Melanie Stiassny is the Axelrod Research Curator of Ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research interests focus on freshwater biodiversity documentation and systematic ichthyology in the Old World tropics, including tropical Africa (especially in the Congo River) and Madagascar. She has published broadly on the bio-geography conservation and systematics of teleosts. Stiassny holds both a BS and a Ph.D. from the University of London, and has previously taught at Harvard University and Columbia University and is now a professor in the Richard Gilder Graduate School at the American Museum of Natural History. She is a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund, the Advisory Council of Conservation International’s Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, and the Advisory Board of National Geographic Society’s Conservation Trust.
Stiassny, Melanie. 1981. "Phylogenetic versus convergent relationship between piscivorous cichlid fishes from Lakes Malawi and Tanganyika". Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) Zoology Series. 40(3):67-101 (crc06950) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1981. "The phyletic status of the family Cichlidae (Pisces, Perciformes): A comparative anatomical investigation". Netherlands Journal of Zoology. 31(2):275-314 (crc03937) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1982. "The relationships of the neotropical genus Cichla: a phyletic analysis including some functional considerations". Journal of Zoology, London. 197:427-453 (crc01343)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1987. "Cichlid familial intrarelationships and the placement of the neotropical genus Cichla". Journal of Natural History. 21:1311-1331 (crc01344)
Stiassny, Melanie & J.S. Jensen. 1987. "Labroid intrarelationships revisited: morphological complexity, key innovations, and the study of comparative diversity". Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 151(5):269- 319 (crc05622) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1989. "A taxonomic revision of the African genus Tylochromis (Labroidei, Cichlidae); with notes on the anatomy and relationships of the group". Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren, Belgium, Zoologische Wetenschappen. 258:1–161 (crc01017)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1990. "Tylochromis, relationships and the phylogenetic status of the African Cichlidae". American Museum Novitates. (2993):1-14 (crc03835) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1991. "Phylogenetic intrarelationships of the family Cichlidae: an overview". Cichld Fishes: Behaviour, ecology and evolution. Ed.: Chapman and Hall.. 1-35. ISBN: 978-0-412-32200-6 (crc03836)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1991. "Tylochromis". Check-list of the freshwater fishes of Africa (CLOFFA). 482-508 (crc00993)
Stiassny, Melanie & U.K. Schliewen, W.J. Dominey. 1992. "A new species flock of cichlid fishes from Lake Bermin, Cameroon with a description of eight new species of Tilapia (Labroidei: Cichlidae)". Ichthyological Explorations of Freshwaters. 3(4):311-346 (crc00363) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1992. "Atavisms, phylogenetic character reversals, and the origin of evolutionary novelties". Netherlands Journal of Zoology. 42:260-276 (crc01345) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1992. "Phylogenetic Analysis and the Role of Systematics in the Biodiversity Crisis". Systematics Ecology and the Biodiversity Crisis, Columbia Univ. Press. (chapter 8):109-120 (crc03936)
Stiassny, Melanie & G.L. Gerstner. 1992. "The parental care behaviour of Paratilapia polleni (Perciformes, Labroidei), a phylogenetically primitive cichlid from Madagascar, with a discussion of the evolution of maternal care in the family Cichlidae". Environmental Biology of Fishes. 34(3):219-233. DOI: 10.1007/BF00004768 (crc04023) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1993. "Cichlids are different!". Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine. 84-98 (crc12429)
Stiassny, Melanie & J.G. Mezey. 1993. "Egg Attachment Systems in the Family Cichlidae ( Perciformes : Labroidei ), with Some Comments on Their Significance for Phylogenetic Studies". American Museum Novitates. (3058):1-12 (crc03934) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1993. "Taxonomy and systematics of South American Cichlidae: the other cichlids". Environmental Biology of Fishes. 36(1):105-107. DOI: 10.1007/BF00005987 (crc03498)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1993. "What is a cichlid?". Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine. 141-146 (crc03935)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1994. "A tangled web: Cichlids and their relatives". The Cichlids Yearbooks. 4:91-94 (crc00892)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1996. "Notes on a little known cichlid from West Africa, Sarotherodon caudomarginatus (Boulenger,1916), with some thoughts on the genus". The Cichlids Yearbooks. 6:53-57 (crc00931)
Stiassny, Melanie. 1997. "A phylogenetic overview of the lamprologine cichlids of Africa (Teleostei, Cichlidae): a morphological perspective". South African Journal of Science. 93:513-523 (crc01715) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & Axel Meyer. 1999. "Cichlids of the rift lakes". Scientific American. 280(2):64-69 (crc03933)
Stiassny, Melanie & P. Chakrabarty, P.V. Loiselle. 2001. "Relationships of the Madagascan cichlid genus Paretroplus, with description of a new species from the Betsiboka River drainage of northwestern Madagascar". Ichthyological Explorations of Freshwaters. 12(1):29-40 (crc00326) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & John S. Sparks. 2006. "Phylogeny and Taxonomic Revision of the Endemic Malagasy Genus Ptychochromis (Teleostei: Cichlidae), with the Description of Five New Species and a Diagnosis for Katria, New Genus". American Museum Novitates. (3535):1–55 (crc01327) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & Abebe Getahun. 2007. "An overview of labeonin relationships and the phylogenetic placement of the Afro-Asian genus Garra Hamilton, 1922 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), with the description of five new species of Garra from Ethiopia, and a key to all African species". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. (150):41–83 (crc04615)
Stiassny, Melanie & A. Lamboj, D. De Weirdt, G. G. Teugels. 2007. "Cichlidae". Stiassny & al.: The Fresh and Brackish Water Fishes of Lower Guinea, West-Central Africa. 2:269-403 (crc03424)
Stiassny, Melanie & Ulrich K. Schliewen. 2007. "Congochromis, a new cichlid genus (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Central Africa, with the description of a new species from the upper Congo River, Democratic Republic of Congo". American Museum Novitates. (3576):1-16 (crc01450) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & Giuseppe de Marchi, Anton Lamboj. 2010. "A new species of Danakilia (Teleostei, Cichlidae) from Lake Abaeded in the Danakil Depression of Eritrea (East Africa)". Zootaxa. 2690:43-52 (crc02748) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & S.E. Alter. 2015. "Phylogenetics of Teleogramma, a riverine clade of African cichlid fishes, with a description of the deepwater molluskivore — Teleogramma obamaorum — from the lower reaches of the middle Congo River". American Museum Novitates. (3831):1-18 (crc06666) (abstract)
Stiassny, Melanie & S.E. Alter. 2021. "Evolution in the Fast Lane: Diversity, Ecology, and Speciation of Cichlids in the Lower Congo River". In: M.E. Abate & D.L.G. Noakes (Eds.) The Behavior, Ecology and Evolution of Cichlid Fishes: A Contemporary Modern Synthesis. Springer Academic. 107-133. DOI: 10.1007/978-94-024-2080-7_4 (crc11689) (abstract)