Dave Ellerby
Assistant Professor of Biology
Wellesley College
Department of Biological Sciences
106 Central Street
Wellesley, MA 02481email: dellerby@wellesley.edu
Tel: 781 283 3066
Fax: 781283 3642Background:
Research Fellow, Institute of Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Sciences, Northeastern University
Ph.D. University of Leeds, United KingdomB.Sc. University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Courses:
BISC 109 – Human Biology
BISC 214 – Animal Behavior
BISC 322 – Designs for Life: The Biomechanics of Animals and Plants
Research interests:
Muscle and MovementMy research is primarily focused on how animals use muscle to power locomotion. Locomotion occupies a significant proportion of an animal’s daily activity pattern and the high rate of energy expenditure involved means that few aspects of an animal’s physiology, ecology and behavior are unaffected by its demands.
Previous work has included measurements of the mechanical properties and performance of muscle tissue, and the metabolic costs associated with locomotion. I have worked with both vertebrates and invertebrates, and investigated systems within the three major locomotory modes, swimming, terrestrial locomotion and flight.
Studies of animal locomotion have tended to fall into two categories: those that focus on externally measurable parameters such as oxygen consumption and force generation; and those that measure the characteristics of internal systems such as muscle and tendon. A major aim of work in the lab is to combine these approaches and study locomotory systems in an integrated way.Biomaterials and Bioballistics
Some plants are capable of surprisingly rapid movements. They use mechanical energy stored in specialised tissues to launch seeds or pollen away from the parent plant. Ongoing work in the lab is investigating the performance of these catapult mechanisms and the structural basis for mechanical energy storage in plant tissues.
Explosive dehiscence of a jewelweed seed pod at 1 millisecond intervals (Hayashi et al., 2009).
Feeding behavior in sanguivorous leeches
Sanguivorous leeches face the mechanical and physiological challenge of ingesting and processing meals that can increase their body mass and volume to 900 % of the pre-feed values. The mass and volume change disrupts locomotion. This disruption is surprisingly short lived due to rapid volume reduction through excretion of excess fluid (Claflin et al., 2009). Ongoing work in the lab is investigating energy expenditure and the potential role of thermophily in the rapid processing of a blood meal.
Lateral views of a medicinal leech swimming before and after a blood meal.
Collaborators:
Graham Askew, University of Leeds, UK
Richard L. Marsh, Northeastern University
Publications:Hayashi M*, Feilich KL* and Ellerby DJ (2009). The mechanics of explosive seed dispersal in orange jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). J. Exp. Bot. 60, 2045-2053
Lim SM* and Ellerby DJ (2009). The effects of acute temperature change on cost of transport at maximal labriform speed in bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus, Raf.). J. Fish. Biol. (In Press).
Claflin SB*, Pien CL*, Rangel EN*, Utz KE*, Walther HV*, Wright AN* and Ellerby DJ (2009). Effects of feeding on medicinal leech swimming performance. J. Zool. (Lond.) 277, 241-247.
Jones EA*, Jong A* and Ellerby DJ (2008). Temperature effects on gait transitions in bluegill sunfish. J. Exp. Biol. 211, 1386-1393.
Kendall J*, Jones EA*, Lucey K* and Ellerby DJ (2007). Energetic and mechanical factors driving gait transitions in bluegill sunfish. J. Exp. Biol. 210, 4265-4271.
Ellerby DJ, Askew GN (2007). Modulation of pectoralis muscle function in budgerigars (Melopsitaccus undulatus) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in response to changing flight speed J. Exp. Biol. 210, 3789-3797.
Ellerby DJ, Askew GN (2007). Modulation of flight muscle power output in budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) and zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata): in vitro muscle performance. J. Exp. Biol. 210, 3780-3788.
Jones EA*, Lucey K* and Ellerby DJ (2007). The efficiency of labriform swimming in bluegill sunfish. J. Exp. Biol. 210, 3422-3429.
Askew GN, Ellerby DJ (2007). The mechanical power requirements of avian flight. Biology Letters 3, 445-448,
Marsh RL, Ellerby DJ. (2006). Partitioning locomotor energy use among and within muscles - Muscle blood flow as a measure of muscle oxygen consumption . J. Exp. Biol. 209, 2385-2394
Marsh RL, Ellerby DJ, Henry HT, and Rubenson, J. (2006). The energetic costs of trunk and distal-limb loading during walking and running in guinea fowl Numida meleagris I. Organismal metabolism and biomechanics. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 2050-2063
Ellerby DJ, Marsh RL. (2006). The energetic costs of trunk and distal-limb loading during walking and running in guinea fowl Numida meleagris II. Muscle energy use as indicated by blood flow. J. Exp. Biol. 209, 2064-2075.
HT, Ellerby DJ, Marsh RL (2005). Performance of guinea fowl Numida meleagris during jumping requires storage and release of elastic energy. J. Exp. Biol. 2005 208: 3293-3302
Ellerby DJ, Henry HT, Carr JA, Buchanan CI, Marsh RL. (2005). Blood flow in guinea fowl Numida meleagris as an indicator of energy expenditure by individual muscles during walking and running. J. Physiol, (London) 564: 631-648
Wagner H, Siebert T, Ellerby DJ, Marsh RL (2005) ISOFIT: a model-based method to measure muscle-tendon properties simultaneously. Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology 4: 10-19
Marsh RL, Ellerby DJ, Carr JA, Henry HT, Buchanan CI (2004). Partitioning the energetics of walking and running: Swinging the limbs is expensive. Science 303: 80-83
Ellerby DJ, Cleary ME*, Marsh RL, Buchanan CI (2003). Measurement of maximum oxygen consumption in guinea fowl Numida meleagris indicates that birds and mammals display a similar diversity of aerobic scopes during running. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 76: 695-703
Ellerby DJ, Spierts ILY, Altringham JD (2001). Fast muscle function in the European eel (Anguilla anguilla L.) during aquatic and terrestrial locomotion. J. Exp. Biol. 204: 2231-2238
Ellerby DJ, Altringham JD (2001). Spatial variation in fast muscle function of the rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss during fast-starts and sprinting. J. Exp. Biol. 204: 2239-2250
Ellerby DJ, Spierts ILY, Altringham JD (2001). Slow muscle power output of yellow- and silver-phase European eels (Anguilla anguilla L.): Changes in muscle performance prior to migration. J. Exp. Biol. 204: 1369-1379
Ellerby DJ, Altringham JD, Williams T, Block BA (2000). Slow muscle function of Pacific bonito (Sarda chiliensis) during steady swimming. J. Exp. Biol. 203: 2001-2013
Altringham JD, Ellerby DJ (1999). Fish swimming: Patterns in muscle function. J. Exp. Biol. 202: 3397-3403
Ellerby DJ, Ennos AR (1998). Resistances to fluid flow of model xylem vessels with simple and scalariform perforation plates. J. Exp. Bot. 49: 979-985*undergraduate authors
Other interests:
Grimsby Town Football Club
The England and Wales Cricket Board
England Rugby Football Union
Date created: December 12, 2005
Modified: June 22, 2009
Maintained by David Ellerby
dellerby@wellesley.edu
