Faculty News

Life Reconstruction. Original artwork created by scientific illustrator Davide Bonadonna.

Water-to-land transition in early tetrapods

November 25, 2020

The water-to-land transition is one of the most important and inspiring major transitions in vertebrate evolution. And the question of how and when tetrapods transitioned from water to land has long been a source of wonder and scientific debate.

Early ideas posited that drying-up-pools of water stranded fish on land and that being out of water provided the selective pressure to evolve more limb-like appendages to walk back to water. In the 1990s newly discovered specimens suggested that the first tetrapods retained many aquatic features, like gills and a tail fin, and that...

Pardis Sabeti Elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine

October 20, 2020

Congratulations to Pardis Sabeti elected member of the National Academy of Medicine! Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Read more about Pardis Sabeti Elected Member of the National Academy of Medicine

Cassandra Extavour Awarded AAFPAA Inspiration Award

October 8, 2020

Congratulations to Cassandra Extavour awarded the African American Female Professor Award Association's 2020 Inspiration Award for her work as an educator and mentor in biology! Read more about Cassandra Extavour Awarded AAFPAA Inspiration Award

Students in OEB 119: Deep Sea Biology are “going to sea” virtually!

September 28, 2020

The oceans contain 97% of Earth's water, and host the most disparate ecosystems on the planet. OEB 119 provides an introduction to deep ocean habitats, macrofauna and microorganisms. And this semester, Professor Peter Girguis is taking students to the ocean online! Prof. Girguis has led multiple cruises as Chief Scientist with Schmidt Ocean aboard the R/V Falkor.

Enjoy a video about OEB 119 created by the Derek Bok Center:

...

Mansi Srivastava Receives Smith Family Foundation: Odyssey Award

September 18, 2020

Congratulations to Mansi Srivastava awarded the Smith Family Foundation: Odyssey Award for her project, "Comparing Development and Regeneration to Uncover Mechanisms for Maintaining Regenerative Ability in Adult Animals.”

The new Smith Family Foundation Odyssey Award was created in 2017 to fuel creativity and innovation in junior investigators in the basic sciences. The Award supports the...

Artist rendering what the shrimp-like Cambrian species may have looked like. Illustration by Xiaodong Wang

Micro-CT lets scientists see telling 3D details in arthropod evolution

September 14, 2020

For the past five years, Prof Javier Ortega-Hernández and Prof. Yu Liu, Yunnan University, China have collaborated to learn more about arthropod evolution by using micro-CT scanning to create 3D models of fossils and view details that would be impossible to see otherwise. Their work was recently covered by the Harvard Gazette...

JEB Cover Photo by Roy and Marie Battell

Mallard ducks' vertical takeoff requires different hindlimb kinematics and muscle function

September 10, 2020

Mallard ducks are capable of performing a wide range of behaviors including nearly vertical takeoffs from both land and water. The hindlimb plays a key role during takeoffs for both; however, the amount of force needed differs in fluid and solid environments. In a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology, recent graduate Kari Taylor-Burt (PhD '20) and Prof. Andrew Biewener hypothesize that hindlimb joint motion and muscle shortening are faster...

How to do field work when you can't get to the field!

September 3, 2020

How do you do botany fieldwork for a course during COVID when classes are online? Prof. Charles Davis developed an online botany course, Plant Biodiversity in the Digital Age, taught at the University of Michigan. Instead of conducting research at the University's ...

Scott Edwards end of trip by Michael Donoghue

Scott Edwards Completes Cross-Country Trip!

August 31, 2020

OEB Prof. Scott Edwards stands on an Oregon beach and hoists his bike overhead in triumph. "The Harvard Professor and curator of ornithology had just finished a solo, cross-country bike ride spanning 76 days, 15 states, 3,800 miles—and just three flat tires." Another great article from Audubon Society covering the successful end of Scott's...

POPOVICH gene controlling development of nectar spurs in Aquilegia

August 26, 2020

The evolution of novel features - traits such as wings or eyes - helps organisms make the most use of their environment and promotes increased diversification among species. Understanding the underlying genetic and developmental mechanisms involved in the origin of these traits is of great interest to evolutionary biologists.

The flowering plant Aquilegia, a genus of 60-70 species found in temperate meadows, woodlands and mountain tops around the world, is known for a novel feature - the nectar spur, which is important for pollination, and for the ecology and...

oebfancylogo2_0.jpeg