About

Cristina Cox Fernandes is a Lecturer/Adjunct Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She serves as the Curator of Fishes for the Natural History Collections. Her educational background includes a B.S. from Universidade Gama Filho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, obtained in 1982, an M.Sc. from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil, earned in 1989, and a Ph.D. from Duke University completed in 1995. Her research areas focus on ecology within the fields of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology. She is based at the university's campus in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she contributes to academic and research activities related to her expertise.

Research topics

• Biology
• Fishery
• Geography
• Paleontology
• Ecology
• Cartography

Selected publications

• Two new species and a new subgenus of toothed Brachyhypopomus electric knifefishes (Gymnotiformes, Hypopomidae) from the central Amazon and considerations pertaining to the evolution of a monophasic electric organ discharge

  The Catalogue of Life · 2026-02-16

  datasetOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Instruções para Submissão de Manuscritos ao Boletim da Sociedade Brasileira de Ictiologia (SBI)

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Instruções para Submissão de Manuscritos ao Boletim da Sociedade Brasileira de Ictiologia (SBI)

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026-03-31

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Microsternarchus javieri, a new species of weakly electric fish (Gymnotiformes: Hypopomidae, Microsternarchini) from the Negro River basin, Amazonas, Brazil

  Acta Amazonica · 2025-01-01

  articleOpen access

  ABSTRACT Here we describe a new hypopomid species, Microsternarchus javieri n. sp., encountered in flooded savanna streams of the Branco River and in terra-firme streams in the mid- and lower portions of the Negro River basin. We compared this new species with M. bilineatus from the San Bartolo River, Venezuela, and M. brevis from the upper portion of the Negro River. We also compared this new species with two recently described species in the genus Microsternarchus, M. longicaudatus and M. schonmanni. We examined morphometrics, anatomical characters, DNA barcode distances for the COI (cytochrome C oxidase subunit I) gene, and electric organ discharge (EOD) parameters. We diagnosed M. javieri n.sp. based on variation in maximum body depth, eye diameter, caudal vertebral counts, number of anal fin rays, and the shape of the maxillae. The average intra-specific genetic distance (K2P) in M. javieri n.sp. was 0.83%, whereas the average inter-specific genetic distance to M. brevis was 12.45%, and to other hypopomids ranged from 17.21 to 21.54%. When comparing EOD waveforms of the new species with M. brevis, we found differences in repetition rate, the ratio between the first and second phase areas, and the polarity balance. The description of M. javieri n. sp. increases to five the number of species in the genus.

  PublisherDOI

• Cristina Cox Fernandes, Ph.D.

  Ichthyology & Herpetology · 2025-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  <i>Ichthyology & Herpetology</i> (formerly <i>Copeia</i>) publishes work on the biology of fishes, amphibians, and reptiles, or work using those organisms as models for testing hypotheses of broad significance.

  PublisherDOI

• Ficha de Compsaraia iara

  Datasets - Sistema SALVE - ICMBio · 2025-01-10

  datasetOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Ficha de Apteronotus macrolepis

  Datasets - Sistema SALVE - ICMBio · 2024-03-02

  datasetOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• Microsternarchus schonmanni, a new species of weakly electric fish (Gymnotiformes: Hypopomidae, Microsternarchini) from the Mamoré-Guaporé River Basin, Brazil

  Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia · 2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Fishery
  • Geography
  • Biology

  Uma nova espécie, Microsternarchus schonmanni, é descrita a partir de uma série de especimens coletados nas drenagens da parte baixa do Rio Pacaás Novas e Rio Mamoré-Guaporé, Brasil. Essa é uma região de elevada biodiversidade, com florestas periodicamente inundadas e savanas. A espécie nova é diagnosticada a partir das espécies nominais M. bilineatus, M. brevis e M. longicaudatus por medidas que incluem o comprimento do filamento caudal, o tamanho da boca e dos olhos, e a distância do focinho à narina posterior. Além disso, a nova espécie difere das demais pelo número mais elevado de raios da nadadeira anal. Ademais, o maxilar mais amplo de M. schonmanni difere do maxilar mais alongado de M. bilineatus, M. brevis e M. longicaudatus.

  PublisherDOI

• Ficha de Tenebrosternarchus preto

  Datasets - Sistema SALVE - ICMBio · 2024-03-13

  datasetOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ficha de Apteronotus lindalvae

  Datasets - Sistema SALVE - ICMBio · 2024-09-19

  datasetOpen access
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Alberto Akama

  Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade

  90 shared

• Ricardo Campos da Paz

  90 shared

• Jansen Zuanon

  87 shared

• Lúcia Helena Rapp Py‐Daniel

  82 shared

• Tiago Pinto Carvalho

  Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

  81 shared

• Douglas Aviz Bastos

  81 shared

• Wolmar Benjamin Wosiacki

  81 shared

• Victor Alberto Tagliacollo

  Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

  81 shared

Education

• B.S., Rio de Janeiro Brazil

  Universidade Gama Filho

  1982

• M.S., Manaus, Brazil

  Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia

  1989

• Ph.D.

  Duke University

  1995