Gerry, Shannon - Fairfield University

个人简介

Dr. Shannon Gerry earned her B.S. in Biology from Bucknell University where she studied sensory adaptations of freshwater stingrays. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Rhode Island. Her dissertation research compared the feeding mechanics, diet and behaviors of two species of sharks from Narragansett Bay, RI. Following graduation, Dr. Gerry taught Anatomy and Physiology as a visiting professor at Arcadia University. She then accepted a position as a NSF-funded postdoctoral researcher at Wellesley College working with Dr. David Ellerby to investigate the energetic requirements of fish swimming, trade-offs in swimming performance in a population of bluegill sunfish and the mechanical properties of leech muscle. Dr. Gerry joined the Biology department faculty at Fairfield University as an Assistant Professor in 2011 and was granted tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2016.

研究领域

Feeding and locomotion are two behaviors that are essential to organismal survival; searching for food or avoiding being eaten can literally be a matter of life or death. My research program focuses on generalist versus specialist adaptations and how these adaptations can constrain or improve feeding or locomotor performance. Many animals can be specialized for feeding or locomotion based on their anatomy (skeletal or muscular), behavior, physiology or mechanics. As a functional morphologist and biomechanist, I am interested in the integration of these types of specializations within a single organism and how these traits may have evolved from a more generalized form. I have primarily used elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) or bony fishes for my research because these are some of the most basal vertebrates and may provide insight as to the possible origin of specialized structures. My students and I are currently studying the influence of body shape on a population of bluegill sunfish that have diverged in their swimming and feeding behaviors.

近期论文

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Gerry, S.P., Belden III, J.A., Bisaccia, M.J., George, K.A., Mahoney, T.M. and Ellerby D.J. 2016. Scaling of the fast-start escape response of juvenile bluegills. Zoology. Gerry, S.P, Ellerby, D.J. 2014. Resolving shifting patterns of muscle energy use in swimming fish. PLoSOne 9(8): e106030. Gerry, S.P., Vogelzang, M., Ascher, J.M. and Ellerby, D.J. 2013. Variation in the diet and feeding morphology of polyphenic Lepomis macrochirus. Journal of Fish Biology 82(1):338-346. Gerry, S.P., Robbins, A. and Ellerby, D.J. 2012. Intraspecific variation in fast-start performance of bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus). Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. 85(6):694-703. Gerry, S.P., Daigle, A., Feilich, K.F., Liao, J., Oston, A.L. and Ellerby, D.J. 2012. Serotonin as an integrator of leech behavior and muscle mechanical performance. Zoology. 115:255-260. Ellerby, D.J. and Gerry, S.P. 2011. Sympatric divergence and performance trade-offs of bluegill ecomorphs. Evolutionary Biology. 38(4):422-433. Gerry, S.P. and Ellerby, D.J. 2011. Serotonin modulates muscle function in the medicinal leech Hirudo verbana. Biology Letters. 7:885-888. Gerry S.P., Wang J. and Ellerby D.J. 2011. A new approach to quantifying morphological variation in bluegill Lepomis macrochirus. Journal of Fish Biology 78(4), 1023-1034. Gerry, S.P. and Scott, A.J. 2010. Shark scavenging behavior in the presence of competition. Current Zoology 56(1): 100-108. Gerry, S.P., Summers, A.P., Wilga, C.D. and Dean, M.N. 2010. Pairwise modulation of jaw muscle activity in two species of elasmobranchs. Journal of Zoology. 281(4): 282-292. Hayashi, M., Gerry, S.P. and Ellerby, D.J. 2010. The seed dispersal catapault of Cardamine parviflora is efficient but unreliable. American Journal of Botany. 97(10): 1-7. Gerry, S.P., Ramsay, J.B., Dean, M.N. and Wilga, C.D. 2008. Asynchrony in paired muscle motor activity. Integrative and Comparative Biology 48:272-282. Raschi, W.G. and Gerry, S. 2003. Adaptations in the elasmobranch electroreceptive system. In: Fish Adaptations, A.L. Val and B.G. Kapoor, eds. Enfield, NH: Scientific Publishers, Inc. p 233-258.