Jill Yager
{{Short description|American zoologist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
Jill Yager is an American zoologist and cave diver. Yager's research is centered on the conservation of inland caves. She discovered a venomous crustacean species, and she also named its class. Yager was named Cave Scientist of the Year in 2000 and was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2000.
Education
Yager received her bachelor's degree from Colorado State University, her Master's of Science degree from the Florida Institute of Technology, and her Ph.D. from Old Dominion University.{{cite web |title=Jill Yager |url=https://naturalhistory.si.edu/staff/jill-yager |website=Smithsonian Museum of Natural History |access-date=January 15, 2025}}
Career
After reading Kon Tiki and Lady with a Spear, Yager became interested in exploring underwater. Jacques Cousteau, who raised public awareness about the ocean, had an impact on her. She was inspired by Jane Goodall, whom she regards as "a true hero". Yager's research is centered on the conservation of inland caves, emphasizing that activities occurring above the caves, such as deforestation and pollution, can influence the caves themselves. She started her research in the mid-1970s while residing in the Bahamas. She began cave diving there while working as a high-school biology teacher.{{cite news |last=Rase |first=Karen |date=March 9, 2000 |title=Cave work earns Antioch professor national honors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/dayton-daily-news/163062718/ |work=Dayton Daily News |access-date=January 15, 2025}}
In 1979, Yager discovered the venomous crustacean species Speleonectes lucayensis and she also named its class as Remipedia.{{cite journal |last=Yager |first=Jill |date=May 2016 |title=Collecting and Processing Remipedes |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=405–407 |doi=10.1163/1937240X-00002433|bibcode=2016JCBio..36..405Y }}{{cite book |date=1985 |title=Department of Housing and Urban Development--independent agencies appropriations for 1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qnVRI1MM87gC&pg=PA431 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=431 |access-date=January 15, 2024}} Remipedia means "oar-footed".{{cite book |last=Dupuch, Jr |first=Etienne |date=January 1991 |title=Bahamas Handbook, 1991 |url=https://archive.org/details/bwb_W7-AHB-815/page/382/mode/2up?q=%22jill+yager%22 |publisher= |page=382 |isbn=9780914755517 |access-date=January 23, 2025 | via=Archive.org}} The crustaceans resemble centipedes.{{cite book |last=Barlas |first=Robert |date=2000 |title=Bahamas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-TIfduDRVcC&pg=PA9 |publisher=Marshall Cavendish |page=9 |isbn=9780761409922 |access-date=January 15, 2025}} The class was originally known from the fossil species Tesnusocaris goldichi and Cryptocaris hootchi, but they were not added to Remipedia until 1991.{{cite journal |last1=Emerson |first1=Michael J. |last2=Schram |first2=Frederick R. |date=July 1, 1991 |title=Remipedia Part 2 Paleontology |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/25697#page/5/mode/1up |journal=Proceedings of the San Diego Society of Natural History |volume=7 |pages= |doi= |access-date=}} Yager found the crustaceans in an underwater cave that is connected to Grand Bahama, known as the Lucayan Cavern. Yager's discovery of the new crustacean appeared as part of David McCullough's third segment of the Smithsonian World television special "Where None Has Gone Before".{{cite news |last=Unger |first=Arthur |date=October 7, 1985 |title=Smithsonian World' chronicles modern-day pioneers on voyages of discovery |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1985/1007/lsmith.html |work=Christian Science Monitor |access-date=January 23, 2025}} She participated in a Japanese documentary filmed in Mexico and worked on several specials for PBS. During her trip to Cuba in August 1999, Yager recorded a National Geographic television series titled Sea Stories.
Yager is a research associate at the National Museum of Natural History and a Fellow of the National Speleological Society. At Antioch College, Yager was the professor of zoology, ecology and environmental sciences from September 1989 to June 2007.{{cite web |title=Jill Yager |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jill-Yager |access-date=January 15, 2025 |website=ResearchGate}}
Awards and recognition
Yager was named Cave Scientist of the Year in 2000, and was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame in 2000. She received the Karst Waters Institute Award in 2000.{{cite web |title=Previous KWI Karst Award Recipients |url=https://karstwaters.org/awards-and-scholarships/kwi-karst-award/previous-kwi-karst-award-winners/ |website=Karst Waters Institute |access-date=January 23, 2025}}
In 1988, the cave shrimp species Yagerocaris cozumel was named after Yager.{{cite journal |last=Kensley |first=Brian |date=November 1988 |title=New Species and Records of Cave Shrimps from the Yucatan Peninsula (Decapoda: Agostocarididae and Hippolytidae) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1548704 |journal=Journal of Crustacean Biology] |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=688–699 |doi=10.2307/1548704 |jstor= 1548704|bibcode= 1988JCBio...8..688K|access-date=January 23, 2025}}
References
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Category:Colorado State University alumni
Category:Florida Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Old Dominion University alumni
Category:Antioch College faculty
Category:Smithsonian Institution people
Category:American women zoologists
Category:Cave diving explorers
Category:20th-century American zoologists
Category:20th-century American women scientists