Other Research Interests
Structure, Function, and Evolution of Birds
During the last 15 years, our understanding of the
fossil history of birds has grown tremendously. My interest
is in taking what we can learn about living birds and
applying that to fossils to understand their functional
anatomy.
Evolution of Perching
With the evolutionary transition that converted the
forelimbs of their theropod dinosaur ancestor into wings,
birds lost their grasping hands. Some time early in avian
evolution, the opposed or "reversed" hallux (digit I -
homologous with your big toe) evolved. Perching provides
birds with the ability to grasp, much in the same way that
an opposable thumb allows humans to grip.
I have studied foot structure in living and fossil birds to
understand the evolution of this complex behavior. I have
also studied foot function in different kinds of living
birds to investigate how the evolution of perching might
have impacted walking and running on the ground.
Mosaic evolution in Mesozoic birds
I have been
working in collaboration with Dr. Julia Clarke at the
University of Texas, Austin to understand skeletal
evolution in Mesozoic birds. We have developed new
techniques for quantitatively studying morphological
evolution using Bayesian phylogenetic methods.
