DAVID R CARRIER portrait
  • Professor, School Of Biological Sciences
801-585-7967

Publications

  • Cooper, A. N., McDermott, W. J., Martin, J. C, Dulaney, S. O., and Carrier, D. R. (2021). Great power comes at a high (locomotor) cost: the role of muscle fascicle length in the power versus economy performance trade-off. Journal of Experimental Biology 224(21), jeb236679. Published, 09/2021.
  • Reader, L. L., Carrier, D. R., Goller, F., Isaacs, M. R., Moore Crisp, A., Barnes, C. J., & Lee, D. V. (2022). Climbing parrots achieve pitch stability using forces and free moments produced by axial–appendicular couples. Journal of Experimental Biology, 225(1), jeb242305. Published, 09/2021.
  • Morris, J. S, Rogers, N. , Rogers, A. R. & Carrier, D. R. (2020). Sexual dimorphism in skeletal shape in microtine voles: disparate selection on male bodies and female heads. Journal of Mammalogy. Vol. 101, 951-957. Published, 07/23/2020.
  • Luttmer, N., Truong, T., Boynton, A., Carrier, D., & Minor, M. (2020). Treadmill Based Three Tether Parallel Robot for Evaluating Auditory Warnings While Running. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Vol. 2020, 9135-9142. Published, 05/05/2020.
  • Beseris, E. A, Naleway, S. E. & Carrier, D. R. (2020). Impact Protection Potential of Mammalian Hair: Testing the Pugilism Hypothesis for the Evolution of Human Facial Hair. Integrative Organismal Biology. Vol. 2. Published, 04/15/2020.
  • Bye TK, Carter KR, Carrier DR & Elmer SJ (2019). An outside-the-box activity to demonstrate how humans and animals turn. Advances in physiology education. Vol. 43, 282-287. Published, 06/27/2019.
  • Morris, J. S & Cunningham, C. B., and Carrier, D. R. (2019). Sexual dimorphism in postcranial skeletal shape suggests male-biased specialization for physical competition in anthropoid primates. Journal of morphology. Vol. 280(5), 731-738. Published, 03/05/2019.
  • Morris, J. S., J. S. Ruff, W. K. Potts and D. R. Carrier. (2017). A disparity between locomotor economy and territory-holding ability in male house mice. Journal of Experimental Biology 220, 2521-2528. Published, 07/2017.
  • Carrier, D. R. and C. Cunningham. (2017). The effect of foot posture on capacity to apply free moments to the ground: implications for fighting performance in great apes. Biology Open 6, 269-277. Published, 06/2017.
  • Kilbourne, B. M. and D. R. Carrier. (2016). Manipulated Changes in Limb Mass and Rotational Inertia in Trotting Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and Their Effect on Limb Kinematics. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology 325, 665-674. Published, 12/01/2016.
  • Panagiotopoulou, O., P. Spyridis, H. Mehari Abraha, D. R. Carrier and T. C. Pataky. (2016). Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat. PeerJ 4, e1988. Published, 04/05/2016.
  • Morris, J. S. and D. R. Carrier. (2016). Sexual selection on skeletal shape in Carnivora. Evolution 70, 767-780. Published, 04/01/2016.
  • Carrier, D. R., N. Schilling and C. Anders. (2015). Muscle activation during maximal effort tasks: evidence of the selective forces that shaped the musculoskeletal system of humans. Biology open bio-014381. Published, 10/2015.
  • Horns, J., R. Jung and D. R. Carrier. (2015). In vitro strain in human metacarpal bones during striking: testing the pugilism hypothesis of hominin hand evolution. Journal of Experimental Biology 218, 3215-3221. Published, 08/2015.
  • David R. Carrier and Michael H. Morgan Biological Reviews Volume 90, Issue 1, pages 330–346, February 2015. Published, 02/2015.
  • Carrier, D. R., Anders, C. and Schilling, N. 2011. The musculoskeletal system of humans is not tuned to maximize the economy of locomotion. PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1105277108. Published, 11/07/2011.
  • Carrier, D. R. 2011. The advantage of standing up to fight and the evolution of habitual bipedalism in hominins. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19630. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0019630. Published, 05/18/2011.
  • Walter, R. M. and Carrier, D. R. 2011. Effects of fore-aft body mass distribution on acceleration in dogs. J. Exp. Biol. 214, 1763-1772. Published, 05/15/2011.

Research Statement

My research is focused on understanding the ways in which biomechanics has influenced the evolution of vertebrates. I have longstanding and continuing interests in the ontogeny of the musculoskeletal system; integration of locomotion and ventilation; ventilatory mechanisms; and limb biomechanics. Recently, I have become increasingly interested in anatomical specialization for aggressive behavior. My emphasis has been on 

  1. understanding functional tradeoffs between specialization for rapid and economical running versus specialization for aggressive behavior, and
  2. the role that aggressive behavior has played in the evolution of the musculoskeletal system of great apes and hominins.

Presentations

  • CARTA Symposium, University of California, San Diego, Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropology. Invited Talk/Keynote, Accepted, 05/14/2021.
  • Grinnell College, Biological Sciences. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/15/2020.
  • University of Calgary, Biological Sciences Seminar and served as outside reviewer of Delyle Thomas Polet's Ph.D. Dissertation. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 01/24/2020.
  • Northeast Ohio Medical University, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/2019.
  • University of New Orleans, Department of Biological Sciences. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 04/2018.
  • University of California, Irvine, Center for Exercise Medicine and Sport Science. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 02/2018.
  • Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, Annual Conference, Plenary Speaker. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 05/2017.
  • Naturalis, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2016. Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 11/01/2016.