Research
Our research covers topics in paleobiology, systematics, evolutionary morphology, and comparative developmental biology. We aim at reconstructing the evolution of complex morphological structures such as the vertebrate skeleton and other organ systems.
Evolutionary change of organisms is fundamentally based on modifications to their developmental mechanisms. Research in our lab focuses on the relationship between evolutionary morphological changes in vertebrates and the developmental patterns associated with those changes. We concentrate on the skeleton because this is a fundamental aspect of the anatomy of all vertebrates and is what is most commonly preserved in the fossil record. Bone is a dynamic and living tissue that functions to support and protect our soft tissue as well as to store essential minerals. The structure of bone is linked to physiology and also reveals the past evolutionary history. We study for example: the development of bone microstructure and the timing of bone development.
We are mostly interested in organismal evolutionary change at the phenotypic level, but sometimes also become involved in genetic studies, as when we study molecular markers of early bone development. Most of our work deals with diverse mammalian, reptile and amphibian groups, although occasionally we were involved in studying other animals (for example, when we found interesting fossils in the field).
The methods we use include comparative anatomy, histology and phylogenetic systematics. In our studies we make use of whatever techniques are relevant to document and compare anatomical traits, including dissections, computed tomography, bone histology, enzymatic clearing and double staining of skeletal tissues, immunochemistry, and molecular labelling of gene expression domains. We run a histology lab for comparative developmental studies and collaborate with other labs in projects involving molecular work. In our palaeohistology lab, we investigate the microstructure of skeletal tissues. We also have sophisticated equipment for morphometric studies of embryos and other small objects, such as fossil teeth.
