NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2015

Pritchard Adam C, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2015, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Adam Pritchard is "Using fossil skeletons and modern reptile muscles to study flying and running in extinct reptiles." The host institution for this fellowship is Yale University, and the sponsoring scientists are Bhart-Anjan Bhullar and Jacques Gauthier. The fellowship research is developing musculoskeletal models for extinct reptile groups, the ancestors of crocodiles and the flying reptilian pterosaurs, to reflect the changes in muscle function and anatomy over a period of more than 150 million years. This is done by first developing new three-dimensional musculoskeletal models of modern reptile groups (crocodiles and lizards) and birds, using specimens at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. Because these modern animals are related evolutionarily to the extinct animals, the modern anatomical models allow interpretation of the impressions of muscles on extinct reptile skeletons and changes in muscle anatomy, leading to changes in locomotion in the fossil record. Fossil samples come from collections at Yale University, the University of Kansas, the University of Texas at Austin, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Training goals include combined training in modern reptile biology and paleontology. The models are being made available over the internet, accessible to anyone addressing further questions about muscular anatomy in modern and fossil reptiles. They also are useful teaching tools for anatomy instructors leading dissection labs and ecologists seeking to understand how environmental changes might correlate with anatomical changes in animal groups. Educational and public outreach also include using the models to train volunteers, both from Yale's undergraduate population and through the EVOLUTIONS after school program. Biological and paleontological collections are critical to the success of the research and training, but very few in the public understand the reasons behind such holdings. The exhibits at the Peabody Museum and the Fellow's own Past Time podcast series provide a window into an active paleobiology project.