Research

Evolutionary Morphology Seminar Series

The Evolutionary Morphology Seminar Series brings students, faculty, and the broader evolutionary biology community together for presentations on a vast array of interesting and relevant topics.

The 2023-2024 EvMorph series concludes with an engaging and diverse lineup of speakers joining us in Spring Quarter:

Date / Time	Speaker	Affiliation	Seminar title
March 28, 4:30pm	Anderson Feijo	The Field Museum	Diversification, adaptation, and climate resilience of Montane mammals
April 11, 4:30pm	Guang Li	Xiamen University, China	Amphioxus and origin of vertebrates and chordates
April 25, 4:30pm	*2024 Sewall Wright speaker:* Armita Manafzadeh	Yale University	Joints: Form, function, and the foundation of vertebrate motion
May 9, 4:30pm	Lee Hsiang Liow	University of Oslo	title posted one week before seminar

The annual Sewall Wright Lecture honors Dr. Sewall Wright (December 21, 1889 – March 3, 1988), a pioneer in evolutionary biology, a co-founder of population genetics, and a UChicago faculty member for 3 decades. Each year, Darwinian Sciences students nominate and vote for the annual Sewall Wright speaker, who is invited to deliver a special EvMorph in Spring Quarter.

Students, if you missed an EvMorph: just click on the seminar title to access the Zoom recording

Click on the titles below to listen to any of these seminars:

Autumn Quarter 2023

Oct. 5, Anjan Bhullar, Yale University, Musculoskeletal development and evolution in the origin of the avian body
Oct. 12, Elizabeth Harper, Cambridge University, Does environment matter? Evolution of shell mineralogy, shape and predation resistance in marine clams and snails
Nov. 2, Andrew Barr, George Washington University, Hominin paleoenvironments, herbivore ecomorphology, and spatial bias in the African fossil record
Nov. 16, Zewdi Tsegai, UChicago OBA, Understanding the form-function relationship of internal structure of the skeleton in human evolution: examples from hands, feet and skulls

Winter Quarter 2024

Jan. 11, Jasmine Nirody, UChicago OBA, Adaptive locomotion in complex, changing environments
Jan. 25, Pavitra Muralidhar, UChicago E&E, The causes and consequences of sexual selection
Feb. 8, Simon Sponberg,Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics, Transitions and tradeoffs in the different strategies insects use to fly
Feb. 22, Darwin Admissions: Zhe-Xi Luo & Graham Slater, UChicago OBA & GeoSci, Mesozoic evolution of mammalian middle ear and ecological diversification of Cenozoic mammals

Evolutionary Morphology Seminar Series

Oct. 5, Anjan Bhullar, Yale University, Musculoskeletal development and evolution in the origin of the avian body

Oct. 12, Elizabeth Harper, Cambridge University, Does environment matter? Evolution of shell mineralogy, shape and predation resistance in marine clams and snails

Nov. 2, Andrew Barr, George Washington University, Hominin paleoenvironments, herbivore ecomorphology, and spatial bias in the African fossil record

Nov. 16, Zewdi Tsegai, UChicago OBA, Understanding the form-function relationship of internal structure of the skeleton in human evolution: examples from hands, feet and skulls

Jan. 11, Jasmine Nirody, UChicago OBA, Adaptive locomotion in complex, changing environments

Jan. 25, Pavitra Muralidhar, UChicago E&E, The causes and consequences of sexual selection

Feb. 8, Simon Sponberg,Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Physics, Transitions and tradeoffs in the different strategies insects use to fly

**Feb. 22, Darwin Admissions: Zhe-Xi Luo & Graham Slater, UChicago OBA & GeoSci,** Mesozoic evolution of mammalian middle ear and ecological diversification of Cenozoic mammals