HOLLIDAY LAB
The Holliday lab’s research focuses on the functional morphology and 
macroevolution of vertebrates with emphases on Cranial evolution and Connective Tissue Biology. Find more extensive content from the lab at it’s main University of Missouri site.
The lab’s primary goal is to understand the structural, biomechanical, and evolutionary patterns of the feeding apparatus in reptiles (turtles, lepidosaurs, crocodyliforms, and dinosaurs [the avian and non-avian kinds]). We study extant taxa to understand not only how living animals function but also how these animals evolved; therefore, incorporating fossil taxa into comparative and historical analyses is a common practice . The evolution of the modern crocodylian and avian conditions are common themes in the lab. We employ classical anatomical 
techniques including dissection, histology, and vascular injection. These are coupled with CT scanning, MRI, Light, Confocal, and Polarizing Microscopy, and other imaging modalities that are analyzed with software packages that enable 3D visualization, reconstruction, and analysis of anatomical and histomorphological structures.
General project themes include:
• Anatomy, evolution, and ecology of feeding in living and extinct reptiles
• Skeletal tissue structure, function, and physiology in lizards
• The evolution and significance of cranial kinesis
• Braincase and orbitotemporal evolution in amniotes
• Peripheral sensory evolution in crocodyliforms
The Holliday Lab is in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. We are members of the Integrative Anatomy Graduate Program and Veterinary Pathobiology Area Group at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Check us out.
