Dr. Brian K. Hall

UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROFESSOR EMERITUS

PhD., DSc. (New England), FRSC.

s a developmental biology lab, we study how embryos of fish, frogs and chicks form from the much more simple structure of the egg. We are particularly interested in how the skeleton develops, especially the embryonic origins cells that arise in the developing nervous system (neural crest cells) and that form the cartilages and bones of the head and contribute to the fins in bony fish. We are also interested in how the mechanisms that control embryonic development have changed during the evolution of the various classes of vertebrates, especially fishes, amphibians and birds. This bringing together of developmental and evolutionary biology is a rapidly growing field known as evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo").

We inject fluorescent dyes and gene constructs into small numbers of neural crest cells (NCC) to follow their migration and to map the structures they form. We also use probes to genes specific for NCC or for cartilages and bones that develop from NCC.

Having retired and become emeritus in July 2007 I no longer teach in the undergraduate programme. Time freed up is being used to work on the writing for the undergraduate level. Much of the past year was spent producing a 4th edition of a standard text, Evolution by Monroe Strickberger. The 4th edition Strickberger’s Evolution by Brian Hall and Benedikt Hallgrímsson was published in December 2007 by Jones and Bartlett. Link to http://www.jbpub.com/catalog/9780763700669/

A photo from our lab from the paper on Limb Loss (Bejder and Hall, 2002 ) was featured on the cover of Evolution & Development.

Honors BSc Students

• Michelle Dymond - 2003 - Analyzed sizes of left and right limb skeletal elements in mice lacking a growth hormone receptor gene to use fluctuating asymmetry as a measure of developmental instability.
• Hollie Knoll - 2003 - Analyzed the effect of premature exposure to thyroxine on metamorphosis in the S. African frog, Hymenohirus.
• Tiffany Thornhill - 2002 - Investigating whether a hind limb can regenerate from amputated tail buds of the frog. Hymenochirus, when exposed to retinoic acid.

• Jennifer Quinn (graduate student)
• Megan Cox (graduate student)
• Michelle Connolly
  

• Cory Bishop (post-doctoral fellow)
• Ryan Kerney (post-doctoral fellow)
• Benedikt Hallgrimsson, U.Calgary:  Fluctuating asymmetry of skeletal development in mouse embryos.
• Eckhard Witten (U. Hamburg): Changes in salmon skeleton during migration.
• Tamara Franz-Odendaal:  (Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax): Developmental and evolution of scleral ossicles in vertebrates.

• Matt Vickaryous takes up a faculty position in Biomedical Sciences at the Univ of Guelph in May 2008.
• Janet Vaglia (Ph.D. 2000) is a faculty member at DePauw University, In..
• Jianmin Fang (Ph.D. 1999) took a postdoctoral position at Harvard University and is now a scientist with a biotech. company in Palo Alto.
• Mary Macdonald (M.Sc. 1998) completed a Ph.D. at UBC, medical school at Dal. and is in post-graduate medical training
• Lawrence Taylor (M.Sc. graduate) runs an underwater video company in Halifax-Dartmouth.
• Rob Langille (Ph.D. graduate) is a forensic scientist.
• Bill Bourque (Ph.D. graduate) did dentistry and is in practice.
• Lana Dunlop (M.Sc. Graduate) went into physiotherapy.
• Alison Cole is in a Marie Curie post-doctoral fellow at the Naples Zoological Station.
• Andrew Gillis is in a Ph.D.programme at The university of Chicago.
  
  
  

In press

Hall, B. K. Germ Layers. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. pp. 87-89. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Hall, B. K. Waddington, Conrad H. New Dictionary of Scientific Biography (N. Koertge, editor-in chief), Charles Scribner's Sons, New York

Hall, B. K. Homology and Homoplasy: Dichotomy or Continuum? J. Human Evol.

Hall, B. K. (in press) Homoplasy and homology: Dichotomy or Continuum? In Homoplasy in Primate and Human Evolution (C. Lockwood and J. Fleagle, eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hall, B. K. (in press). 'Spandrels': Metaphor for Morphological Residue or Entrée into Evolutionary Developmental Mechanisms? In: The Spandrels of San Marco 25 years Later (D. Walsh, ed). Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Hall, B. K., and Hallgrímsson, B. Strickberger's Evolution. 4th Edition. Jones and Bartlett, Publishers, Sudbury, MA.

