This week’s post is from Dr. Emily Naylor, a postdoctoral scientist at the Department of Biological Sciences, George Washington University (DC, USA). This post is about her ongoing research. If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. Happy and safe holidays to you! Have you ever seen a…
Tag: biomechanics
In focus: Your teeth are a sensory system
This week’s post is from Kelsey Stilson, a PhD student in biology at the University of Chicago, specialising in neurobiology and functional anatomy. It’s a post with teeth, in more ways than one! If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. I study opossums. Specifically, I study…
In focus: The fabella, the forgotten knee bone
This week’s post is from Dr. Michael Bertaume, an “anthroengineer”– combining studies of anthropology and mechanical engineering perspectives. This post is about his team’s scientific paper just published here. If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. The foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone,The ankle bone’s connected…
In focus: Do slow-moving animals have stiff backs?
This week’s post is from Michael Granatosky, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago in the department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy (Figure 1). If you would like to write for Anatomy to You, get in touch via Facebook or Twitter. Figure 1. Michael Granatosky (left) collecting data in Brazil on the comparative energetic…
In focus: Streetlamps, cranes and the internal architecture of the human femur
We are back after a break! And we have a nice series of posts planned already from numerous guest writers! To kick things off, let’s get hip to bone structure. This week’s post is from Diogo M. Geraldes, PhD CEng MIMechE MEng; a biomedical engineer in London. If you would like to write for Anatomy…
In focus: Investigating the Biomechanics of the Tadpole from Hell
by Eva Herbst, Structure & Motion Lab, The Royal Veterinary College, UK. If you would like to contribute a guest post, please get in touch, such as on Twitter or Facebook. Fig. 1 Reconstruction of Crassigyrinus scoticus (Panchen & Smithson 1990) My name is Eva Herbst and I started my PhD with John Hutchinson and co-supervisor…
In focus: The mysterious extra ‘digits’ of pandas, moles and elephants
The biological ‘five finger rule’ is strikingly consistent throughout living tetrapod vertebrates. Humans and other primates, most carnivorous mammals, crocodiles, lizards and tortoises all typically possess the five digits (fingers and toes) characteristic of tetrapod limbs. It wasn’t always so – the ancient ancestors of the first vertebrates to walk on land, such as Ichthyostega and Acanthostega, had up to…
Manakin birds have evolved bones and muscles adapted for elaborate mating displays
Manakins are a group of small passarine birds found across Central and South America. They are known for their often dramatic and noisy mating displays from males of the group, particularly movements of the wings. Wing snapping, when the male ‘claps’ the wings together behind him to produce a sharp noise, is observed in several…
#FossilFriday: A four-legged snake from Brazil points to the origins of modern snakes
It sounds like a contradiction, but palaeontologists from the UK and Germany have discovered a snake with legs! This stunning fossil, found in Brazil, dates from the time of the dinosaurs in the early Cretaceous period, which began more than 145 million years ago. The new species, Tetrapodophis [meaning four-legged] amplectus, has the characteristic anatomical features of a snake,…
#fossilfriday: Eudibamus, an early parareptile that shows adaptations to bipedal running
Our chosen fossil today is Eudibamus cursoris,which was first discovered in Germany and dated at 290 millions years old. This ancient parareptile (not a dinosaur, but appearing much earlier) was just 26 cm long and lived among the early amniotes in the early Permian. At this time, terrestrial vertebrates had rapidly diversified but were almost universally constrained…
In Focus: Can golden moles hear the earth move with a Thor-like ‘hammer’?
The golden moles (Chrysochloridae) are a group of silky and rather endearing group of mammals resembling, but distinct from, the true moles (talpids). Indeed, they are more closely related to elephants and manatees than to moles, shrews, rodents or other seemingly similar animals. They share many features with moles, such as adaptations to burrowing, and inhabit…
Rattlesnake strikes are far more sophisticated than a simple ‘spring’ release
More than half of a rattlesnake’s body may be involved in striking behaviour, particularly where the strike is defensive, and the anterior third of body length is usually active when hunting. The remainder of the body ‘anchors’ the snake to a solid base position. Tracking the kinematics of a single strike reveals that different segments of…
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