Thomas Eiting
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- OEB Ph.D. Candidate
B.S., University of Texas Austin, 2004
M.S., University of Michigan 2006
Faculty Advisor: Betsy Dumont
tpeiting@bio.umass.edu
Research Interests
Functional morphology and evolution of the nose of bats
In general, my main interests lie in understanding the evolution of form and function in mammals. Bats make an excellent group to study the form-function relationship among mammals because they are species-rich and they are morphologically and ecologically diverse. In particular, I am interested in the morphology and functional demands of the nasal passages of bats. Like most other mammals, the bat nose serves important respiratory and olfactory functions. Unlike other mammals, however, several groups of bats also transmit high-frequency echolocation calls through their noses. This novel function likely has morphological and functional demands on the internal passages of the nose. Using anatomical data, computational fluid dynamics, and phylogenetic comparative methods, my research focuses on testing ideas regarding morphological optimization and functional trade-offs in the nasal passages of bats.
319 Morrill S. 
