Ecology | Evolution | Morphology | Current Postdoctoral Researchers

Within the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, five faculty share interests in the design, function, and evolution of vertebrates— Elizabeth Brainerd, Stephen Gatesy, Christine Janis, Thomas Roberts, and Sharon Swartz. Together with their graduate students, undergraduates, postdoctoral fellows, and staff, these researchers form a highly interactive network of about two dozen biologists with synergistic skills.

The group’s primary focus is the evolution of the muscular, skeletal, and nervous systems, particularly during locomotion and other movements. Each laboratory emphasizes a different, yet complementary area of expertise: biomechanics of bat flight (Swartz), muscle/tendon mechanics (Roberts), mammalian paleoecology (Janis), bird/dinosaur locomotion (Gatesy), and functional morphology (Brainerd). Members of the group have close ties to faculty in Engineering, Computer Science, Orthopaedics, Geology, and Applied Math. Students entering one of the morphology labs are encouraged to take advantage of the unique depth EEB and Brown offer in this area.

The Evolutionary Vertebrate Morphology Group has its offices and laboratories in the Biomedical Center, which also houses Brown’s main Animal Care Facility. In addition to the well-equipped labs of individual faculty, the group also has access to common space housing wind tunnels, two “C-arm” x-ray machines, a water flume, material testing equipment, a microscopy facility, a walk-in freezer, and a diverse comparative teaching collection. The recently opened W.M. Keck Foundation XROMM Facility houses state-of-the-art, biplanar x-ray equipment for imaging vertebrate movement in 3-D.