I am interested in predator-prey interactions and chemical ecology. Natural selection can be particularly powerful in these life-or-death struggles, and I am fascinated by the variety of venoms and poisons that have evolved, as well as by the corresponding physiological and behavioral counter-adaptations to this wicked weaponry. I study the blue-ring octopus and its mantis shrimp predators and prey, as well as a poisonous salamander common on the California coast and its toxin-resistant garter snake predator. Both the salamander and the octopus have the deadly neurotoxin tetrodotoxin (TTX). The hypothesis is that TTX is produced by symbiotic bacteria, at least in some marine taxa. I am currently examining this proposition in the octopuses, so my focus on chemistry has taken me from herpetology, to malacology, to bacterial genetics! Who knows what the future holds?
Peer Reviewed Articles
Chemical
Defense in Pelagic Octopus Paralarvae: Tetrodotoxin Alone Does Not Protect
Individual Paralarvae of the Greater Blue-ringed Octopus (Hapalochlaena Lunulata)
From Common Reef Predators (with V. Lovenburg, C. L. Huffard, and R. L. Caldwell), Chemoecology (2011)
Ontogeny of
Tetrodotoxin Levels in Blue-ringed Octopuses: Maternal Investment and Apparent
Independent Production in Offspring of Hapalochlaena Lunulata (with C. T. Hanifin, E. D. Brodie Jr., and R. L. Caldwell), Journal of Chemical Ecology (2011)
Behavioral and Chemical Ecology of Marine Organisms with Respect to Tetrodotoxin, Marine Drugs (2010)
Tetrodotoxin
(TTX) Affects Survival Probability of Rough Skinned Newts (Taricha granulosa)
Faced with TTX-Resistant Garter Snake Predators (Thamnophis sirtalis) (with C. T. Hanifin, E. D. Brodie Jr., and E. D. Brodie III), Chemoecology (2010)
Distribution of Tetrodotoxin in Blue-Ringed Octopuses and the Hunt for Tetrodotoxin-Producing Symbiotic Bacteria, The Malacologist (2009)
Other Contributions
Lampropeltis triangulum (Milk
Snake) Habitat (with K. Setser and D. G. Mulcahy), Herpetological Review (2003)
Status of Two Bufonid Frogs and Evaluation of Their Distributional Records in
the Northeastern Bonneville Basin With a New County Record in Idaho (with D. G. Mulcahy, M. R. Cummer, M. R. Mendelson III, and P. C. Ustach), Herpetological Review (2002)
Presentations
Talk and Poster Given for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Biology Faculty Publications (2011)
Talk given for Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Biology Faculty Publications (2010)
Talk given for the World Congress of Herpetology Invited Symposium, Biology Faculty Publications (2008)
Talk given at Joint Meetings: American Malacological Society, Western Society of
Malacologists, Biology Faculty Publications (2006)