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Dirty jobs: UO professor researches burrowers
Samantha Hopkins' research focuses on the evolution of specialized mammal burrowing
by Trevor Davis | News Reporter
For Samantha Hopkins, holes in the ground are more than something to trip over.
They represent the Robert D. Clark Honors College geology assistant professor's ongoing research.
The holes - and the animals digging them - can be quite telling.
Hopkins studies the evolution of ecology in mammals. She is currently researching how some mammals, including moles and mole rats, have evolved to become specialized burrowers. She wants to know how and why they dig. Hopkins presented her findings so far in a speech at the annual Geological Society of America meeting last month in Colorado.
She discovered that some animals evolve to become a digger after a habitat changes. Moles, for example, live in a forested habitat with roots - not an ideal place for digging. Hopkins said an animal's habitat relates to its adaptations.
"In order to get into that soil, they have to make more changes," Hopkins said.
Other animals such as ground squirrels and prairie dogs haven't adapted into diggers because they live in "easy conditions" with soft soil, Hopkins said.
Her findings could give more details into convergent evolution, the process by which organisms that aren't related evolve similar traits because they have to adapt to similar environments.
"The better we understand the evolutionary process, the better we know how life came about," Hopkins said.
The research could also give a better understanding of the relationship between climate and evolution and organisms.
"Right now we really need to understand a bit more how climate affects what things do," Hopkins said. "We're changing climates much faster than it's happened in the past, so if we understand what past climate changes did, we can say, 'This kind of thing could happen in the future.'"
Hopkins became interested in burrowers in college when she studied a mountain beaver, which is known as a pest in Oregon because it chews trees.
"I ran into my first fossil burrowers then, and I realized they were highly specialized diggers, and I became interested in digging," Hopkins said.
The research allows her to use a variety of research methods, Hopkins said.
"I like things that are a mix of museum work and field work and literature and computer research," Hopkins said. "I never want to do the same thing from one day to the next."
Hopkins said she looked at specimens at the Smithsonian and at a museum at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a graduate degree. She plans to study the University's Condon collection, which is part of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History collection. It includes geological specimens collected by the 19th-century Oregon geologist Thomas Condon.
Her recent move to Oregon about two months ago provides her new research opportunities, especially at the John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon, she said.
"Being here is going to make it easier to work there and study fossils there," Hopkins said. "I'm really excited about that."
Hopkins said she'd like to get more students involved in research and field trips. Students, especially those studying biology, geology and anthropology, can contact her at shopkins@uoregon.edu to get involved in her current research.
tdavis@dailyemerald.com
They represent the Robert D. Clark Honors College geology assistant professor's ongoing research.
The holes - and the animals digging them - can be quite telling.
Hopkins studies the evolution of ecology in mammals. She is currently researching how some mammals, including moles and mole rats, have evolved to become specialized burrowers. She wants to know how and why they dig. Hopkins presented her findings so far in a speech at the annual Geological Society of America meeting last month in Colorado.
She discovered that some animals evolve to become a digger after a habitat changes. Moles, for example, live in a forested habitat with roots - not an ideal place for digging. Hopkins said an animal's habitat relates to its adaptations.
"In order to get into that soil, they have to make more changes," Hopkins said.
Other animals such as ground squirrels and prairie dogs haven't adapted into diggers because they live in "easy conditions" with soft soil, Hopkins said.
Her findings could give more details into convergent evolution, the process by which organisms that aren't related evolve similar traits because they have to adapt to similar environments.
"The better we understand the evolutionary process, the better we know how life came about," Hopkins said.
The research could also give a better understanding of the relationship between climate and evolution and organisms.
"Right now we really need to understand a bit more how climate affects what things do," Hopkins said. "We're changing climates much faster than it's happened in the past, so if we understand what past climate changes did, we can say, 'This kind of thing could happen in the future.'"
Hopkins became interested in burrowers in college when she studied a mountain beaver, which is known as a pest in Oregon because it chews trees.
"I ran into my first fossil burrowers then, and I realized they were highly specialized diggers, and I became interested in digging," Hopkins said.
The research allows her to use a variety of research methods, Hopkins said.
"I like things that are a mix of museum work and field work and literature and computer research," Hopkins said. "I never want to do the same thing from one day to the next."
Hopkins said she looked at specimens at the Smithsonian and at a museum at the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned a graduate degree. She plans to study the University's Condon collection, which is part of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History collection. It includes geological specimens collected by the 19th-century Oregon geologist Thomas Condon.
Her recent move to Oregon about two months ago provides her new research opportunities, especially at the John Day Fossil Beds in Eastern Oregon, she said.
"Being here is going to make it easier to work there and study fossils there," Hopkins said. "I'm really excited about that."
Hopkins said she'd like to get more students involved in research and field trips. Students, especially those studying biology, geology and anthropology, can contact her at shopkins@uoregon.edu to get involved in her current research.
tdavis@dailyemerald.com
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