NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Olsen Aaron M, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

Postdoctoral Fellow: Aaron Olsen Proposal number: 1612230 This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, 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 Aaron Olsen is "How the biomechanics of suction feeding has shaped the diversification of body forms in ray-finned fishes." The host institution for this fellowship is Brown University and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Elizabeth Brainerd. The goal of the Fellow's research is to understand the functional morphology underlying the ability of some animals to engage in behaviors that require a large amount of power, using the feeding behavior of fishes as a model system. Some of the most spectacular behaviors among animals, such as flying, leaping, and sprinting, require a large amount of power, or the release of large amounts of energy in a short period of time. Suction feeding in fishes is one of the most powerful animal behaviors, with many fish capable of expanding their mouths in less than a tenth of a second to capture prey items. The relatively small muscles of the head are typically insufficient to generate the high power required for suction feeding, so most fish draw power from trunk muscles that run along most of the body. These muscles indirectly expand the mouth by activating a cranial linkage mechanism, consisting of over a dozen interconnected, mobile bones in the head. Even more impressively, the same trunk muscles that power mouth expansion also power swimming. For these reasons, suction feeding in fishes provides an ideal system for discovering how force and power are transmitted through different functional units within a biomechanical system. The Fellow's research uses XROMM (X-ray reconstruction of moving morphology) to record high-speed, three-dimensional motions from four species of live ray-finned fish during suction feeding. The results of these experiments are being used to build computational models to test how force and power are transmitted between the trunk and head for high-power behaviors. These models are being applied to a diverse sample of ray-finned fishes, using collections at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, to predict the suction capacity of fish with different body forms and test how the evolution of coordinated functional units is influenced by overall system performance. The Fellow is being trained in live animal motion analysis, muscle modeling, CT (computed tomography) scanning, and in the mentoring of students. To broaden participation in science, the Fellow is conducting hands-on 'design challenges,' implemented in collaboration with teachers at the Paul Cuffee school, a K-12 public charter school where 77% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Students work in teams, using basic computer programming and engineering, to design mechanisms that accomplish a particular task. These challenges are paired with 3D-printed fish models and high-speed videos of suction feeding to compare biological and engineered mechanisms. The results of this research are also being shared via YouTube videos, open-source software, and a motion analysis database, to help build a public repository of biomechanical system designs and provide inspiration for biologically inspired robotics.