This award will support an international meeting on the evolutionary biology of elasmobranch fishes. The elasmobranchs, which include the sharks, skates and stingrays, constitute an important vertebrate group that, having diverged some 350 million years ago from their sister group the holocephalans, have conserved many of their morphological characteristics with very little change. As such, the elasmobranchs represent an under exploited model system that may be employed to investigate many important biological and evolutionary processes. This international meeting, organized by Prof. William C. Hamlett of the Medical College of Ohio together with Prof. Bruno Tota of the Naples Zoological Station in Naples, Italy, will provide an opportunity for scientists working with this vertebrate group to present recent research findings, exchange information and plan future directions for research and collaboration. The meeting will focus on three areas: 1) reproduction, 2) neuroscience, and 3) systems biology/ physiology. Emphasis will be on research utilizing contemporary scientific techniques as well as studies that place relevant research results in an evolutionary context.
