Personal Profile
Shane B. Kanatous Ph.D.
I am a Brooklyn, New York native transformed into the rare hybrid of a Texas Aggie who works for the University of Texas System. I have often been asked how a kid from New York City became interested in marine biology and physiology. As a child, I remember watching the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and being fascinated by the ocean and its marine life. From there, my love of the marine world continued to grow as I read all of Cousteau’s books and anything else I could about the ocean. Since my days in grammar school, I wanted to be an Oceanographer/Marine Biologist. During my senior year at Xaverian High School, I had the opportunity to meet and discuss a career in marine biology with the Director of the New York Aquarium, Dr. George Ruggieri. Dr. Ruggieri encouraged me to pursue a degree in Marine Science at Southampton College of Long Island University. In addition to an excellent academic program, Southampton offered an extensive internship and co-operative educational program, which played an essential role in sculpting my future career. As a sophomore, I undertook my first great adventure, when I spent a semester at sea crewing on a 110 ft schooner from Glouchester, Massachusetts north to Appledore, Maine and then down the Atlantic coast, ending in the Dominican Republic. While on seamester, my crewmates and I were required to take a full semester’s worth of courses, which included Marine ecology, Ichthyology, Literature and of course sailing. What made the trip so amazing, besides the dolphins, whales, and sharks we were seeing on a daily basis, was the fact that everything we were learning about in the classroom was only a field trip away. My semester at sea has provided memories and experiences that I still call upon some fifteen years later. During my college career, I became fascinated with how an animal’s body works while swimming underwater, or gliding through waves. What I came to learn was that I was fascinated with the physiology of animals. My interest in physiology was further solidified during my senior year when I became an intern for Dr. Gerry Kooyman in the Physiological Research Lab at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in San Diego, California. During that year, we studied the diving physiology and metabolism of California sea lions, harbor seals, thick-billed murres, and king and emperor penguins. At Scripps, I developed the basic ideas that would later develop into my Ph.D. topic and set the groundwork for our current project in Antarctica.
After my time at Scripps, I went on to receive my PhD. in exercise and skeletal muscle physiology from TexasA&MUniversity under the guidance of Dr. Randall W. Davis. During my Ph.D., I had the opportunity to participate in a host of different studies. In specific projects, I have studied diving behavior and physiology, fuel homeostasis, reproductive behavior and energetics, foraging behavior and energetics, thermoregulation, and swimming energetics in a variety of marine and terrestrial mammals. My research has not only been limited to physiology, but has spanned a number of biological and oceanographic disciplines investigating different ecological questions. In additional projects, I have studied reproductive and courting behavior, migratory patterns, deep-sea benthic environments and the distribution marine mammals in relation to oceanographic characteristics in the Gulf of Mexico. This diverse research experience enables me to provide a broad perspective to my current research dealing with physiological and ecological topics.
Upon completion of my dissertation, I returned to the University of California at San Diego as a National Institute of Health Minority Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Physiology section of the School of Medicine working with Dr. Peter Wagner and Dr. Odile Mathieu-Costello. My research dealt with biochemical and morphological adaptations of skeletal muscles to hypoxia in breath-hold diving and high altitude adapted mammals and birds. After San Diego, I joined the lab of Dr. R. Sanders Williams at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. While in Dallas I started to learn the molecular techniques that are now a core area of my current research. After our last expedition to the ice, I moved from Dallas to Fort Collins Colorado; where I joined the faculty of the Department of Biology at Colorado State University as an Assistant Professor.
While my basic ideas have matured beyond being the next Jacque Cousteau, I guess the answer to the question of how a kid from New York City becomes a marine biologist is, that he followed his heart and dared to dream big. The best advice I can give is to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal, and never let anyone or anything discourage you from achieving those dreams. Seek the advice and guidance of your parents, teachers and mentors, and remember the road may not always be smooth, but the journey will be an amazing one.
