Jacques Armand Gauthier is a vertebrate paleontologist, comparative morphologist, and systematist, and one of the founders of the use of cladistics in biology. He received a BS in Zoology at San Diego State University in 1973, a Masters of Science at the same institute in 1980, and a PhD in Paleontology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984. Currently he is a Professor of Geology and Geophysics and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology and Vertebrate Zoology at Yale University. His master's thesis, the content of which was published in 1982, is a classic work on the paleontology and phylogeny of the lizard clade Anguimorpha that remains a core reference for morphological research on Xenosauridae and Anguidae in particular. His PhD thesis con