Emily A. Buchholtz

Gordon P. and Althea P. Lang '26

Professor of Biological Sciences

SC 560, SC 133

(781) 283-3096

ebuchholtz@wellesley.edu

Teaching interests and activities

I teach courses in organismal biology at all levels of the curriculum. These courses include Introductory Organismal Biology (BISC 111), Evolution (BISC 202), Comparative Vertebrate Physiology / Anatomy (BISC 203), and an evolution seminar (BISC 305) entitled "A Brief History of Life." I have also taught in multidisciplinary programs (Cluster in 1991-1992, INCIPIT in 1995-1996 and 1996-1997) and in the Geosciences Department.

Research interests and activities

My recent work is at the interface of vertebrate paleontology and developmental biology. I study the developmental constraints that have affected the course of vertebral column evolution in taxa that have undergone dramatic evolutionary transitions. Such transitions often occur when lineages enter new environments, such as the secondary invasion of aquatic environments by terrestrial ancestors of ichthyosaurs, whales and seacows.

I am currently working on a project that will examine the developmental mechanisms by which three (and possibly five) mammal species broke the "seven cervical vertebrae barrier" that has been fixed for 100 million years. Possibilities suggested by the modular organization of development (and therefore of anatomy) include meristic changes (changes in somitogenesis that "crowd" or "stretch" hox gene expression areas) and homeotic changes (changes in hox gene boundaries that result in novel allocations of a traditional segment count to column series (cervical, thoracic, etc). It seems likely that each of these species represents an independent violation of the rule of seven, as they have altered traditional count in different directions and by different mechanisms.

Recent Publications

(in preparation) Developmental innovations in the evolution of the cetacean vertebral column.

(in press) Vertebral anatomy in the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris: a developmental and evolutionary analysis (with Amy Booth and Kate Webbink).

(in press) Dinosaur paleoneurology, in “The Complete Dinosaur,” 2nd edition, J. A. Farlow and M. Brett-Surman, eds. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

2005 Growth and Complexity in the Vertebral Column of Lagenorhynchus acutus (Cetacea, Delphinidae). Marine Mammal Science 21(3):411-428 (with Elizabeth Wolkovich and Richard Cleary).(pdf)

2004 Evolution of vertebral osteology in Delphinidae (Cetacea) Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 140(3):383-401 (with Stephanie Schur).(pdf)

2003 Teaching Interlude at Wellesley, in Tilly Edinger: Leben und Werk. Senckenbergische Forschungsinstitut, Frankfurt.

2003 Tilly Edinger: Scientific Legacy, in Leben und Werk. Senckenbergische Forschungsinstitut, Frankfurt.

2002. Convergent evolution, pp. in 297-199 in W. F. Perrin, B. Würsig, and J. G. M. Thewissen (eds.), Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, San Diego.

2001. Vertebral osteology and swimming style in living and fossil whales (Order: Cetacea). Journal of Zoology, London 253: 175-190.

2001. The Study of "Fossil Brains": Tilly Edinger (1897-1967) and the Beginnings of paleoneurology. BioScience 51(8): 674-682. (with Ernst-August Seyfarth) (pdf)

2001. Swimming style in Jurassic ichthyosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(1): 61-73.

1999. The gospel of the fossil brain: Tilly Edinger and the science of paleoneurology. Brain Research Bulletin 48(4): 351-361. (with Ernst-August Seyfarth)

1998. Cranial anatomy and diagnosis of Stygimoloch spinifer (Ornithischia: Pachycephalosauria) with comments on cranial display structures in agonistic behavior. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 18(2): 363-375. (with Mark B. Goodwin and Rolf E. Johnson)

1998. Implications of vertebral morphology for locomotor evolution in early Cetacea, pp. 325-351 in J.G.M. Thewissen (ed.), The Emergence of Whales. Plenum Press, New York.