ABOUT DRP
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SCIENCE RESEARCH
 » I. Research System
 » II. Research Methods
 » A. Phylogenetics
 » B. Morphometrics
 » C. SEM
 » D. X-Radiology
 » E. Development Experiments
 » F. Field Research
 » III. Caribbean Biodiversity Research
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The major thrust of work in the Nehm laboratory focuses on questions within the new field of Evolutionary Developmental Biology (EDB). EDB explores how developmental processes contribute to the production of new morphological structures, species, and lineages.

Research on evolution and development

Both paleobiological and neontological data are essential for rigorous investigations of how developmental and evolutionary change occur over millions of years. Currently, the lab is using data from living and extinct gastropods (snails) from the Dominican Republic and Florida to investigate the following evolutionary-developmental questions:

• Developmentally, how are the ontogenies of ancestors modified to produce major morphological innovations in descendants?

• What developmental processes are involved in the formation of new species?

• Do patterns of evolution in size and shape parallel developmental evolution at the microstructural level? If not, what are the implications for the theoretical models that morphologists use to identify and differentiate modes of developmental evolution (heterochrony and heterotopy)?

• Do structurally and topologically similar adult structures have the same constructional and compositional origins?

• Does the integration (or lack of integration) of morphological, compositional, and constructional features during ontogeny constrain (or facilitate) the direction or duration of morphological change through time?