Dr Emma Sherratt

LECTURER
e: emma.sherratt@gmail.com
w: www.emmasherratt.com

Click here for CV

List of Publications

Research interests

Evolutionary Biology (Macroevolution)
Biomechanics and Functional Morphology
Theory and Application of Geometric Morphometrics
Computed Tomography
Vertebrate biology, particularly reptiles and amphibians

Research Overview
Software
Supervision
Outreach & Synergistic Activities

I am an evolutionary biologist, focused on developing and applying comparative methods and morphometric tools to studying phenotypic evolution. I research macroevolutionary trends in the morphological evolution of vertebrates to understand the factors responsible for biodiversity.

My empirical research has covered reptiles and amphibians, mammals and recently, molluscs. I apply my expertise in 3D digital imaging (micro-CT, surface scanning and microscopy) to characterising morphological variation. I use these data to contribute to systematics (taxonomy) and phylogenetics. And I also use these data with phylogenetic comparative methods to study macroevolution.

I am also interested in theoretical evolutionary biology: I am starting to develop morphometric and comparative tools to quantitatively assess phenotypic variation in a macroevolutionary context. In particular, I am working to better integrate 3D digital reconstructions of anatomy with morphometrics and functional biology and phylogenetic comparative methods.

I am co-developer of free software R-package ‘geomorph’ for geometric morphometrics (cran.r-project.org/web/packages/geomorph/index.html). I write and curate the functions for I/O, digitizing landmark data on 2D images and 3D surface models, and visualisations for shape deformation.
http://www.geomorph.net/

Adams DC, Collyer M., Otarola-Castillo E, Sherratt E. 2014. geomorph: Software for geometric morphometric analyses. R package version 2.1: cran.r-project.org/web/packages/geomorph/index.html.
RESEARCH STUDENTS:

2013-2014 Kelsey Cain, B.Sc. Student, Iowa State University
2012 Simon Le Boulh, Visiting Masters Student, Harvard University
2012 Jasmine Casart, B.Sc. Student, Harvard University
2010 George Bruce, B.Sc. Student, University of Manchester
2009 Martin Hughes, Masters Student, The Natural History Museum, London (Co-supervised with Dr. D.J. Gower)
Sherratt, E. (2012) They’ve kept on keeping on: a review of Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms by R. Fortey. Science 338:46.
Sherratt, E. (2012) Is it a snake? Is it a worm? No it's a caecilian! Biological Sciences Review. 24(4):17-23.
Sherratt, E. (2009) New Generation Curation! Digital Specimen archiving by micro-CT. Annual Report of the Department of Zoology 2008-2009. Edited by C. Patterson, The Natural History Museum, London.
Gower, D.J., Sherratt, E., Wilkinson, M. (2009) A Pilot Study of the Systematics and Ecology of Caecilian Amphibians of the Station de Recherche des Nouragues. Nouragues Research Station 2008 Annual Report (http://www.nouragues.cnrs.fr/)
Contributed to online blog ‘Anole Annals’: a free source for disseminating new scientific research, natural history anecdotes, and a wide range of other information related to Anolis lizards (https:// http://anoleannals.org/).
Sherratt, E. March. 6th 2012. The Hi-Tech World of Anole Paleontology.
Sherratt, E. Feb. 15th 2012. Piecing Together the Anole Family Tree: Anole Fossils.
Sherratt, E. Nov. 24th 2011. Skeletal Anomalies - Curious Case of the Asymmetrical Sacrum.
Sherratt, E. Nov. 18th 2011. Anolis - Now in 3D!.