Ongoing work in my laboratory is concentrated on using principles of solid and fluid mechanics to help understand the morphology and evolution of marine invertebrates, particularly molluscs, brachiopods, arthropods, and echinoderms. Using physical models, computational models, measurements of mechanical properties, and visualization of flow around and through these animals, we can explore the interactions of the animals with their physical (and, sometimes, biotic) environment and generate testable predictions about the consequences of particular morphologies. Although most of my work has been with recent invertebrates, both the results of these studies and the general approach can be and has been applied to fossils, since the morphological structures of particular interest (skeletal structures and gross body form) are those most likely to be preserved. Research in progress includes:

• Brachiopods -- Scaling of metabolic rates and lophophore areas to body mass; growth rates; ecology of diminutive species.
• Echinoderms -- Fluid mechanics of flow through arrays of pinnules and tube feet; functional morphology and biomechanics of ophiuroid vertebral ossicles.
• Molluscs -- Taphonomy of gastropod shells, particularly with respect to the mechanical properties of hermit crab-inhabited shells; cost of transport as a function of shell mass in benthic gastropods; mechanical safety factors in bivalve shells; shell mechanics and antipredatory mechanisms.
• Arthropods -- Safety factors in the exoskeleton of decapods, especially the legs and chelae; strain redistribution in the chelae.
• General -- Design of the fluid transport systems (circulatory systems, aquiferous systems) in animals, particularly hydrodynamics and energetic efficiency. Work to date has focused on decapod crustaceans, bivalve molluscs, and marine chelicerates, but will shortly be extended to insects, gastropods, and vertebrates.

Education:

• Ph.D., Duke University, 1976