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Education

Ph.D., Southern Illinois University

Courses Taught

• BIOS 2750 Ecology in the 21st Century
• BIOS 3030 Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy
• BIOS 3880 EEB Research Inquiry & Analysis
• BIOS 7000 EEB Colloquium

Research Interests

• Lab: Life Science Building 130

My research integrates morphological, biomechanical, functional, and developmental analyses to study how ontogeny, ecology, and phylogeny affect vertebrate design and function. This involves experimental and morphometric approaches to the analysis of form and function in organisms and comparative ecomorphological approaches to the study animal behavior. Research centers on vertebrate locomotion and feeding with current research in the lab focusing on the evolution of locomotion in frogs.

1. Functional morphology and the evolution of vertebrate feeding and locomotion.
2. Experimental and morphometric approaches to the analysis of form and function in organisms.
3. Electromyography, kinematics, force measurement, and biomechanics.
4. Life history, ontogeny, metamorphosis, patterns of neoteny and paedomorphosis in salamanders.

Representative Publications

Reilly, S.M. and M. E. Jorgensen. The evolution of jumping in frogs: morphological evidence for the basal anuran locomotor condition and the radiation of locomotor systems in crown group anurans. J. Morphol. 272:149-168. 2011.

Essner, R.L., Jr., Suffian, D.J., Bishop, P.J. and S. M. Reilly. Landing in basal frogs: evidence of saltational patternsin the evolution of anuran locomotion. Naturwissenschaften (2010) 97:935–939. 2010.

Reilly, S.M., E.J. McElroy, T.D. White, and M.B. Bennett. Abdominal muscle and epipubic bone function during locomotion in Australian possums: Insights to basal mammalian conditions and eutherian-like tendencies in Trichosurus. J. Morphol. 271:438-450.74. 2010.

McElroy, E.J. and S.M. Reilly. The relationship between limb morphology, kinematics and force during running: the evolution of locomotor dynamics in lizards. Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 97:634–651. 2009.

McElroy, E.J., K.L. Hickey and S.M. Reilly. The coevolution of biomechanics, gait and foraging mode in lizards. J. Exp. Zool. 211:1029-1040. 2008.

Reilly, S.M., McElroy, E.J and A.R. Biknevicius. Posture, gait and ecological relevance of locomotor costs and energy saving mechanisms in tetrapods. Zoology. 110:271-289. 2007.