David Cundall, Ph.D.
Professor
Functional Morphology

31 Williams Drive
Williams Hall
610-758-3679
dlc0@lehigh.edu

Research Summary

I study how the relationships between form, function, ecology and behavior evolve. I use snakes as the test animals because I know their anatomy better than I know the anatomy of other major groups.  Most of my work is on musculoskeletal function during feeding, drinking and locomotion. I do what I do because I like to watch living animals—both in the lab and in the field—and I have always been fascinated by animal structure and how it defines behavior. Most of the anatomical analysis is done at gross and microdissectional levels but histological data are also collected when tissue organization becomes relevant.

On-going projects involve various kinds of collaborations. For example, Neil Ford ( University of Texas at Tyler ) and I are completing (still) a project on feeding in Xenopeltis unicolor , a primitive snake from southeast Asia. My wife, Fran Irish, and I are in the middle of a project on feeding mechanics in booid snakes. I have been engaged for about eight years in a project on striking mechanics in vipers. In addition to records made in my lab, this project has involved numerous zoos around the country whose curators have allowed me to record feeding in many different viper species. Although parts of this work have now been published, much remains to be done. This includes anatomical analysis involving measurements of many specimens at museums around the country. Another part of this work has involved detailed measurements of lower jaw behavior during the strike, a study done in collaboration with Steve Deban from the University of South Florida.

My graduate students have explored a variety of related problems but typically do their research partially or completely independent of my on-going projects. My most recent Ph.D. student, Abby Pattishall, worked on patterns of resource use in Northern watersnakes. The project explored how resource use differs between urban and "natural" environments in a population occupying both. Abby radio-tracked watersnakes through three complete activity seasons and also did a study of how watersnakes use their trunk during swimming. Parts of her dissertation are now published (see below). My current graduate student, Matt Close, has taken over a project I began on tissue mechanics in snake lower jaws, studying how the lower jaw stretches during swallowing of large prey. This study involves comparisons of behavior, gross anatomy and histology in three species of snakes that allow preliminary tests of evolutionary responses of different tissues to different prey-based selection pressures.

At any one time, I usually have one to four undergraduate students developing small, independent research projects for honors theses. Currently, students are working on drinking behavior, sea-snake trunk form, and snake visceral organization. There is a lot of opportunity to develop individual interests as long as they revolve around facilities available at Lehigh.

from the left, Doug Grapski and Joe Constentino,undergrads working on drinking mechanics and evolution in snakes, Matt Close, Ph.D. student working on extensible tissues in snake lower jaws, Rachel Leskosky, work study student working as an animal care technician, James O'Dowd, undergrad writing student working on a proposal on ontogenetic effects on prey handling in snakes, and Victor Wong, undergrad working on visceral rearrangements in snakes for housing elongate prey

Recent Publications

(Click on to download. Requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® to view.)

Nicole Baum, a work study student working in the lab as an animal care technician

Elissa Mallis, undergraduate working on the evolutionary relationship between axial muscles, skeleton, and body form in aquatic snakes.

Cundall, D. and H. W. Greene. 2000. Feeding in snakes, pp. 293-333. In: Feeding: Form, Function and Evolution in Tetrapod Vertebrates. K. Schwenk (ed.). Academic Press: San Diego .

Cundall, D. 2000. Drinking in snakes: kinematic cycling and water transport. Journal of Experimental Biology 203: 2171-2185.

Cundall, D. and S. J. Beaupre. 2001. Field records of predatory strike kinematics in timber rattlesnakes, Crotalus horridus . Amphibia-Reptilia 22:492-498.

Cundall, D. 2002 Envenomation strategies, head form, and feeding ecology in vipers, pp. 149-161. In: Biology of the Vipers, G. Schuett, M. Höggren, M. E. Douglas, and H. W. Greene (eds.). Eagle Mountain Publishing, Utah .

Deufel, A. and D. Cundall. 2003. Feeding in Atractaspis (Serpentes: Atractaspididae): A study in conflicting functional constraints. Zoology 106:43-61.

Deufel, A. and D. Cundall. 2003. Prey transport in "palatine-erecting" elapid snakes. Journal of Morphology 258:358-375.

Cundall, D. and Deufel, A. 2006. Influence of the venom delivery system on intraoral prey transport in snakes. Zool. Anz. 245: 193-210.

Deufel, A. and Cundall, D. 2006. Functional plasticity of the venom delivery system in snakes with a focus on the poststrike prey release behavior. Zool. Anz. 245: 249-267.

Cundall, D., A. Deufel, and F. Irish. 2007. Feeding in boas and pythons: motor recruitment patterns during striking, pp 169-197. In: Biology of the  Boas and Pythons, R. W. Henderson and R. Powell (eds.), Eagle Mountain Publishing.

Buckley, C. A., J. E. Schneider, and D. Cundall. 2007. Kinematic analysis of an appetitive food-handling behavior: the functional morphology of Syrian hamster cheek pouches. J. Exp. Biol. 210:3096-3106.

Pattishall, A. and D. Cundall. 2008. Dynamic changes in body form during swimming in water snakes, Nerodia sipedon. Zoology 111:48-61.

Cundall, D. and F. Irish. 2008. The snake skull, pp. 349-692. In: Biology of the Reptilia, Vol. 20, Morphology H, C. Gans, A. S. Gaunt, and K. Adler (eds.). Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, NY.

Pattishall, A. and D. Cundall. 2008. Spatial biology of northern watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) living along an urban stream. Copeia 2008:752-762.

Cundall, D. 2009. Viper fangs: Functional limitations of extreme teeth. Physiol. Biochem. Zool. 82:63-79

Pattishall, A. and D. Cundall. 2009. Habitat use by synurbic watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon). Herpetologica 65, 183-198.

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