Kurt Schwenk

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Professor

Contact Information

Schwenk.lg.jpg

Office: BioPharmacy 600
Voice: (860) 486-0351
Fax: (860) 486-6364
E-mail: kurt.schwenk@uconn.edu

Home page:
under construction

Mailing address:
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Connecticut
75 N. Eagleville Road, U-3043
Storrs, CT 06269

Major Research Interests

Cooperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) tongue-flicking. Photo by K. Schwenk and C. Smith.

Phenotypic evolution
Evolutionary constraint
Evolutionary and functional morphology of vertebrates
Evolutionary and functional morphology of feeding in tetrapod vertebrates, especially squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes)
Evolutionary and functional morphology of chemoreception in squamate reptiles
Evolutionary and functional morphology of the vertebrate tongue

My research program is three-pronged: I pursue empirical studies related to the functional and evolutionary morphology of squamate feeding and chemoreception and theoretical work related to phenotypic evolution and evolutionary constraint. Feeding and chemoreception are functionally and evolutionarily related in squamates owing to their shared use of a single, complex organ, the tongue. From a biomechanical point of view, a tongue form optimized for feeding function makes optimization for (vomeronasal) chemosensory function virtually impossible, and vice versa. Thus, there is an evolutioinary 'tension' between the two principal sources of selection pressure on the tongue and phylogenetic analysis reveals how each major clade of squamates has found a unique 'solution' to this evolutionary problem. It is the dynamic nature of this evolutionary tension that has led to my theoretical work on evolutionary constraint. Feeding and chemosensory systems character comlexes that manifest the system-level properties of 'hierarchy', 'functional integration', 'internal selection', 'trade-off' and 'emergence', and it is these attributes that make them amenable to theoretical analysis and generalization.

Information for Potential Graduate Students

Happy graduate student, Tobias Landberg, in the lab

Students in my laboratory develop their own, independent research programs under my supervision. Although I expect there to be some overlap or mutual interest in student projects, I do not require students to work in my specific research areas. Ideally students will incorporate elements of morphology, evolution and function into their projects. Purely ecological or conservation-related projects are discouraged (because they lie outside my areas of expertise), although these can be elements of research program centered on the former topics. Although I am best able to supervise work on squamate reptiles, I am open to projects dealing with any vertebrate group. Although I mostly do laboratory-based work, recent graduate students have included significant field components in their research. Although I prefer to consider doctoral students, doing a Masters is also possible.

The Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn is very integrative and interactive, and there is a great deal of cross-fertilization among labs. The deparment contains 30 full-time faculty all of whom work in the general area of organismal biology. In addition, there are an additional 55 or so biologists in our sister departments of Physiology and Neurobiology, and Molecular and Cell Biology - and this is not to mention a variety of wildlife biologists in the Ag School. Thus, there is virtually no area of expertise unavailable to students when they put together their research advisory committees.

There are seven vertebrate biology faculty in the department (4 herpetology, 2 ornithology, 1 ichthyology) and along with graduate and undergraduate students, constitute a very active and interactive research group. We have informal weekly meetings called 'vertlunch' in which we read and critique recent papers (and laugh a lot) and every Friday at 4:00 the Schwenk and Rubega labs meet for 'beermorph' in which - well, it's pretty self-explanatory.

Sample Lab Publications

A helmeted iguana, Corytophanes hernandezii, in Belize. Photo by K. Hurme.

Books:

Schwenk, K. (editor) (2000) Feeding: Form, Function and Evolution in Tetrapod Vertebrates. Academic Press, San Diego. xv + 537 pp.

Schwenk, K. and G. P. Wagner. Evolutionary Constraint. Princeton Univ. Press. (in preparation)

Edited compilation:

Schwenk, K., and J. M. Starck (eds.) (2005) Integrative organismal biology: papers in honor of Professor Marvalee H. Wake. Zoology 108(4):261-356.

Papers:

Smith C. F., G. W. Schuett, R. L. Earley, and K. Schwenk. The spatial and reproductive ecology of copperheads, Agkistrodon contortrix (Serpentes: Viperidae), at the northeastern extreme of their range. (submitted)

Filoramo, N., and K. Schwenk. The mechanism of chemical delivery to the vomeronasal organs in squamate reptiles. (submitted)

Sherbrooke, W. C.,* and K. Schwenk.* (2008) Horned lizards (Phrynosoma) incapacitate dangerous ant prey with mucus. Journal of Experimental Zoology A. In press. (*authorship equally shared)

Smith, C. F., K. Schwenk, R. L. Earley and G. W. Schuett (2008) Sexual size dimorphism of the tongue in a North American pitviper. Journal of Zoology 274:367-374.

Schwenk, K. (2008) Comparative anatomy and physiology of chemical senses in non-avian aquatic reptiles. In: Sensory Evolution on the Threshold. Adaptations in Secondarily Aquatic Vertebrates. J. G. M. Thewissen and S. Nummela (eds.). Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. Pp. 65-81.

Eisthen, H., and Schwenk, K. (2008) The chemical stimulus and its detection. In: Sensory Evolution on the Threshold. Adaptations in Secondarily Aquatic Vertebrates. J. G. M. Thewissen and S. Nummela (eds.). Univ. of California Press, Berkeley. Pp. 35-41.