The discipline of functional morphology is dedicated to understanding the relationship between form and function in living animals. Historically, this field has been dominated by comparative anatomists who have described animal form, and inferred function. More recently, functional morphologists have added modern tools such as high-speed imaging and electromyography to quantify animal behavior and to correlate behavior with muscle activity patterns. Currently, there is a small but growing awareness that techniques from other fields, which have not traditionally been used to study animal form and function, and can make great contributions to our understanding of the mechanistic basis of animal performance. At the 2001 Society of Integrative Biology Meetings, to be held Jan 4-7 in Chicago, IL, experts from various fields will present talks detailing the modern, fully integrative nature of the field of functional morphology in the symposium: "Molecules, Muscles, and Macroevolution: Integrative Functional Morphology".
The primary goal of this symposium is to present current innovative research that extends past the bounds of what is often considered "traditional" functional morphology. Though the topics covered will be necessarily diverse, all the speakers in the symposium will address the following issues: (1) What new information is gained by combining the techniques of the "other" discipline with those of functional morphology? and (2) How can functional experimental approaches inform the "other" discipline? The speakers are all young scientists who combine functional morphology with approaches from various other disciplines. This symposium will highlight the innovations that these individuals are incorporating into their research programs and promote the careers of these up-and-coming scientists. This symposium is also meant to promote interactions among researchers in diverse specialties, encourage intellectual "cross-fertilization" among functional morphologists in various sub-disciplines, and inspire comparative anatomists who have relied on traditional approaches to expand their research program to include new techniques and conceptual frameworks. The proceedings of the symposium will be published in the American Zoologist, the official journal of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.