Hall, B. K., and Witten, P. E. (in press). Transitional skeletal tissues in vertebrate evolution and development. In: Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution (Jason S. Anderson and Hans-Dieter Sues, eds). Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.

Laubichler, M., and Hall, B. K. (eds) (in press) Arriving at a Theoretical Biology. The Waddington Centennial. 13th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Long, J. A., Hall, B. K., McNamara, K. J., and Smith, M. M. (in press) The phylogenetic origin of jaws in vertebrates: developmental plasticity and heterochrony. Kirtlandia Journal of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Festschrift issue for Dr. Mike Williams.

Witten, P. E., Chadwick, M. E., and Hall, B. K. (in press). The importance of hooks in salmon life history: Kype development, function, and implications for fisheries and aquaculture. In Report of the Canada-Germany Cooperative Research Workshop "Towards the development of Scientific Approaches in Integrated Coastal Zone Planning and Management, (ed. H. Rosenthal), University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.

2007
Hall, B.K. (ed.) 2007. Fins and Limbs: Evolution, Development and Transformation. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

Rot-Nikcevic, I., Downing, Hall, B. K., and Kablar, B. Development of the mouse mandibles and clavicles in the absence of skeletal myogenesis. Histol. Hisotpath., 22: 51-60.

Budney, L. A., Fedak, T. J., Franz-Odendaal, T. A., Hall, B. K., and Vickaryous, M. K. (in press). A module on modularity in evo-devo. subunit 1. Introduction to modularity Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 60.

Fedak, T., and Hall, B. K. (in press). Review of The Microstructure of Dinosaur Bone; Deciphering Biology with Fine-Scale Techniques by A. Chinsamy-Turan, Quart. Rev. Biol.

Franz-Odendaal, T. A., and Hall, B. K. (in press) Modularity and sense organs in the blind cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus. Evolution & Development xx

Franz-Odendaal, T., A., Witten, P. E., and Hall, B. K. (in press) Buried alive: how osteoblasts become osteocytes. Devel. Dynamics

Gass, G. L., and Hall, B. K. (in press). Modularity and Cell Sociology. In: Handbook of the Philosophy of Biology (C. Stephens and M. Matthen) a volume in the series Handbook of the Philosophy of Science (D. Gabbay, P. Thagard, and J. Woods, eds) Elsevier, London).

Gillis, J. A., Witten, P. E., and Hall B. K. (in press) Chondroid bone and secondary cartilage contribute to apical dentary growth in juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar (Linnaeus (1758). J. Fish. Biol.

Hall, B.K. (ed.) (in press). Fins and Limbs: Evolution, Development and Transformation. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL

Hall, B. K. (in press) Homoplasy and homology: Dichotomy or Continuum? In Homoplasy in Primate and Human Evolution (C. Lockwood and J. Fleagle, eds), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Hall, B. K. (in press). Homology and Homoplasy: Continuum not Dichotomy. In: Handbook of the Philosophy of Biology (C. Stephens and M. Matthen) a volume in the series Handbook of the Philosophy of Science (D. Gabbay, P. Thagard, and J. Woods, eds) Elsevier, London).

Hall, B. K. (in press) In Goethe’s Wake: Marvalee Wake’s Contribution to the Development and Evolution of a Science of Morphology. Zoology (special issue as Festschrift for Marvalee H. Wake.

Hall, B. K. (in press) Consideration of the neural crest and its skeletal derivatives in the context of novelty/innovations. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.)

Hall, B. K. (in press). Tapping Many Sources: The Adventitious Roots of Evo-Devo in the 19th Century. In From Embryology to Evo-Devo A History of Embryology in the 20th Century (M. D. Laubichler and J. Maienschein), Symposium of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science, MIT. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Hall, B. K. (in press). 'Spandrels': Metaphor for Morphological Residue or Entrée into Evolutionary Developmental Mechanisms? In: The Spandrels of San Marco 25 years Later (D. Walsh, ed). OxfordUniversity Press, Oxford.

Hall, B. K., and Witten, P. E. (in press). Transitional skeletal tissues in vertebrate evolution and development. In: Major Transitions in Vertebrate Evolution (Jason S. Anderson and Hans-Dieter Sues, eds). IndianaUniversity Press, Bloomington, Indiana.

