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Hirasawa Lab
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A lab that explores the evolution of vertebrates through fossils and embryonic development.
AboutAbout the lab
Exploring how evolution works through fossils and development.
The Hirasawa Lab combines paleontology and evolutionary developmental biology to study the evolution of animals with backbones (vertebrates).
The fossil record shows that the forms of living things have not changed at a uniform rate, but have repeatedly alternated between periods of stasis and periods of abrupt change.
The lab investigates the reasons for this pattern from two sides: external factors such as environmental change, and internal factors in the form of developmental constraints, which arise from how the body is built.
Centered on detailed analysis of fossil specimens and developmental biology experiments at the gene and cell level, the lab also carries out fieldwork to collect fossils and international collaborative research.
Key terms
- Evolutionary developmental biology
- A field that compares the process by which a body forms from a fertilized egg (development) to explore how the forms of living things have evolved
- Developmental constraints
- Limits on the direction and range of changes that can occur in evolution, imposed by the properties of how the body is built
- Embryonic development
- The process in which a fertilized egg repeatedly divides and the body takes shape
ResearchResearch themes
Aiming for interdisciplinary research that addresses both external and internal factors together, the lab works on the evolution of vertebrate skeletal muscles (especially limb muscles), the evolution of respiratory organs, and the anatomical reconstruction of fossil species based on comparative anatomy. By comparing embryonic development in extant organisms and conducting experiments that manipulate developmental processes, the lab seeks to clarify the true nature of developmental constraints.
*Illustrative imageMass Extinctions and Evolvability
The fossil record shows that the forms of living things have evolved through repeated alternation of stasis and abrupt change. How developmental constraints have influenced this evolutionary pattern, and whether mass extinctions gave rise to evolvability, remain largely unexplored questions.
*Illustrative imageExperimentally Probing the Nature of Developmental Constraints
Through comparative analyses of embryonic development and experiments that manipulate developmental processes, the lab approaches the true nature of developmental constraints. It works on the evolution of vertebrate limb muscles and respiratory organs, and on reconstructing the bodies of fossil species.
MembersFaculty
- Associate ProfessorTatsuya HirasawaPublications ↗
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Palaeospondylus CMC” Skye McDavid / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Mass Extinctions and Evolvability: “Canowindra fossil fish slab (cast)” Bloopityboop / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Experimentally Probing the Nature of Developmental Constraints: “Chicken-embryo-1week old-stereomicroscope” Ben Skála / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Sasaki Lab): “Rapana venosa MHNT” Didier Descouens / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Ikeda Lab): “Ribbon chert of the Marin Headlands Terrane, exposed at Marshall's Beach, San Francisco” Callanbentley / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Tajika Lab): “Snowball Huronian” Oleg Kuznetsov - 3depix - http://3depix.com/ / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Suzuki Lab): “BlackSmoker” W.R. Normark, Dudley Foster / Public domain (cropped)
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