David Cundall, Ph.D.
Professor
Functional Morphology

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

Research Summary

My lab focuses on the functional, morphological, ecological and evolutionary foundations of some behaviors of ectothermic tetrapods, particularly legless ones, like snakes. The behavior I have looked at most intensely is feeding behavior, but other maintenance behaviors, like drinking and locomotion, have also been examined. My primary interests lie in applying anatomical data to natural history and evolutionary problems. I am particularly interested in finding out how the highly specialized feeding apparatus of snakes has evolved. My research applies behavioral data to anatomy, basically using behavior to guide anatomical analysis. 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 to answer specific questions when tissue organization becomes relevant.

On-going projects are diverse and involve various kinds of collaborations. For example, Neil Ford ( University of Texas at Tyler ) and I are completing 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 and feeding behavior in erycine snakes. I have been engaged for about five years in a long-term project on striking mechanics in vipers. In addition to records made in my lab, this project has involved the help of numerous zoo curators around the country who have allowed me to record feeding in viper species I would otherwise have difficulty accessing. The stretch potential of snake lower jaw tissues has engendered a collaborative effort with Richard Vinci, a materials scientist and director of the mechanical behavior lab at Lehigh. We have been recording the mechanical properties of the lower jaws of living snakes and attempting to discover the structural basis of their extraordinary extensibility.

Abby Pattishall tracking snakes at her field site.

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 current graduate student , Abigail Pattishall, is working on patterns of resource use in northern water snakes. The project explores how resource use differs between a population in an urban, disturbed versus a less disturbed, "natural" environment. Abigail has now completed a year of field work, radio-tracking water snakes through a complete activity season.

At any one time, I usually have one to three undergraduate students developing small, independent research projects for honors theses. For example, four undergraduates recently helped with a project examining the repeatability of morphological measurements and one of these students has also been doing research on burrowing in snakes, examining the influence of substrate on the latency to burrow among a variety of supposedly fossorial species. There is a lot of opportunity to develop individual interests as long as they revolve around facilities available at Lehigh.

Recent Publications

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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 R. W. Henderson and R. Powell, Biology of the  Boas and Pythons. 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.

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