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ALT text: Close-up portrait of a man with short, spiked black hair, a trimmed goatee, and a slight smile, wearing a light gray button-up shirt against a pale blue background.
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Chan Kin Onn

Curator of Vertebrate Collections

Assistant Professor at the Department of Integrative Biology

Chan Kin Onn is  interested in understanding how biodiversity is generated, partitioned, and distributed across space and time. In particular, his research focuses on complex speciation scenarios involving gene flow, continuous morphological variation, and varied evolutionary histories. He enjoys exploring various methods to elucidate how genotype, phenotype, and the environment interact to drive the formation, maintenance, or collapse of species boundaries.
Google Scholar Profile

Selected publications:

  • Chan, K. O., Hime, P. M., & Brown, R. M. (2025). Deforestation-induced Hybridization in Philippine Frogs Creates a Distinct Phenotype With an Inviable Genotype. Heredity, February, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-025-00748-y
  • Chan, K. O., Mulcahy, D. G., & Anuar, S. (2023). The Artefactual Branch Effect and Phylogenetic Conflict: Species Delimitation with Gene Flow in Mangrove Pit Vipers (Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus-erythrurus Complex). Systematic Biology, 72(6), 1209–1219. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syad043
  • Chan, K. O., Anuar, S., Sankar, A., Law, I. T., Law, I. S., Shivaram, R., Christian, C., Mulcahy, D. G., & Malhotra, A. (2023). A new species of pit-viper from the Ayeyarwady and Yangon regions in Myanmar (Viperidae, Trimeresurus). ZooKeys, 1186, 221–234. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1186.110422
  • Chan, K. O., Hutter, C. R., Wood, P. L. J., Su, Y.-C. C., & Brown, R. M. (2022). Gene flow increases phylogenetic structure and inflates cryptic species estimations: a case study on widespread Philippine Puddle Frogs (Occidozyga laevis). Systematic Biology, 71(1), 40–57. https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syab034
  • Chan, K. O., Hertwig, S. T., Neokleous, D. N., Flury, J. M., & Brown, R. M. (2022). Widely used, short 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene fragments yield poor and erratic results in phylogenetic estimation and species delimitation of amphibians. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 22(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-022-01994-y
  • Chan, K. O., Hutter, C. R., Wood, P. L. J., Grismer, L. L., & Brown, R. M. (2020). Target-capture phylogenomics provide insights on gene and species tree discordances in Old World Treefrogs (Anura: Rhacophoridae). Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287, 20202102. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2102
  • Chan, K. O., Hutter, C. R., Wood, P. L., Grismer, L. L., Das, I., & Brown, R. M. (2020). Gene flow creates a mirage of cryptic species in a Southeast Asian spotted stream frog complex. Molecular Ecology, 29(20), 3970–3987. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15603
  • Chan, K. O., Hutter, C. R., Wood, P. L., Grismer, L. L., & Brown, R. M. (2020). Larger, unfiltered datasets are more effective at resolving phylogenetic conflict: Introns, exons, and UCEs resolve ambiguities in Golden-backed frogs (Anura: Ranidae; genus Hylarana). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 151, 106899. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2020.106899
  • Chan, K. O., & Brown, R. M. (2020). Elucidating the drivers of genetic differentiation in Malaysian torrent frogs (Anura: Ranidae: Amolops): a landscape genomics approach. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 190, 65–78. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz151
  • Chan, K. O., & Grismer, L. L. (2019). To split or not to split? Multilocus phylogeny and molecular species delimitation of southeast Asian toads (family: Bufonidae). BMC Evolutionary Biology, 19(1), 95. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-019-1422-3

Education:
2011–2017:
Ph.D. | University of Kansas (Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)

2007–2010:
M.Sc. | National University of Malaysia (Environment & Development)

2003–2006:
B.Sc. (Honors) | National University of Malaysia (Zoology)

Working experience:
2023–2025:
Postdoctoral Genomics Specialist | University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum | University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

2018–2023:
Lecturer and Curator of Herpetology & Genetic Resources | Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore

2018–2018:
Postdoctoral Fellow | Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore