September 2, 2008 Holy Cross professor featured on the History Channel Play video

(Danica Pecirep, NECN: Worcester, MA) - A new series on the history channel looks at how creatures have adapted to survive over time - it's called evolve - and in the latest episode premiering tonight at 10 - a biology professor from the college of the Holy Cross in Worcester is being featured for his work with birds.

Specifically the episode that i took part in is on the evolution of flight.

Leon Classen has been teaching at holy cross for the last three years - but he's been studying the skeletal structure of birds since early on in his career.

You trace all these trajectories through the fossil record we can really enhance our understanding not just of flight- but of general evolutionary concepts too.

The majority of Classens work focuses on determining genealogical relationships between different birds and figuring out when certain traits like flying came about and how and why they did too. In recent years advances in technology have enabled him to enhance his work.

Basically we have laser scanners that can scan bird bones in 3-d and it allows us to have that as computer models in 3d perfectly accurate to a tenth of a millimeter scale.

Earlier this month the national science foundation awarded him nearly half a million dollars in grant money to create an online database of the bones scans and to hire students to assist him with the work.

This database we are trying to make available throughout the world- whether

it be a bird in Japan or Europe or birds only found in America it can be examined online in different parts of the world.

Micahel Kyrzack is one of the students working with Classen to scan and classifying bird bones - he says being a part of project that can help others learn is something he enjoys.

For Classen receiving the grant and having his work featured on national TV is much the same.

I think for me personally it is a rewarding opportunity to try to communicate beyond the research community and the classroom to people who are watching TV.