Shane_kanatous's Recent Blog Entries
Another Amazing Season
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Mon Dec 18 18:49:34 2006
Wow; another amazing season! We successfully sampled another 31 animals, which brings our total to 62 animals over the last two seasons. For a study of this type that is truly an amazing number of animals. I would like to take a moment and thank the outstanding efforts of the field team (Steve, Jay, Shawn and Linnea), the lab team (Tom, Peter, Sophia and Jesse) as well as the Polar Science team (Susan, Tom, Diane and you) for the success of this study as well as the website.
I am now.....
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To Rifle Cubs
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Tue Nov 28 08:51:15 2006
Hello, I got a question for
you is your job always hard even with your team with you,and plus do
you help poor animals that are injured?
Well actually thus job would be impossible to do alone. So I guess the answer is yes it is still difficult even with the team but having a good team (like I have had throughout this project) makes the impossible and difficult a possible.
As for helping injured animals, we would love to but as part of our permits we are not allowed to disturbed the.....
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From Ice Team to Lab Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Tue Nov 28 08:40:43 2006
Tom,
Great to hear you got the Myoglobin working on the heart. Do you know what you did differently?
By the way your suggestions on lysing the red blood cells worked great. We froze down our first set of pup muscle cells yesterday. So to date we have gotten primary cultures from all three age classes!!!!! Success, thanks again for all the help.
So of course we are finishing up and packing now. The final total was 15 adults, 6 juveniles and 10 pups. Another great year. Hope all is.....
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Answer to Challenge Question #13 from the Ice Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Nov 26 21:55:31 2006
Last week we asked you to describe the shape of the teeth for Weddell, Crabeater, and Leopard Seals and explain how each particular tooth structure aids in the capture of a particular prey type.
Here's the answer.
Leopard, Crabeater, and Weddell seals have some overlap in their diet, but they do specialize on some very distinctive prey.
You should have noticed that the.....
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Ice Team to Lab Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Wed Nov 22 11:32:22 2006
Hey Lab team,
Good timing because I also had a question for you. First let me know what the problems are with the Mb.
Tom I was wondering if you had any suggestions. When we culture the pup primary cell cultures I am getting a lot of red blood cells growing. They are overwhelming the culture. Any suggestions.
Shane
Hi Ice Team,
I am glad to hear all is going well on the Ice. Your reports are great! (although it makes me miss my time on the ice!)
We are having some.....
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Week 7 Report from the Ice Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Nov 19 19:16:05 2006
Wow only a couple of more weeks left in the field season! We hope you have had as much fun participating in the project as we have.
Our Week 7 Report is now posted in the Expedition News focus area. While you're there have a look at the Photo Gallery as well for our latest photos.
If you have any questions, send them to the Expedition News Messages Area.
Dr. Shane
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Boundary Street School
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Thu Nov 9 11:44:56 2006
I've learned that seals dont have ears. But why dont they have ears?? Actually seals do have ears and have excellent hearing. What seals lack is an external ear pinna or flap.
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To aanestadhomelearners
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Wed Nov 8 11:40:16 2006
We thank you for your concern about the leopard seals. However they are not found in the McMurdo Sound area. They are found much firther out along the ice edge and even in our travels to the edge I have never seen one. Take care.
Dr. Shane
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Challenge Question #9 from the Ice Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Nov 5 21:56:39 2006
Challenge Question #9:
One of the reasons scientists work with Weddell seals is because they are extremely docile and gentle by nature. In contrast, many species of seals that live in the Arctic Circle are skittish and difficult to approach. Why do you think that Weddell seals are not aggressive toward humans? (Hint: it is related to predator-prey relationships.)
Post your answers.....
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Answers to Week 4 Ice Team's Questions
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Nov 5 21:12:11 2006
Hi everyone,
We are so pleased to see how hard the teams are working at answering the Challenge Questions!
Here are the answers to the Week 4 Questions form the Ice Team.
Question #6: What are the terms used to describe the 4 ways in which animals lose heat to their environment?
Answer: Convection, Conduction, Evaporation, Radiation
Question #7: Given your understanding of.....
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To the Auroraborealites
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Nov 5 11:00:04 2006
When you return the seal pups after your testing,if they happen to refuse to go back with their mothers, what would you do with them?
