In The News

Assistant Professor Andrew Moore is co-author on a new article, published in the journal Nature, that demonstrates that soaring birds co-opt a part of their lung to improve the function of the pectoralis (i.e., downstroke) muscle. The discovery highlights the potential for other, unknown secondary functions of the lung, the investigation of which is an active area of inquiry for the research team.

Assistant Professor Kimi Chapelle was part of an international team that discovered and named a new species of dinosaur from the Mid-Zambezi Basin of northern Zimbabwe. The new dinosaur, named Musankwa sanyatiensis in honor of the houseboat that served as the team's research station during the expedition, underscores the potential of the region for future paleontological discoveries. Read more about the discovery here.

Distinguished Professor John Fleagle has won the Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award for his research on primate evolution, locomotion, and adaptation. The award is the most prestigious honor granted by the American Association of Biological Anthropology (AABA). Read more about Dr. Fleagle here.

 

Welcome to the Department of Anatomical Sciences

The Department of Anatomical Sciences at Stony Brook University consists of award-winning faculty who are internationally recognized researchers in organismal biology and are dedicated educators who foster a long-standing culture of teaching excellence. As evolutionary morphologists and paleobiologists, we use anatomical data to elucidate the biology and relationships of living and extinct species. Our research and teaching is unified by the evolutionary perspective that the vertebrate body, including our own, is shaped by natural selection. Understanding how systems function – and how they fail – begins from this principle. We believe our research informs and enriches our teaching, and provides a context for students to better understand the human body. We uphold the highest professional and academic standards. Our work appears in high impact publications such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and in specialty journals. We train future physicians and other health professionals in clinical anatomy emphasizing the core competencies of teamwork and critical thinking. Our Ph.D. graduates teach and conduct innovative research at other major medical centers and research institutions, thus elevating the profile of Stony Brook Medicine and Stony Brook University as centers of medical and research excellence. We strive to be leaders in service to the University community on both east and west campuses, promoting the success of the various schools and programs in which we participate.

Stony Brook University is deeply committed to the recruitment, retention and success of diverse students in its competitive graduate degree programs.
  

 
 
Our PhD Program
The Department of Anatomical Sciences offers a multidisciplinary graduate program leading to a PhD. Students receive comprehensive training to prepare them for teaching and research in the areas of evolutionary morphology, functional morphology, phylogenetics, musculoskeletal biology, and vertebrate paleontology. Graduate students are guided through a program of courses appropriate for their particular educational needs. In this regard, the Department of Anatomical Sciences interacts with other departments at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University as well as those in the Biological Sciences and the Anthropology Department. Faculty members of Anatomical Sciences play vital roles in both the university-wide Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences and the Turkana Basin Institute.