With dense canopies, soaring mountains and bubbling streams, Equatorial Guinea is composed of two wonderfully biodiversity-rich locations — the mainland Río Muni on the west coast of Central Africa and its islands, Bioko and Annobón. In February 2023, an international team of scientists led by Mark Sabaj teamed up with local scientists and students to explore Bioko and the mainland for freshwater fishes. The trip yielded discoveries of fish species new and old in this small yet biodiverse country.

About the Speaker:

Raised in Brookfield, Illinois, Mark Henry Sabaj has a B.S. (1990) and M.S. (1992) from the University of Richmond, Virginia, and a Ph.D. (2002) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His career in ichthyology began as an undergraduate when Drs. William Woolcott and Eugene Maurakis invited him to assist their field studies of spawning behaviors in nest-building chubs and dace in the streams of western Virginia. In 1992, Mark became a doctoral student of Lawrence Page, and from 1995-2000 served as full-time collection manager of fishes at the Illinois Natural History Survey. In 2001, he relocated to Philadelphia to become Collection Manager of Fishes at The Academy of Natural Sciences. Mark lives in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia with his daughter Sofia, his wife (and Brazilian ichthyologist) Dr. Cecile Gama and her two daughters Gabriella and Paula. Over his career, Mark has co-described 41 new species, 2 genera and 5 subfamilies in 4 Phyla (Mollusca, Arthropoda, Porifera and Chordata) and has taken part in 50 field expeditions on five continents.