Fortunately that has never happened. At the time we start working with the pups, the females have started to go back in the water to feed. So technically the pups are weaned are could survive on their own. However the moms usually spend a cuople of more weeks with the pups taking them into the water the first few times. Unlike some bird species the young.....
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To homelearners, aanestadhomelearners
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Thu Nov 2 09:43:49 2006
Question #1...
we watched a video about the Antarctic and it talked about "distortion of the senses" which were "mirage like illusions" It was a very common thing to happen to the early explorers....such as Robert Falcon Scott and his team who thought they saw St. Paul's Cathedral. Did you guys study this and is this something you have to think about?
Actually the early explorers were under a lot more physical duress then we are today which may have caused their illusions. That is not.....
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Boundary Street Public School
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Mon Oct 30 08:24:06 2006
Wow, we just got a chance to see your blog about your experiment with the insulators. Great experiment. While we do not wear foam it use as an insulator is quite well known down here. It is actually what the toilet seats out at camps are made of. Keep up the good work.
Dr. Shane
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Palmerston North Girls High
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Mon Oct 30 08:19:47 2006
What do seals use their whiskers for? The whiskers of seals are quite sensitive and are believe to be used to pick up different sensory cues especially when the animals are diving. For example it is believed they can use their whisker to sense changes in water movement they may alert them to prey.
How long are these? Now I have never actually measured them but they appear to be around 6 inches or 15 cm in length in the adults.
How long do the Weddell seals live for? We do not know the.....
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Ice Team to Lab Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Mon Oct 30 08:12:32 2006
Hey Lab Team,
Great job on the updates and stuff. How are the analyses going? So far we have sampled 5 adults, 3 juveniles and 1 subadult. We have also started to work on some western analysis. In addition we have started sectioning some of our mounted samples and due to the harsh conditions it has proven difficult to get the samples to freeze properly that is without freeze fracture. So we will switch to placing the sample in cryoprotectant for 24 hrs and then mount and freeze the.....
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Week 4 Challenge Questions from the Ice Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Oct 29 16:50:41 2006
Hi everyone,
We've just posted our Week 4 Report in the Expedition News Focus Area. We've had a busy week; to date we have sampled 6
adults and 3 juveniles.
Here are three new questions to challenge you this week! Post your answers to the Challenge Questions shared discussion forum.
Challenge Question #6:
What are the terms used to describe the 4 ways in which animals lose heat to their environment?
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Excitement
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Oct 29 09:19:49 2006
Big Bad Wolves think you are excited about this year and sampling because the ice edge is closer to where you are ( it melted farther this summer than last summer)and that makes sampling much easier since neither you nor the seals are traveling as far and you may find more of the males or females ( hopefully not pregnant) that you are looking for.
Very good. That is exactly right.
Dr. Shane
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Ice Edge 2005 vs 2006
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Thu Oct 26 20:03:22 2006
Oops, sorry Dr. Kanatous! That was my error in uploading the image files to the server. Let's try this again!
Diane
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Wow; what a difference a year makes!!!!
Pictured below are the satellite images of the ice edge from 2005 and 2006.
2005
2006
Can you guess why we are so excited about this field season as compared to.....
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Ice Edge 2006 vs 2005
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Thu Oct 26 19:53:18 2006
Wow; what a difference a year makes!!!!
Pictured below are the satellite images of the ice edge from 2005 and 2006.
2005
2006
Can you guess why we are so excited about ths field season as compared to the last? What effect would the location of the ice edge have on our research? Send your answers to Team Dr. Kanatous in the messages area.
(Hint the answer can be.....
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Week 3 Challenge Questions from the Ice Team
Posted By Shane_Kanatous, Dr. Kanatous on Sun Oct 22 20:02:55 2006
Hi everyone,
We've just posted our Week 3 Report in the Expedition News focus area. All in all it was a great week; the ice team had our first samples!
Read our report and then have fun answering these new Challenge Questions! Post your answers to the Challenge Questions shared discussion forum.
Challenge Question #4:
So why is it easier for seals to maintain breathing holes closer to islands or natural cracks than in the middle of.....
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