An introduction from Donald Fowler:

I am an evolutionary embryologist primarily studying the development and evolution of the head/neck anatomy. I just graduated from my PhD at McGill University with Prof. Hans C. E. Larsson studying limb development. During my PhD I spent a lot of time honing 3D imaging skills to be able to image the tissue developing within the limb. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time thinking about those tissues. Development is a story about time and change, and I worked on how limb tissues change to become the arms and legs seen on all types of vertebrate animals. I also have a M.Sc. from Leiden University, where I studied in the lab of Prof. Michael K. Richardson on the expression patterns of Hox genes during limb development of birds and crocodiles. These gene indicate and help direct the orientation and pattern of our arms and legs. I’m excited to help Prof. Maddin explore how development and its resulting anatomy guides and directs change over long evolutionary timescales.

Selection of Publications:

Fowler, Donald A., Michael B. Filla, Charles D. Little, Brenda J. Rongish, and Hans C. E. Larsson 2018 “Chapter 2 – Live tissue antibody injection: A novel method for imaging ECM in limb buds and other tissues” In R. P. Mecham (Ed.), Methods in Cell Biology (Vol. 143, pp. 41-56): Academic Press.

de Bakker, Merijn AG, Donald A. Fowler, Kelly den Oude, Esther M. Dondorp, M. Carmen Garrido Navas, Jaroslaw O. Horbanczuk, Jean-Yves Sire, Danuta Szczerbińska, and Michael K. Richardson. 2013 “Digit loss in archosaur evolution and the interplay between selection and constraints.” Nature 500, no. 7463: 445-448.

Maxwell, Erin E., Torsten M. Scheyer, and Donald A. Fowler. 2013 “An evolutionary and developmental perspective on the loss of regionalization in the limbs of derived ichthyosaurs.” Geological Magazine: 1-12.

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