Laubichler, M., and Hall, B. K. (eds) (in press) Arriving at a Theoretical Biology. The Waddington Centennial. 13th Altenberg Workshop in Theoretical Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Long, J. A., Hall, B. K., McNamara, K. J., and Smith, M. M. (in press) The phylogenetic origin of jaws in vertebrates: developmental plasticity and heterochrony. Kirtlandia (Journal of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History). Festschrift issue for Dr. Mike Williams.

Stone, J. R., and Hall, B. K. (in press) A system for interpreting features in studies integrating ecology, development and evolution. Biol. & Philos.

Rot-Nikcevic, I., Reddy, T., Downing, K. J., Belliveau, A. C., Hallgrimsson, B., Hall, B. K., and Kablar, B. (in press) Myf5-/-: Myod-/- amyogenic fetuses reveal importance of early contraction and static loading by striated muscle in mouse skeletogenesis. Devel. Genes & Evol.

Vickaryous, M., and Hall, B. K. (in press) Homology of the reptilian coracoid and a reappraisal of the evolution and development of the amniote pectoral apparatus. J. Anat.

Vickaryous, M., and Hall, B. K. (in press) Human cell type diversity, evolution development classification with special reference to cells derived from the neural crest. Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos. Soc.

Witten, P. E., Chadwick, M. E., and Hall, B. K. (in press). The importance of hooks in salmon life history: Kype development, function, and implications for fisheries and aquaculture. In Report of the Canada-Germany Cooperative Research Workshop "Towards the development of Scientific Approaches in Integrated Coastal Zone Planning and Management, (ed. H. Rosenthal), University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.

2005

Hall, B.K. (2005). Bones & Cartilage: Developmental and Evolutionary Skeletal Biology. 788 pp.Elsevier/Academic Press, London

Hall, B. K. (2005) Betrayed by Balanoglossus: William Bateson's rejection of evolutionary embryology as the basis for understanding evolution. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Devel. Evol) 304B: 1-17.

Hall, B. K. (2005). Skeletal Biology in an Evo-Devo-Palaeo Lab. (2005). Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 59 26-34.

Hall, B. K. (2005). Evo-devo is the new buzzword…for the 200-year-old search for links between embryos and evolution. Sci. Amer. 292 (4), 86-87.

Hall, B. K. (2005). Fifty Years Later: I. Michael Lerner’s Genetic Homeostasis (1954): A Valiant Attempt to Integrate Genes, Organisms and Environment. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol) 304B, 187-197.

Hall, B. K. (2005). Review of Endless Forms Most Beautiful; the New Science of Evo Devo by Sean B. Carroll. Sean B. Endless Forms Most Beautiful; the New Science of Evo Devo. Scientific American, April, pp. 85-87 (2005).

Hall, B. K. (2005). Review of Darwin’s Fishes. An Encyclopedia of Ichthyology, Ecology and Evolution by Daniel Pauly. Quart. Rev. Biol. 80, 93 (2005.

Hallgrímsson, B., Brown, J. J. Y., and Hall. B. K. (2005). The Study of Phenotypic Variability: An emerging research agenda for understanding the developmental-genetic architecture underlying phenotypic variation. In: Variation: A Hierarchical Examination of a Central Concept in Biology (Hallgrimsson, B., and Hall, B. K, eds), pp. 525-551/ Elsevier/Academic Press, New York.

Hallgrímsson, B., and Hall. B. K. (eds) (2005). Variation: A Hierarchical Examination of a Central Concept in Biology. 568pp. pp. Elsevier/Academic Press, New York.

Hallgrímsson, B., and Hall, B. K. (2005). Variation and variability: Central concepts in biology. In: Variation: A Central Concept in Biology (Hallgrímsson, B., and Hall, B. K, eds), pp. 1-7. Elsevier/Academic Press, New York.

Legere, J., Handrigan, G., Budney, L., Cole, A., Fedak, T., Franz-Odendaal, T., Vickaryous, M., Witten, P. E., and Hall, B. K. (2005). Something old, something new: inferring developmental mode from the fossil record. Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 58: 26-31.

Witten, P. E., Hall. B. K., and Huysseune, A. (2005). Are breeding teeth in Atlantic salmon a component of the drastic alterations of the oral facial skeleton? Archs Oral Biol. 50, 213-217.

