College of Arts & Sciences Biology

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John G. Swallow, Assoc. Professor & Assoc. Chair

 John Swallow Office Location: Churchill-Haines 179
Office Phone: 605-677-6176
E-mail Address: jswallow@usd.edu
Personal Web Site 

 

Education

  • Ph.D. (Zoology) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998
  • M.S. (Conservation Biology) University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1994
  • B.A. (Biology and Liberal Arts & Sciences) Utah State University, 1992

Courses Taught

  • General Biology I
  • Comparative Physiology
  • Animal Behavior

Research Description

My research fits under the broad context of evolutionary physiology, focusing largely on how morphology, physiology and behavior have evolved. Correlated evolution of phenotypic characters and its complexity has been noted since the time of Darwin (1859): "The whole organism is so tied together that when slight variations in one part occur, and are accumulated through natural selection, other parts become modified. This is a most important subject, most imperfectly understood."  In particular, how behavior coadapts (i.e., responds jointly to selection) with morphology or underlying physiology has rarely been studied. 

One area of my research interests focuses on correlated evolution between exercise physiology and locomotor behavior because the performance abilities of animals are thought to be central to their survival and fitness. More recently, I have initiated research investigating how evolution driven by sexual selection (e.g., ornamentation that serves as secondary sexual signals) conflicts with locomotor performance and, ultimately, fitness using stalk-eyed flies as a model system. Sexual selection provides a selective engine with the ability to drive large changes in suites of behavioral, physiological and morphological characters with the potential for rapid speciation.

Representative Publications  

  • Brandt, Y. and J.G. Swallow. 2009. "Do the elongated eye stalks of diopsid flies facilitate rival assessment?" Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 63:1243-1246.
  • Swallow, J.G., J. P. Hayes, P. Koteja, T. Garland, Jr. 2009 (in press). "Selection experiments and experimental evolution of performance and physiology." In Garland, T., Jr., and M. R. Rose, eds. 2009. Experimental evolution: concepts, methods, and applications of selection experiments. University of California Press, Berkeley, California.
  • Ribak, G., A.R. Egge, and J.G. Swallow. 2009. "Saccadic head rotations during walking in the stalk-eyed fly (Cyrtodiopsis dalmanni)." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B 276:1643-1649.
  • Waters, R.P., K.J. Renner, R.B. Pringle, C.H. Summers, S.L. Britton, L.G. Koch, and J.G. Swallow. 2008. "Selection for aerobic capacity affects corticosterone, monoamines and wheel-running activity." Physiology & Behavior 93: 1044-1054.
  • Ribak, G. and J.G. Swallow. 2007. "Free flight maneuvers of stalk-eyed flies: do eye stalks limit aerial turning behavior?"  Journal of Comparative Physiology A 193: 1065-1079

(more publications)