Dr. ERNEST BEHRINGER
THEORETICAL MORPHOLOGY
Background
Why do living things have the shapes that they do? This is the central question addressed by theoretical morphology. The research work that I'm doing in collaboration with Dr. Steve LoDuca is aimed at addressing the question of how dasychlads got their shape (morphology) by applying principles from physics, chemistry, and biology. Dasychlads are giant (up to centimeters in length) single cells, photosynthetic organisms that have been around for a long time. Dr. LoDuca is an expert in the fossil record of dasychlads, and we are using the fossil record to test hypotheses of how dasychlads evolved from their previous morphology to their present morphology.
Projects
At present, Professor LoDuca and I are working on modeling the growth of several different fossil types of dasyclads. We expect this modeling effort to increase as we begin studying more complicated types of dasyclads (both fossil types and present-day types). We are also working to develop 3D visualizations of growth, as well as quantifying the relative fitness of different dasyclads. Such models and visualizations will help us to develop insight into the evolution of dasyclads.
For an example of a C language program that models the growth of an endospore dasyclad, click here. (This link intended for Paleobiology reviewers, too.)
Interested?
If you have approximately 8-10 hours a week to work in the laboratory, and if you have some experience at computer programming with a structured language (e.g., C), you might consider doing an independent study project in which you help develop the models and visualizations described above.