Witten, P. E., Gil-Martens, L., Hall, B. K., Huysseune, A., and Obach, A. (2005). Compressed vertebrae in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) Evidence for metaplastic chondrogenesis as a skeletogenic response late in ontogeny. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 64, 237-246.

2004

Cole, A. G., and Hall, B. K. (2004). Cartilage is a metazoan tissue; integrating data from non-vertebrate sources. Acta Zool. 85, 69-80.

Cole, A. G., and Hall, B. K. (2004). The nature and significance of invertebrate cartilages revisited: Distribution and histology of cartilage and cartilage-like tissues within the Metazoa. Zoology 107, 261-274.

Fedak, T., Franz-Odendaal, T., Hall, B. K., and Vickaryous, M., (2004). Epigenetics: the context of development. Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 56: 44-49.

Fedak, T., and Hall, B. K. (2004). Perspectives on hyperphalangy: patterns and processes. J. Anat. 204: 151-163.

Hall, B. K. (2004). Evolution as the Control of Development by Ecology. In: Environment, Evolution and Development: Towards a Synthesis (B. K. Hall, R. Pearson and G. B. Müller, eds), pp. ix-xxiii. MIT Press, CambridgeMA.

Hall, B.K. (2004) In Search of Evolutionary Developmental Mechanisms: The 30-Year Gap between 1944 and 1974. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Dev. Evol.). 302B: 5-18. [Special issues devoted to SICB Symposium featuring Kowalevsky Medal winners.]

Hall, B. K. (2004). Review of Mutants: On Genetic variety and the Human Body by A. M. Leroi, Trends in Evol. & Ecol. (TREE) 19, 356-357 (2004).

Hall, B. K. (2004). Balfour, Francis Maitland (1851-1882). In: The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists (B. Lightman, ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 97-100. Thoemmes Press, Bristol, UK.

Witten, P. E., Huysseune, A., Franz-Odendaal, T., Fedak, T., Vickaryous, M., Cole, A., and Hall, B. K. (2004). Acellular teleost bone: dead or alive, primitive or derived? Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 55: 37-41.

2003

Buxton, P. G., Hall, B. K., Archer, C. W., and Francis-West, P. (2003). Secondary chondrocyte-derived Ihh stimulates proliferation of periosteal cells during chick cranial development. Development 130: 4729-4739.

Cole, A, Fedak, T., Hall, B. K., Olson, W., and Vickaryous, M. (2003). Sutures joining ontogeny and fossils. Paleont. Assoc. Newsletter 52: 29-32.

Franz-Odendaal, T., Cole, A., Fedak, T., Vickaryous, M., Hall, B. K. (2003). Inside and outside skeletons. Paleont. Assoc Newsletter 54: 17-21.

Hall, B. K. Descent with modification: the unity underlying homology and homoplasy as seen through an analysis of development and evolution. Biol. Rev. Camb. Philos. Soc. 78: 409-433.

Hall, B.K. (2003). Baldwin and Beyond: Organic Selection and Genetic Assimilation. In: Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered (B. Weber and D. Depew, eds), pp. 141-168. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Hall, B.K. (2003). Evolution as the Control of Development by Ecology. In: Environment, Evolution and Development: Towards a Synthesis (B.K. Hall, R. Pearson and G.B. Müller, eds), pp. ix-xxiii. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

Hall, B.K. (2003). Opening the Black Box between Genotype and Phenotype: Cells and Cell Condensations as Morphogenetic Units and as Fundamental Units of Evo-Devo. Biol. & Philos. 18: 219-247. (special issue devoted to evolutionary developmental biology).

Hall, B. K. (2003). Francis Maitland Balfour (1851-1882): A Founder of Evolutionary Embryology. J. Exp. Zool. (Mol. Devel. Evol.) 299B: 3-8.

Hall, B.K. (2003). Developmental and cellular origins of the amphibian skeleton. In: Amphibian Biology, Volume 5, Osteology (H. Heatwole and M. Davies, eds.), pp. 1551-1597, Surrey Beatty & Sons, Chipping Norton, NSW.

Hall, B.K. (2003). Evo-devo: Evolutionary developmental mechanisms. Int. J. Devel. Biol. 47: 491-495. (special issues devoted to Evolutionary Developmental Biology).

Hall, B.K. (2003). The emergence of form: The shape of things to come. Devel. Dynamics 228:292-298.

