Welcome to the Coates Lab!
We sit at the crossroads of evolutionary developmental biology, paleobiology, and anatomy. Our research interests are wide-ranging, and broadly fall under the evolution and diversity of early vertebrates, as well as adding paleontological and comparative anatomy perspectives to evo-devo. We are also very interested in the use of new imaging and visualization technologies in our work, such as CT scanning and 3D printing.
NEWS
Ben venerates about Whatcheeria at Collections Club, finds converts
Ben Otoo delivered a sermon canonizing his beloved Whatcheeria at the Collections Club meeting on April 25. This club is comprised of volunteers at the Field Museum who work in the collections. Ben extolled the beauty of Whatcheeria, revered the sheer quantity of...
Coates Lab begins Virtual Elevenses
Armed with a mug of coffee/tea each, the Coates Lab began its Tuesday Virtual Elevenses during shelter-in-place. Here, Ben is deep into retelling Chapter 3 of 48 of his fieldwork trip to Brazil while Mike futilely attempts to extract information about the actual...
Coates Lab goes to the Lyric Opera!
As part of the Farewell to Tetsuto Tour, members of the Coates Lab attended Madama Butterfly at the Lyric Opera last week. Although there were technically not any fish involved, we took to heart the themes of unrequited love and betrayal (looking at you, microCT...
Recent Publications
Novel assembly of a head–trunk interface in the sister group of jawed vertebrates.
Miyashita, T., Janvier, P., Tietjen, K., Berenguer, F., Schöder, S., Marone, F., Gueriau, P, Coates, M.I. (2025). Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09329-9
Re-make, re-model: evolution and development of vertebrate cranial lateral lines.
Venkataraman, V., Lopez, M., Prince, V.E., Coates, M.I. (2025). Biological Reviews, Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.70045
Development of the zebrafish anterior lateral line system is influenced by underlying cranial neural crest.
Venkataraman, V., McGrory. N.H., Christiansen, T.J., Navajas Acedo, J., Coates, M.I., Prince, V.E. (2025). Developmental Biology 525, 102–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.05.025
The lower jaw of Devonian ray-finned fishes (Actinopterygii): Anatomy, relationships, and functional morphology.
Igielman, B., Figueroa, R.T., Higgins, R.R., Pierce, S.E., Coates, M.I., Troyer, E.M., Fernandez, V., Dollman, K., Lu, J., Zhu, M., Friedman, M., Giles, S. (2025). The Anatomical Record, Early View. https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.70005