Hi everyone! My name is Megan Saunders and I am a junior studying integrative biology at Saint Mary’s College. I just joined Dr. Young’s research team this fall. In particular, I wanted to do research with Dr. Young due to her focus on the morphology of different organisms. After undergrad, I plan to attend physical therapy school, so being able to research how organisms move and furthermore, what that says about their lifestyle is a really cool opportunity!
I have recently begun my research project, which is a continuation of Dr. Young’s work on phylogenetic turtle limb bone scaling. Dr. Young collected bone measurements from skeletal specimens at 5 different museum’s and previously analyzed the limb bone scaling patterns within the Cryptodiran clade, a clade of turtles which retract their head in a vertical plane. For my research project, I will be comparing scaling patterns of Pleurodires, which are “hidden-necked” turtles that retract their heads in a horizontal plane, to the Cryptodires. All in all, studying limb bone patterns in organisms is important to understanding their natural history, or why organisms have evolved specific structures to suit their lifestyle. So far this semester I have been reading previous morphological studies on Pleurodires and Cryptodires to acquire foundational knowledge in order to generate a hypothesis for my research. Additionally, I have been researching published Pleurodiran cladograms in order to create a tree topology for comparisons of limb bone scaling between species. I recently submitted my research proposal and hope to begin data analysis during the second semester! Comments are closed.
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AuthorsAlok Agwick Archives
February 2024
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