New Advanced Course offering in Biology for the Spring Semester

The biology Department is pleased to announce a new course offering for the spring 2017 session.  The BIOL 4086 problems course is entitled Endocrine and Reproductive Physiology and will be presented by James L Caffrey, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus from the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth. Dr. Caffrey has more than 30 years experience teaching in this topic area at the undergraduate, graduate and medical level.  He has been recognized in the past for his didactic classroom skills. The course will cover basic physiology, biochemistry and clinical aspects of the human endocrine and reproductive systems.  The target audience would include pre-professional students contemplating careers in the medical, veterinary, nursing and allied health disciplines, advanced undergraduates and graduate students in biology and any other biomedical students with a personal or research interest in the topic area.  Because of the broad nature of endocrinology a prior backgrounds in biochemistry, physiology, cell biology and related subjects will be helpful.

Caitlin Pyle and Mammals of Texas' Newest State Park

The work of graduate student Caitlin Pyle, mentored by her adviser Dr. Chris Higgins, is highlighted in the Winter 2015 issue of Tarleton Magazine.  Caitlin surveyed the mammals of Palo Pinto State Park to provide information that will guide conservation planners.  Read the story here.

Biological Field Station at Timberlake Ranch

See what's going on at the Tarleton Biological Field Station at Timberlake Ranch!

Students return from Puerto Rico

Five students recently returned from a study abroad trip to Puerto Rico, led by Drs. Chris Higgins and Jesse Meik.  The goal of the Tropical Ecology course was to introduce students to the diverse ecosystems found on tropical islands and how humans can maintain sustainable use of these important ecological systems. Students were able to survey biodiversity in the only rainforest in the US Forest System, repel down waterfalls, zip line through the forest canopy, kayak through a mangrove forest into a bioluminescent bay, explore cave and sinkhole formations, snorkel in pristine waters, and visit various nature reserves along the way.

Something's fishy! Student/faculty research published

The culmination of two students' research, Allison Love-Snyder (grad student) and Wesley Weigreffe (undergrad student), was recently published. Allison and Wesley were mentored by Drs. Chris Higgins and Russell Pfau.

Higgins CL, Love-Snyder A, Wiegreffe W, Pfau RS. 2015. Lack of Hybridization between Naturally Sympatric Populations of Red and Blacktail Shiner (Cyprinella lutrensis and C. venusta) in Texas, but Evidence of Introgression among Three Lineages of the C. lutrensis Species Group. Copeia, 103:272-280.

Grad students successfully defend theses

Congratulations to the following grad students who successfully defended their theses this semester!

Kryztal M. Medina Torres: “Taxonomic and functional changes in the metacommunity structure of stream-fish assemblages in Texas from 1988-2009.”

Erica Hammond: "Assessment of Various Dairy Cattle Manure-based Media for Laboratory Rearing of Stable Flies (Stomoxys calcitrans (L.))"

Kelly Hammond: "Aqueous Plant Extracts Effect on Stomoxys calcitrans (L.)"

Nathan Elrod: "The use of silver nanoparticles to develop a Tacaribe virus vaccine in mice"

Jacob Owen: "Ecological Studies of Squamate Reptiles in Northeastern Swaziland"

Fall 2014 TriBeta Inductees

Congratulations to the following students who were inducted into the Sigma Delta chapter of Beta Beta Beta, the biological honor society: Regular members include Leah Woolam, Amy Sarcinella, Lindsey Zamudio, and Renato Rios.  Associate members include Joseph Hamlin Elizabeth Gilliland, Jesse Brown and, Katherine Koock.

Dr. Meik and colleagues document endogenous viral elements in rattlesnake genome

Dr. Jesse Meik, together with several of his colleagues, recently published the results of their exploration of the rattlesnake genome in which they documented, for the first time, several kinds of endogenous viral elements (EVEs).  EVEs are genetic 'fossils' resulting from viruses becoming incorporated into an organism's genome millions of years ago.  Understanding EVEs can reveal many things about viruses and host-virus interactions. 

Endogenous hepadnaviruses, bornaviruses and circoviruses in snakes
Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences, 2014

2014 Publications: Dr. Chris Higgins

López-González, C., S.J Presley, A. Lozano, R.D. Stevens, and C.L. Higgins. 2014. Ecological biogeography of Mexican bats: the relative contributions of habitat heterogeneity, beta diversity, and environmental gradients to species richness and composition patterns. Ecography - Online Early DOI: 10.1111/ecog.00813.

De la Sancha, N.U., C.L. Higgins, S.J. Presley, and R.E. Strauss. 2014. Metacommunity structure in a highly fragmented forest: has deforestation in the Atlantic Forest altered historic biogeographic patterns? Diversity and Distributions - Online Early DOI: 10.1111/ddi.12210. [pdf]

Lange, J.R., R.M. Harp, J.M. Cadle, R.S. Tarpley, C.L. Higgins, and B.D. Lambert. 2014. Lunar influence on post-castration performance of baby piglets. The Texas Journal of Agriculture and Natural Resources 27:1-12. [pdf]

Erős, T., P. Takács, P. Sály, C.L. Higgins, P. Bíró, and D. Schmera. 2014. Quantifying temporal variability in the metacommunity structure of stream fishes: the influence of non-native species and environmental drivers. Hydrobiologia 722: 31-43. [pdf]

Student co-authors publication

Kalee Smith, an undergraduate majoring in Biology with a Wildlife and Environmental emphasis, has had a paper accepted for publication in The Texas Journal of Science, coauthored with Dr. Allan Nelson and Dr. Jim Goetze.  The paper is entitled, “Range extensions and county records for vascular plants from Mills County, Texas”.  Kalee collected plants, made voucher specimens, helped prepare the manuscript, and recorded data for specimens located at Tarleton State University Herbarium.  Kalee has also been involved in entering data from the plant collections at Tarleton on the worldwide web at the Consortium of the Northern Great Plains Herbaria.  This consortium is partnered with Integrated Digitized Biocollections (IDigBio), which is funded by the National Science Foundation.  For information about the herbarium at Tarleton and the consortium, follow this link.