John Swallow

portrait of john swallow
Ph.D. • Professor • Biology Research Faculty
Department of Integrative Biology

Mailing Address:
Department of Integrative Biology
Campus Box 171
P.O. Box 173364
Denver, CO 80217-3364

Physical Location:
1150 12th Street
SI 2071 D
Denver, CO 80204

Office Hours:
Office Hours:  TBD – by appointment

Expertise Areas:
Experimental Comparative Physiology, Evolutionary Biology and Animal Behavior

Ph.D., Zoology, University of Wisconsin, 1994-1998
M.S., Conservation Biology & Sustainable Development, University of Wisconson, 1992-1994
B.A., Utah State University, Biology and Liberal Arts and Sciences with Korean Minor, 1989-1992

My research fits under the broad context of evolutionary physiology, focusing largely on how morphology, physiology, and behavior evolve together as an integrated phenotype. One area of my research interests focuses on correlated evolution between exercise physiology and locomotor behavior because the performance abilities of animals are thought to be central to their survival and fitness. More recently, I have initiated research investigating how evolution driven by sexual selection (e.g. ornamentation that serves as secondary sexual signals) conflicts with locomotor performance and, ultimately, fitness using stalk-eyed flies as a model system. Sexual selection provides a selective engine with the ability to drive large changes in suites of behavioral, physiological and morphological characters with the potential for rapid speciation. Research includes ecological, organismal, biomechanical and behavioral approaches.

Bubak, A.N., J.L. Grace, M.J. Watt, K.J. Renner, and J.G. Swallow. 2014. Neurochemisrty as a bridge between morphology and behavior: perspectives on aggression in insects. Current Zoology (in press).

Bubak, A.N., K.J. Renner, and J.G. Swallow. 2014. Heightened serotonin influences contest outcome and enhances expression of high-intensity aggressive behaviors. Behavioural brain research 259: 137-142.

Bubak, A.N., J.G. Swallow, and K.J. Renner. 2013. Whole brain monoamine detection and manipulation in a stalk-eyed fly. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 219: 124-130.

Husak, J.F., G. Ribak, R.H. Baker, G.S. Wilkinson, and J.G. Swallow. 2013. Effects of ornamentation and phylogeny on wing shape evolution in stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 26: 1281-1293.

Schultz, R.L., E.L. Kullman, R.P. Waters, H. Huang, J.P. Kirwan, A.M. Gerdes, J.G. Swallow. 2013. Metabolic adaptations of skeletal muscle to voluntary wheel running exercise in hypertensive heart failure rats. Physiological Research 62: 361-369.

Waters, R.P., R.B. Pringle*, G.L. Forster, K.J. Renner, J.L. Malisch, T. Garland, Jr., and J.G. Swallow. 2013. Selection for increased voluntary wheel running affects behavior and brain monoamines in mice. Brain Research 1508: 9-22.

Worthington, A.M., C. M. Burns*, and J.G. Swallow. 2012. Size matters, but so does shape: Quantifying complex shape changes in a sexually selected trait in stalk-eyed flies (Diptera:Diopsidae) Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 106: 104-113.

Egge, A. R. and John G. Swallow. 2011.Previous experience matters in the stalk-eyed fly, Teleopsis dalmanni. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 65: 1731-1737.

Egge, A.R., Y. Brandt, J.G. Swallow. 2011. Sequential analysis of aggressive interactions in the stalk-eyed fly Teleopsis dalmanni. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 65: 369-379.

Husak, J.F., G. Ribak, G.S. Wilkinson, and J.G. Swallow. 2011. Compensation for exaggerated eyestalks in stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae). Functional Ecology 25: 608-616.

Husak, J.F., G. Ribak, G.S. Wilkinson, and J.G. Swallow. 2011. Sexual dimorphism in wing beat frequency in relation to eye span in stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 104: 670-679.

Husak, J.F. and J.G. Swallow. 2011. Compensatory traits and the evolution of male ornaments. Behaviour 148: 1-29.

Worthington, A.M. and J.G. Swallow. 2011. Using sequential analysis to explore sex differences in anti-predator behavior of stalk-eyed flies. Ethology 117: 829-837.

BIOL 3445, Introduction to Evolution
BIOL 4250/5250, Mechanisms of Animal Behavior