Biology alumnus Anthony Hessel (’12), Assistant Professor of Biology Lisa Whitenack and collaborator Bill Ryerson (St. Anslem College) have published the second part of Hessel’s undergraduate research on how salamanders jump in the journal Herpetologica. Plethodontid salamanders will drop their tails as a defense mechanism when threatened by a predator. They also jump as a means of escaping predators. Hessel, Ryerson, and Whitenack found that the salamanders can compensate for losing their tails and the shift in their center of mass, and still do a good job jumping.
August 30th 2017