2009

• Lobón-Rovira, J., M.P. Heinicke, A.M. Bauer, and P. Vaz Pinto. 2026. Exploring phylogeographic patterns along southwestern Angolan reveals cryptic diversity within the Pachydactylus angolensis complex. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207: zlag094 (16 pp.).
• Heinicke, M.P., S.V. Nielsen, A.M. Bauer, R. Kelly, A.J. Geneva, J.D. Daza, S. Keating, and A. Gamble. 2023. Reappraising the evolutionary history of the largest known gecko, the presumably extinct Hoplodactylus delcourti, via high-throughput sequencing of archival DNA. Scientific Reports 13: 9141 (12 pp.).
• Heinicke, M.P., J.E. Titus-McQuillan, J.D. Daza, E.M. Kull, E.L. Stanley, and A.M. Bauer. 2020. Phylogeny and evolution of unique skull morphologies in dietary specialist African shovel-snouted snakes (Lamprophiidae: Prosymna). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 131: 136–153.
• Heinicke, M.P., T.R. Jackman, and A.M. Bauer. 2017. The Measure of Success: geographic isolation promotes diversification in Pachydactylus geckos. BMC Evolutionary Biology 17: 9 (17 pp.).

• National Science Foundation grants DEB-1556585 (principal investigator, 2016–2021); DEB-1657527 (principal investigator, 2017-2022); DEB-2146654 (co-principal investigator, 2022-2026).
• Scientific Reports Earth, Environment and Ecology top 25 articles of 2023 (for “Reappraising the evolutionary history of the largest known gecko, the presumably extinct Hoplodactylus delcourti, via high-throughput sequencing of archival DNA”).
• Taylor and Francis award for outstanding paper published in 2014, Systematics and Biodiversity (for “Phylogeny, taxonomy, and biogeography of a circum-Indian Ocean clade of leaf-toed geckos (Reptilia: Gekkota), with a description of two new genera.”)