Alumni News

Shane Campbell-Staton and James Hanken sitting at a table with a jar of frog specimens.

Human Footprint features Jim Hanken

July 31, 2023

In the latest episode of Human Footprint on PBS, host Shane Campbell-Staton (PhD 15') visits OEB Professor and Curator of Herpetology James Hanken. The episode, “The Replacements”, explores the surprising science and unexpected histories of five animal and plant species that made allies of humans, and grew to dominate the planet alongside us.

Professor Hanken explains why the African Clawed Frog, or Xenopus, joined the ranks of The...

Two live tangled individuals of Gordionus violaceus from Germany; photo by Gonzalo Giribet

"Mind Controlling" parasitic worms missing common genes

July 18, 2023

Hairworms are parasitic worms that manipulate the behavior of their hosts; what some refer to as "mind control." They are found all over the world, look like strands of spaghetti, and are only a few inches long. Even more bizarre, they have no excretory, respiratory, or circulatory systems, spending most of their life inside the bodies of other animals.

In keeping with the strange traits of these animals, a new study in Current Biology reveals they're also missing about 30...

OEB Alum Shane Campbell-Staton explores the Human Footprint in PBS series

July 7, 2023

In a new series on PBS OEB Alum Shane Campbell-Staton (PhD '15, Scott Edwards, Advisor) travels the globe exploring our human footprint and its impact. Human Footprint addresses Earth's most destructive and adaptable species: humans.

Watch Shane wrestle a python, hunt Hawaiian pigs, and get sucker-punched by a carp (!) while he explores the invasive species, humans, impact on Earth. Episodes of Human Footprint are now streaming on PBS.

Shane is currently an Assistant Professor at...

OEB Alum Cody McCoy awarded the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize

May 16, 2023

Congratulations to OEB Alum, Cody McCoy (PhD '21, David Haig, Advisor and a 1995 Dobzhansky Prize winner), awarded The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize! The Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the Study of Evolution to recognize the accomplishments and future promise of an outstanding early-career evolutionary biologist.

Cody is honored for her work which unites methods from applied physics, evolutionary theory,...

Hofstenia miamia, three-banded panther worms by Mansi Srivastava and Kathleen Mazza-Curll

Researchers discover embryonic origins of adult pluripotent stem cells

December 8, 2022

Stem cells are a biological wonder. They can repair, restore, replace, and regenerate cells. In most animals and humans these cells are limited to regenerating only the cell type they are assigned to. So, hair stem cells will only make hair. Intestine stem cells will only make intestines. But, many distantly-related invertebrates have stem cell populations that are pluripotent in adult animals, which means they can regenerate virtually any missing cell type, a process called whole-body regeneration.

Even though these adult pluripotent stem cells (aPSCs) are found in many...

Cracking open a fossil bone reveals rapid juvenile growth in early tetrapods

November 28, 2022

The rise of tetrapods (four-limbed vertebrates) is one of the iconic evolutionary transitions preserved in the fossil record. These animals, which lived about 385 to 320 million years ago during the Devonian and Carboniferous periods of Earth’s history, set the stage for the evolution and diversification of all other terrestrial vertebrates as we know them today, including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals like humans.

It was long thought that these early animals grew very slowly throughout their lifetime, gradually getting bigger and bigger, similar to a modern...

Less clustering and more naturally occurring trees could reduce pest and pathogens in urban forests

October 17, 2022

A new study in eLife finds excessive clustering of tree species and over introduction of nonnative species may make urban forests more vulnerable to pests and disease.

Co-lead authors Dakota E. McCoy (‘21) and Benjamin Goulet-Scott (‘22) assembled a dataset of more than five million street trees living in 63 of the largest cities in the United States. They then analyzed the data through an ecological lens. They found that there is a wide range in the diversity of street tree communities across cities and that these...

Hemidactylium scutatum larvae, lungless salamander native to eastern North America, by Zachary R. Lewis

Lungless salamanders develop lungs as embryos despite lung loss in adults for millions of years

August 17, 2022

Lungs are essential to many vertebrates including humans. However, four living amphibian clades have independently eliminated pulmonary respiration and lack lungs, breathing primarily through their wet skin. Little is known of the developmental basis of lung loss in these clades.

In a new study in Science Advances researchers in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology...

Lichens on rock by Jared Tarbell on Flickr

Pfister lab awarded honorable mention for study published in Rhodora

August 5, 2022

Congratulations to Professor Don Pfister, Danny Haelewaters (PhD '18), and Liam F. Nokes, former high school researcher in the Pfister lab, awarded Honorable Mention by the New England Botanical Society (NEBS) Fernald Award Committee awarded Honorable Mention for their study published in...

Marine Lichenized Fungi Bioindicators of Coastal Ocean Pollution

March 31, 2022

A new study in Rhodora examined the use of marine lichens to assess water pollution levels in the Boston Harbor. The study led by Liam F. Nokes, a former student at Arlington High School who was working in Donald H. Pfister's lab, suggests that marine lichens could prove useful as bioindicators of ocean pollution, and established a plan for a state fungus. Nokes' (now a student at Dartmouth) proposal is currently under review by...

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