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
Coates Lab featured on CEB50 article!
Our lab was featured in a UChicago news article about CEB50, a celebration of the first fifty years of the Committee on Evolutionary Biology. Mike is the current chair of CEB and was photographed absolutely glowingly (mostly due to the light table), basking among the...
Phoebodus paper out in Proc B!
Here, we report the first skeletal remains of Phoebodus from the Famennian (Late Devonian) of the Maïder region of Morocco, revealing an anguilliform body, specialized braincase, hyoid arch, elongate jaws and rostrum, complementing its characteristic dentition and...
Tristychius paper published!
After an extended gestation, Tristychius -the jaws paper-, is finally out, published in Science Advances: 'High-performance suction feeding in an early elasmobranch'. The work highlights collaboration with Aaron Olsen (Brown University) and his "linkR" package,...
Recent Publications
The postcranial anatomy of Whatcheeria deltae and its implications for the family Whatcheeriidae
Benjamin K A Otoo, John R Bolt, R Eric Lombard, Kenneth D Angielczyk, Michael I Coates. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaa182