Swalla, Billie

My lab's goal is to understand the evolution of the chordate body plan, a complex problem that requires interdisciplinary research. As vertebrates, we are chordates, but there are also several groups of invertebrate chordates that we study for clues to our evolution. We combine methods and approaches in phylogenetics, development, ecology and evolution to study the evolution of the chordate body plan from a deuterostome ancestor. Recently, we are also studying hemichordates, as they appear to be the closest extant animal to what we believe the ancestral deuterostome was. Hemichordates are also cool because they can completely regenerate their anterior proboscis after being cut in half. We are studying regeneration of the central nervous system in ptychderid hemichordates.  We currently believe that the deuterostome ancestor was a burrowing worm, with gill slits and a cartilaginous skeleton.