The Kenaley Lab in Boston College’s Department of Biology is devoted to comparative research in the fields of biomechanics, functional morphology, systematics, and physiology. In particular, we are interested in what physical and physiological properties contribute to feeding and swimming diversity in fishes, the largest group of vertebrates. We take a number of different approaches in this work, including studies of material properties of tissues, biomechanical modeling, respirometry, and comparative methods.
Research Areas
Feeding
We study the biomechanical basis of feeding in ray-finned fishes. Our work combines experiments with live fishes with computational and biorobotic models.
Swimming Physiology & Biomechanics
We study the metabolic costs associated with diverse swimming modes found in fishes and how musculoskeletal and dermal tissues contribute to locomotion.
Molecular Evolution
We seek to understand the molecular and genomic basis of phenotypic diversification in fishes, including visual systems in the deep-sea, where selective forces have shaped visual pigment evolution.
Biodiversity & Systematics
We explore diversity through collections-based taxonomic revisions and phylogenetic inference of ray-finned fishes—with a focus on groups whose relationships and species richness is poorly understood.