Dr. Muir Eaton

Professor, Vertebrate Biology
Office Location: 318 Science Connector Building
515-271-2821
muir.eaton@drake.edu

Dr. Muir Eaton is a native of Minnesota, earning his B.A. at Carleton College and his Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. He teaches the following courses in the Biology Department at Drake: BIO 013: Introductory Biology II, BIO 064: Museum Curation, BIO 114/114L: Evolution, BIO 113/113L: Vertebrate Biology, BIO 130/130L: Ornithology, BIO 145L: Winter Avian Ecology in J-term, and BIO 199: Senior Capstone Experience.

Eaton also teaches a Field Ornithology course (EEB 4844) at the University of Minnesota's Itasca Biological Station and Laboratories during the summer, which offers an immersive field biology experience available to Drake students. He also serves as the Curator of Vertebrates for the Biodiversity Center. His research focuses on evolution plumage color and vision in birds. Dr. Eaton aims to teach students the fundamentals of field biology, using birds as model organisms. Students that work in his lab can gain experience with mist-netting and banding of birds, dissection and microscopy techniques of the avian eye, evolutionary analyses of morphological characters in a phylogenetic framework, and behavioral ecology of waterfowl.