Alligators have a lot more in common with humans than you might think, and the ways their bodily systems develop – or deform — before hatching are a lot like the ways human babies grow in their mothers’ uteruses.
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| Dr. Louis J. Guillette Jr. |
And tiny, tiny doses of chemicals that can cause alligators to die before they hatch or to hatch with significant birth defects can have similar impacts on humans.
That was the message that Louis J. Guillette Jr., a reproductive biologist, delivered to about 150 people who attended his lecture Sept. 14 at the University of Minnesota. The lecture was sponsored by the Freshwater Society and the university’s College of Biological Sciences.
To view a videotape of Guillette’s lecture, click here. To hear a Minnesota Public Radio interview with Guillette and University of Minnesota Professor Deborah Swackhamer, click here. To read a Freshwater interview with Guillette, click here. And to view a KARE-11 television interview with Guillette, click here.
Guillette is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical University of South Carolina. He also