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Last updated: November 2023

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11.18.2023: First Student-Authored Paper

Graduate student Julia Thulander has just published the first student-authored paper from the Devo Eco Lab! In this paper, published in Reptiles & Amphibians, Julia presents the first record of transient albinism in the streamside salamander along with a thorough literature review of abnormal color morphs in salamanders of the genus Ambystoma. Congrats to Julia.

9.29.2023: Tennessee Herp Conference

My students and I attended the annual meeting of the Tennessee Herpetological Society in Union City, TN at the Discovery Park of America. Two undergraduates (Lydia Dudley, Kaitlyn Darnell) and two graduate students (Haley Oakley, Julia Thulander) presented research as a poster or talk. The meeting was very productive and the icing on the cake was stopping at Big Cypress Tree State Park on the way home (one of my favorite places to 'sala-meander') to find some cool Ambystoma!

7.16.2023: Students attend JMIH

This summer, two students from the Devo Eco Lab presented research at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyology and Herpetology (JMIH) in Virginia. Graduate student Julia Thulander presented work regarding thermal adaptation of streamside salamanders, and Tatyana Natal presented her undergraduate work on the effects of incubation temperature on hatchling morphology in the streamside salamander. We are very proud of these students for their research and for presenting work at such a large, respected conference!

7.1.2023: Salamander Summer

This summer we have hosted many friends and colleagues, each looking to have a slimy part of Tennessee. Luckily, we have been able to deliver in every event.

9.30.2022: Tennessee Herp Conference

Congrats to Julia Thulander for securing this year's TN Herp Society Student Research Grant (Chadwick Lewis Memorial Grant) and to Lydia Dudley for winning a society travel grant! Lydia presented a poster describing results of her summer project on the interactive effects of moisture availability and heat stress on Sceloporus undulatus embryo development.

7.22.2022: Cover for July Issue of Int. Zool

Cool paper concerning the effects of natural incubation substrates and soil water content on embryo development. We got the cover photo for this edition of the journal Integrative Zoology: a brown anole hatching from the egg! Read the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1749-4877.12553

4.30.2022: New Paper in Herp Con Bio

I've published a new study on the effects of Hurricanes on nesting ecology of Marbled Salamander (Ambystoma opacum). The number of intense hurricanes has been increasing and will likely do so into the foreseeable future and in this study I opportunistically monitored the effects of multiple hurricanes on a population of salamanders in Alabama. I also provide a review of the effects of hurricanes on amphibians. www.herpconbio.org/Volume_17/Issue_1/Hall_2022.pdf

9.22.2021: Interview with Methods in EE

I am really passionate about conducting co-reviews with students to increase the integrity of the peer-review process and help train future reviewers/scientists. I was recently interviewed about co-reviewing practices for the Methods Blog, the official blog for the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution. You can read the full blog here.

2.15.2021: Shortlist for J Exp Bio Best Paper

My paper entitled "Ecologically relevant thermal fluctuations enhance offspring fitness: biological and methodological implications for studies of thermal developmental plasticity" was chosen as 1 of 12 papers to complete for the 2020 Most Outstanding Paper award for the Journal of Experimental Biology: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.242266. Though I did not win, being counted among the best papers for the year is an honor.

10.13.2020: Salamander Story Time

My favorite book as a child was The Salamander Room which tells the story of a young boy who turns his room into a forest to make his new pet salamander feel at home. I recently read this book to the Jr. Scientists at Alabama's first STEM Preschool - Auburn Day School. I brought along some of my favorite salamander friends to make the book come alive.

10.9.2020: Featured article

One of my recently published papers has been featured in the Journal of Experimental Biology's "Inside JEB". These papers are selected by the editorial staff, and a summary is written for a general audience and a cartoon is made that illustrates the main findings of the study. The summary can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.235473

2.26.2020: Salameandering Tuskegee

My little buddy, Grayson, and I went looking for salamanders in Tuskegee National Forest. We were accompanied by Jenna Pruett and Abby Beatty. We found lots of marbled salamanders and one huge spider! Grayson also got bit by a green anole for the first time. He took it like a true herpetologist! Thanks to Jenna for taking these great photos of the adventure.

01.10.2020: Lizards of New Zealand

My wife and I had an awesome time in New Zealand for the World Congress of Herpetology. I made several new friends and forged new collaborations at the conference, and we got to see some awesome wildlife along the way. With some crazy luck, I was able to hold a Tuatara and find a jeweled gecko in the wild. Despite the relatively cold weather, it turned out to be a good trip for spotting lizards.

6.10.2019: Sala-meandering the Smokies

There are few things I enjoy more than wandering around looking for salamanders (i.e. "sala-meandering"). For decades, I have returned to a particular spot on the Appalachian Trail in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains to search for some of the region's most amazing salamanders. What makes it even better as I get older is that my children are finally big enough to tag along! Sala-meandering is now an official past-time of the Hall Clan.

10.20.2018: Salamander Days in Alabama

There is no better day I can imagine than one spent wandering through a hardwood swamp looking for salamanders. I enjoy this more and more as I grow older, and the joy only increases when I get to do it with my two favorite people: Hazel and Gray. Today we found several marbled salamanders making their way to their breeding grounds in Tuskegee National Forest.

11.24.17: Big Cypress Tree State Park

Due to my incredible disdain for consumerism (and my "surly hatred of progress" - Ed Abbey), I take a crew of friends to Big Cypress Tree State Park every year on Black Friday. We spend 3-4 hours wandering wistfully through the swampy hardwood forest looking for cypress trees and salamanders. This year I was privileged to be in the company of my good friends Putter Tiatragul, Jordan Brasher, and my daughter Hazel. We found three of the four winter salamander species that inhabit the park (marbled, small-mouth, and mole). I faithfully take this yearly pilgrimage because I believe in a very simple truth: the world would be a better place if people cared more about cypress trees and salamanders than door-buster deals.

Developmental ecophysiology