Last updated: November 2024

Latest News

3.4.2025: Lab begins research at City Lake
Students in the Devo Eco Lab began a population study of salamanders at a local park: City Lake Natural Area. The objective is to learn about the life-history phenology of the 5 common species of salamander which inhabit the area. We will be monitoring populations monthly over the course of an entire year to learn more about the timing of important events related to reproduction. 

8.14.2024: Julia defends her thesis
Julia Thulander successfully defended her thesis: Embryonic temperature has carry-over effects on body size, development time, and larval survival in the Streamside Salamander. She's now moved on to a job in the Whited Lab at Harvard University. Congratulations, Julia! 

7.10.2024: Lab attends JMIH, Pittsburgh
Julia Thulander, Cindy Scruggs, and I attended the Joint Meeting of Ichthyology and Herpetology in Pittsburgh, PA. Julia gave a talk and Cindy presented a poster concerning their research in the lab. We also had an opportunity to visit the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 

5.3.2024: First graduate of the Devo Eco Lab

Haley Oakley received her MS degree in biology, becoming the first graduate student to matriculate through the laboratory. Her thesis, The effects of food availability on seasonal changes in reproduction and energy allocation in the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus), describes her foundational work on the reproductive ecology of a common lizard in Tennessee. Great job, Haley!

04.18.2024: Best student poster award

Congrats to Kaitlyn Darnell for winning the best undergraduate poster in biology at the 2024 TTU Research and Creative Inquiry Day! She presented her work on streamside salamander metabolism: "A novel application of membrane inlet mass spectrometry to study larval physiology of the Streamside Salamander (Ambystoma barbouri)"

11.18.2023: First Student-Authored Paper 

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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

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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

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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