Hall, B. K. (2003). Woodger, Joseph Henry (1894-1981). Oxford Dict. Natl. Biography, Vol. 60, p. 183. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Hall, B.K., and Olson, W.M. (eds). (2003). Keywords and Concepts in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. 476 pp. Harvard University Press.

Hall, B.K., Pearson, R., and Müller, GB (eds) (2003). Environment, Evolution and Development: Toward a Synthesis. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Hallgrimsson, B., Miyake, T., Willmore, K. and Hall, B.K. (2003). Embryological origins of developmental stability: Size, shape, and fluctuating asymmetry in prenatal random bred mice. J. Exp. Zool. (Mod. Devl. Evol.). 296B: 1-18.

Hallgrimsson, B., Willmore, K., and Hall, B.K. (2003). Canalization, developmental stability, and morphological integration in primate limbs. Amer. J. Phys. Anthropol. (Yearbook) S 45: 131-158

Kimmins, S., Russell, G. L., Lim, H. C., Hall B. K., MacLaren, L. A. (2003). The effects of estrogen, its antagonist ICI 182, 780, and interferon-tau on the expression of estrogen receptors and integrin alphaV beta 3 on cycle day 16 in bovine endometrium. Reprod Biol Endocrinol. 1:38-47.

Roy, P. K., Witten, P. E., Hall, B. K., and Lall, S. P. (2003). Effects of dietary phosphorous on bone growth and mineralization of vertebrae in haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus L.). Fish Physiol. Biochem. 27, 35-48.

Stone, J. R., and Hall, B. K. (2004). Latent homologues for the neural crest as an evolutionary novelty. Evol. & Devel. 6: 123-129.

Vickaryous, M., Fedak, T., Franz-Odendaal, T., Hall, B. K., Stone, J. (2003). Dusting off bone ontologies: considering skeletons in the palaeo-closet. Paleont. Assoc Newsletter 53: 48-51.

Witten, P. E., and Hall. B. K. (2003). Seasonal changes in the lower jaw skeleton in male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.): remodeling and regression of the kype after spawning. J. Anat. 203: 435-450.

Witten, P. E., Rosenthal, H., and Hall, B. K. (2003). Mechanisms and consequences of the formation of a kype (hook) on the lower jaw of male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.). Mitt. Hamb. Zool. Mus. Inst. 101:149-156 (Kurst Kosswig Memorial Volume)

Books
Hall, B. K., and Hallgrímsson, B. (2008). Strickberger’s Evolution. 4th Edition. 776 pp. Jones and Bartlett, Publishers, Sudbury, MA

Hall, B. K. (2007). Fins into Limbs. Development, Transformation, and Evolution. 433 pp. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Il. Hall, B. K. (2005). Bones and Cartilage: Developmental and Evolutionary Skeletal Biology. 787 pp. Elsevier Academic Press, London.

Hallgrímsson, B., and Hall, B. K. (2005). Variation: A Central Concept in Biology. 568 pp.Elsevier/Academic Press, New York

Hall, B. K., Pearson, R., and Müller, G. B. (2004). Environment, Development, and Evolution: Toward a Synthesis. 304 pp. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Hall, B. K., and Olson, W. M. (2003). Keywords and Concepts in Evolutionary Developmental Biology. 476 pp. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.

Hall, B.K. (1999). The Neural Crest in Development and Evolution. 314 pp. Springer-Verlag. New York.

Hall, B.K. (1999). Evolutionary Developmental Biology. 2nd edition. 491 pp. Chapman and Hall, London/Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands. [Paperback edition, 1999; Japanese translation, Kosakusha, Tokyo, 2001].

Hall, B. K. and Wake, M. H. (1999). The Origin and Evolution of Larval Forms. Academic Press, San Diego 425 pp.

• On line lecture
  ("Populations of neural crest cells and craniofacial development" with evolutionary implications, given at symposium at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, October 2000.)

• Invertebrate cartilages (Cole and Hall) recognized
  

• Austria Conference
  
• Homology - 1994 -Academic Press
  
• Evolutional Developmental Biology (1999) Kluwer Publishers
  
• The Neural Crest in Development and Evolution (1999) Springer-New York
  
• The Origin and Evolution of Larval Form (1999) Academic Press
  
• Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal Finalist
  • www.nserc.ca/news
• Killam Prize 2005 r
• "Variation" - Elsevier/Academic Press
• "Bones & Cartilage" - Elsevier/Academic Press
  
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