Dr. Kirsten Jensen

Kirsten Jensen
  • Professor
  • Senior Curator
  • Associate Chair of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Research Interests: Parasitology, Evolutionary Biology, Biodiversity Patterns, Taxonomy, Phylogenetics

Contact Info

Office Phone:
785-864-5826
Department Phone:
785-864-5887
Fax:
785-864-5860
Office: Haworth Hall 5022

Biography —

Dr. Kirsten Jensen is a parasitologist focused on documenting macroevolutionary patterns in fish parasites. Patterns of primary interest are those relating to a group's evolutionary history, host associations, biodiversity, and geographic distribution, as well as the potential cophylogenetic patterns that exist between parasites and their hosts.

Research —

Research interests:

  • parasitology
  • systematics
  • phylogenetics
  • invertebrate zoology
  • morphology
  • biodiversity

Teaching —

Teaching interests:

  • Medical Parasitology
  • Animal Parasitology
  • Systematics & Macroevolution

Selected Publications —

Herzog, K. S. J. N. Caira, P. Kumar Kar, and K. Jensen. 2023. Novelty and phylogenetic affinities of a new family of tapeworms (Cestoda: Rhinebothriidea) from endangered sawfish and guitarfish. International Journal for Parasitology 53(7): 347–362.

Jensen, K. and J. N. Caira. 2022. Phylogenetic analysis and diversity of peculiar new lecanicephalidean tapeworms (Eniochobothriidae) from cownose rays across the globe. Invertebrate Systematics 36: 879–909.

Caira, J. N., M. Pickering, and K. Jensen. 2021. Expanding known global biodiversity of Yamaguticestus (Cestoda: Phyllobothriidea) parasitizing catsharks (Pentanchidae and Scyliorhinidae). Systematics and Biodiversity 19(7): 875–894.

Jensen, K. and R. R. Guyer, R. R.* 2021. First record of lecanicephalidean tapeworms (Eucestoda) from the giant freshwater whipray, Urogymnus polylepis (Bleeker), from Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo, including description of three new species of Tetragonocephalum Shipley and Hornell, 1905. Journal of Parasitology 107: 1–15.

Fernando, D., R. M. K. Bown, A. Tanna, R. Gobiraj†, H. Ralicki, E. L. Jockusch, D. A. Ebert, K. Jensen, and J. N. Caira. 2019. New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka. Zootaxa 4585(2): 201–238. (doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4585.2.1)

Caira, J. N. and K. Jensen (eds.). Planetary Biodiversity Inventory (2008–2017): Tapeworms from Vertebrate Bowels of the Earth. University of Kansas, Natural History Museum, Special Publication No. 25, Lawrence, KS, USA, 463 pp.

Naylor, G. J. P., J. N. Caira, K. Jensen, K. A. M. Rosana, W. T. White, and P. R. Last. 2012. A DNA sequence-based approached to the identification of shark and ray species and its implications for global elasmobranch diversity and parasitology. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 367: 1–262.

Last, P. R., W. T. White, J. N. Caira, Dharmadi, Fahmi, K. Jensen, A. P. K. Lim, B. M. Manjaji-Matsumoto, G. J. P. Naylor, J. J. Pogonoski, J. D. Stevens, and G. K. Yearsley. 2010. Sharks and Rays of Borneo. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Tasmania, 304 pp.