Areas of study: Functional morphology, biomechanics, comparative physiology
Research:
My laboratory is interested in the mechanistic basis of animal behavior. "Lower" vertebrates, particularly fish and salamanders, have proved to be excellent subjects for the study of form and function. We examine locomotion and its neural control in animals as diverse as the Pacific Giant Salamander, Dicamptodon tenebrosus, and the seahorse, Hippocampus hudsonius. Techniques that we use are high-speed video, electromyography (recording patterns of muscle activity), sonomicrometry, and in vitro measures of muscle work and power output. Current projects include investigation of the performance characteristics of muscles that differ in their fiber types (but are otherwise similar), and how specialized muscles are "built." For this latter project we are comparing the very fast-contracting dorsal fin muscle of seahorses and pipefish (contract at 20 - 50 Hz against the high resistance of water) to dorsal fin muscles of more typical fish.
Courses I teach:
Bio 112 Comparative Physiology
