Ann Campbell Burke examines the development and evolution of vertebrates, in particular, turtles. Her Harvard University experiments, described in Development of the Turtle Carapace: Implications for the Evolution of a Novel Bauplan, were published in 1989. Burke used molecular techniques to investigate the developmental mechanisms responsible for the formation of the turtle shell. Burke's work with turtle embryos has provided empirical evidence for the hypothesis that the evolutionary origins of turtle morphology depend on changes in the embryonic and developmental mechanisms underpinning shell production.