Brian T. Shea, PhD Professor Cell and Molecular Biology Size and shape change in development and evolution Curricula: Evolutionary Biology E-mail:   b-shea@northwestern.edu

My laboratory investigates the relationships between development and evolution by focusing on issues of size and shape diversification (allometry and heterochrony) in primates and other mammals. We are particularly interested in the systemic and local controls of postnatal growth and how these are modulated to produce evolutionary shifts and patterns in extant and extinct forms. Allometric patterns of skeletal morphogenesis are being studied in comparative primate series and various mouse models of growth perturbations. These murine models include giant transgenic mice, several strains of dwarf mutant mice, and size-selected lines. These allow us to investigate the role of systemic growth controls, such as growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), in modulating coordinated shape changes during ontogeny and phylogeny.

We have also undertaken collaborative work analyzing the size and shape differentiation and developmental underpinnings involved in microevolutionary dwarfing events (human pygmies from Africa and Asia). This work has helped to clarify aspects of the intrinsic and extrinsic control of growth and body proportions and the types of morphological and timing changes that frequently accompany size diversification in evolutionary lineages. Results have demonstrated that minor shifts in certain growth controls yield marked but predictable coordinated morphological transformations among groups or species via characteristic changes in common underlying patterns of morphogenesis.

These studies of size diversification and heterochrony in primates and other organisms are designed to provide further insight into the complex relationships between ontogeny and phylogeny.

Publications:

Shea, B.T., and Bailey, R.C. (1996). Allometry and adaptation of body proportions and stature in African Pygmies. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 100:311-340.

Shea, B.T. (1992). Developmental perspective on size change and allometry in evolution. Evolutionary Anthropology 1: 125-134.

Shea, B.T., Hammer, R.E., Brinster, R.L. and Ravosa, M.J. (1987) Relative growth of the skull and postcranium in giant transgenic mice. Genetical Research 56:21-34.

View Publications by Brian Shea listed in the National Library of Medicine (PubMed).

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