Dr. Talia Lowi-Merri

Talia is an evolutionary biologist and NSERC postdoctoral fellow in the Edwards lab at Harvard University. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto, based in the Royal Ontario Museum, in 2023 investigating the dinosaur-bird transition through ecomorphology of the avian sternum. She then completed a postdoctoral position at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, studying form-function, integration, and evolution in avian neuroanatomy. In the Edwards lab, Talia is expanding into genomic methods to study the evolution of flightlessness. In addition to research, Talia is an avid science communicator, having hosted the YouTube show ‘Paleologic’ on the Animalogic channel, and regularly engaging in museum-based programming and outreach.

Recent publications: 

Lowi-Merri, TM., Benson, RBJ., Hu. H., O’Connor, JK., Claramunt, S., Evans, DC. 2025. Enlargement of sternum traits facilitated the evolution of powered flight in birds. In press at Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Taylor, MJ., Green, TL, Guilhon, G., Lowi-Merri, TM., Watanabe, A. Bone and cartilage staining protocol for large avian specimens: late-stage embryonic emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) and adult chickens (Gallus gallus). Available on BioRXiv: doi.org/10.1101/2025.03.24.645048

Lowi-Merri, TM., Gjevori, M., Bochenski, Z., Wertz, K., Claramunt, S. 2024. Total-evidence dating and the phylogenetic affinities of early fossil passerines. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 22:2356086. doi.org/10.1080/14772019.2024.2356086.

Grigg, AG., Lowi-Merri, TM., Hutchings, JA., and Massey, MD. 2023. Thermal variability induces sex-specific morphometric changes in zebrafish (Danio rerio). Journal of Fish Biology, 103:839-850. doi.org/10.1111/jfb.15551

Reynolds, AR., Lowi-Merri, TM., Brannick, AL., Seymour, KL., Churcher, CS., and Evans, DC. 2023. Dire wolf (Canis dirus) confirmed from the late Pleistocene of southern Canada (Medicine Hat, Alberta). Journal of Quaternary Science, 38:938–946. doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3516.

Lowi-Merri, TM., Demuth, O., Benito J., Field, DJ., Benson, RJB., Claramunt, S., Evans, DC. 2023. Reconstructing locomotor ecology of extinct avialans: a case study of Ichthyornis comparing sternum morphology and skeletal proportions. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 290:20222020. doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2020

Lowi-Merri, TM., Benson, R.J.B., Claramunt, S., and Evans, D.C. 2021. The relationship between sternum variation and mode of locomotion in birds. BMC Biology, 19:165. doi.org/10.1186/s12915-021-01105-1

Lowi-Merri, TM. & D.C. Evans. 2020. Cranial variation in Gryposaurus and biostratigraphy of hadrosaurines (Ornithischia: Hadrosauridae) from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 57:765-779.  doi.org/10.1139/cjes-2019-0073