Before I got to know Dave Wake as a person, I got to know him from reading his papers while I was in college.

Here's a thread on 10 of my favorite papers of DBW's. All but the first were important to me in college when trying to figure out what I wanted to study for a PhD.

There's no shame in being a taxon-oriented biologist. They can ask very insightful questions because of their unique knowledge. DBW unabashedly championed salamanders.

Wake 2009 What salamanders have taught us about evolution https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.39.110707.173552

Hanken flexing his developmental biology lab skills on a non-model organism!

Wake & Hanken 1996 Direct development in the lungless salamanders: what are the consequences for developmental biology, evolution and phylogenesis? http://www.ijdb.ehu.es/web/paper.php?doi=8877460

This is one part of what I saw DBW talk about at EvMorph , and it's the paper that my grad school application focused on. Still would love to study it.

Parra-Olea & Wake 2001 Extreme morphological and ecological homoplasy in tropical salamanders https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.131203598

Such a cool combination of DBW's ideas on genome size and morphological diversity and evolution. Roth brain papers w/ DBW and MW are great!

Roth, Blanke, & Wake 1994 Cell size predicts morphological complexity in the brains of frogs and salamanders https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.91.11.4796

Check out Fig 6 featuring a phylogeny "generated by electronic computer utilizing program developed by J. Felsenstein".

Is this the earliest cladistic analysis for amphibians?

Wake & Özeti 1969. Evolutionary relationships in the family Salamandridae https://doi.org/10.2307/1441702 

This remains one of my all-time favorites. Not a lot of papers out there featuring "Schmaulhausen's m".

@NeilShubin, Wake, and @CrawfordAJ 1995 Morphological variation in the limbs of Taricha granulosa (Caudata: Salamandridae) https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1558-5646.1995.tb02323.x

IMO, this is the type of paper that only someone that knows and loves a taxon can write well. Love this one. I see a clear connection between this work and that of @JLosos.

Wake 1987 Adaptive radiation of salamanders in Middle American cloud forests https://doi.org/10.2307/2399397 

This was the first reprint I was given, from Eric Lombard (my first bio prof in college and one of DBW's first students).

Lombard & Wake 1977 Tongue evolution in the lungless salamanders, family Plethodontidae. II. Function and evolutionary diversity https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1051530104

This paper has always stuck with me. As a paleo-focused undergrad, this helped me "cross over" to neontology.

Wake 1970 Aspects of vertebral evolution in the modern Amphibia https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285352091_Aspects_of_vertebral_evolution_in_the_modern_Amphibia

Last but not least: what I'm pretty sure is DBW's first paper.

Yes, before he ever published on a salamander, DBW published on African frogs. Go figure.

Wake & Kluge. 1961. The Machris Expedition to Tchad, Africa. Amphibians and Reptiles. https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/214285#page/51/mode/1up

I will miss communicating with DBW. We exchanged papers, talked about @AmphibiaWeb, argued about taxonomic changes, and he was always there to weigh in on ms that I sent.

In addition to many fond memories, I will always still love returning to his papers.