At the RVC we are grieving the death of the Structure & Motion Lab's creator, and stalwart comrade, Professor Alan Wilson FRS, from a plane crash in Namibia on Wednesday. He was a giant in comparative biomechanics and an amazing scientist. I'm still reeling. It is utterly shocking and deeply sad.
New #DAWNDINOS paper!
We do predictive simulations of vertical height jumping in the Triassic theropod Coelophysis & extant (tinamou) bird Eudromia. Mainly as sensitivity analysis of what parameters are most important. We show how crucial tail mobility is.
royalsocietypublishing.org/rsif/article...
When it comes to speech, parrots have the gift of gab. And the way the brains of small parrots known as budgerigars bestow this gift is remarkably similar to human speech, researchers report.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/parrots-humans-brain-speech-birds
What drives impaired exercise tolerance in type 2 diabetes? James Charles and Roger Kissane use experimental and musculoskeletal modelling data to show that diabetes changes tendon mechanics in a way that makes locomotion more expensive 🦴🐁💪📉
physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1113/...
In March, we welcome Dr Ariel Camp from @livuni-ilcams.bsky.social to @chesterscibar.bsky.social to tell us what all the puff is about pufferfish. See you @StoryhouseLive on Tuesday 10th March at 7.30. #chester
Summer Workshop in Comparative Biomechanics (phylogenetic methods etc.) in sunny Riverside, California:
moenlab.ucr.edu/workshop-pcms/
Piranha bite force and tooth stress are fantastically high for their size! Check out our new paper on computational modeling of the cranial muscles and bite mechanics of the amazing piranhas. #biomechsky 🐟🧪🌿
link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007...
The new computational model for jaw mechanics in piranhas is called PiranhaLever, available for download on my GitHub github.com/mwestneat/Pi.... Along with various other models for biomechanics and morphometrics. All Mac apps, install the dmg and skirt your security demon 😎
🚨 JOB ALERT 🚨
2-year postdoc in canine behaviour at Linköping University, Sweden.
#AcademicSky #ScienceJobs
liu.se/en/work-at-l...
ICYMI 2:
Artificially ⬆️basal ganglia activity made birds learn to sing faster! Why? Interestingly, ⬆️activity also caused ⬆️variability. Moreover, the magnitude of ⬆️variability correlated with accelerated rates of learning, suggesting enhanced exploration facilitated learning!
#ProcB in @sciam.bsky.social | Acoustic flow velocity manipulations affect the flight velocity of free-ranging pipistrelle bats: doi.org/10.1098/rspb...
📑‼️ New commentary out today from Roger on the importance of experimental design and best practice for muscle mechanics experiments!
New microCT job! Come run our new Heritage Science lab at ManMet. 5 year post funded by AHRC. Responsible for the microCT plus terrestrial LiDAR, surface laser scanners and more! Happy to consider any disciplinary background manmetjobs.mmu.ac.uk/jobs/vacancy...
🚨 Palaeo jobs alert!! 🚨
Two(!!) postdoc positions available in Cambridge!
1. Human Evolutionary Anatomy: cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
2. Evolutionary Biomechanics: cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...
As part of the @erc.europa.eu funded STEPS project!
Crows are flying around in the dark through thick smoke as fireworks explode all around.
Crows are flying around in the dark through thick smoke as fireworks explode all around.
Hundreds of crows can be seen flying in to roost around Alexanderplatz on a grey winter night.
A hooded crow stands in a slushy puddle on a cold winter night.
Bonfire night is here! Sending love to those sheltering with animal companions
@wascherclaudia.bsky.social and I have new research out about the impacts fireworks have on urban corvids: ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
And as video: youtu.be/dCfHEqJfx2A
#BonfireNight #birds #crows #urbanwildlife
🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity!
We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have:
(1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs)
(2) better hand dexterity
(3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵
A pair of canaries from the canary breeding colony of the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence in Seewiesen, Germany. CREDIT: Stefan Leitner
Researchers gave female canaries testosterone, which causes them to sing. Two-photon in vivo imaging reveals that songs emerge due to changes in brain cell function rather than by increasing the size of a key brain region, as was once thought. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/pn1750XhFL5
The songbird basal ganglia connectome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.25.684569v1
Neophobia compared in 1,439 birds of 136 species
Specialised diets and migration are associated with greater fear of new objects. Surprisingly, witnessing such objects in groups is also associated with greater fear.
(paper) journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
(blog) phys.org/news/2025-10...
🦇 Bat nasal bones (turbinals) reveal how form follows function. Echolocating bats have simpler, plate-like turbinals, while fruit-eating bats show complex, scrolled ones—especially Cynopterus sphinx & Artibeus jamaicensis.
King et al.: anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Fish suck... but species that feed on algae suck differently! 🐟 A new publication in Communications Biology by #UAFunMorph members Jana De Ridder, Peter Aerts, and Sam Van Wassenbergh, demonstrates how head motion patterns for generating suction are finetuned to the species' main diets.
A labrador with reflective markers placed at key anatomical positions on the animal's body ready for 3D motion capture. Photo credit: James Charles.
We are asking working dogs to help by carrying loads & now @jamescharles90.bsky.social & co have discovered that burdened spaniels trot faster & stride farther, unlike shepherds and Labradors that slow down & are better suited to carry burdens in the long term
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
‼️📄 Two new papers out today in @jexpbiol.bsky.social lead by @jamescharles90.bsky.social, all about locomotion and load-carrying across different working dog breeds! ⤵️ 🐕 🏋️♂️
🦮 (1/4)
Postdoc advertisement!
Hi all, I'm looking to hire a Postdoc in BIOACOUSTICS for work on Owls. Your job would be to collect & analyze bioacoustics data, and write papers. 🦉🦉🦅🐦🦜🦉🦉
🚨 Hiring! We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in computational fluid dynamics and structural simulations to investigate biomechanics and mechanosensory feedback in insect flight.
Extreme agility ✔️
Morphological computing ✔️
Meshes! ✔️
jobs.rvc.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...
Check out our new paper in @journalofanatomy.bsky.social!
🐇💀
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
illustrations of an awake common myna with lights of a city in the background, and of a sleeping common myna with trees and a dark sky in the background.
New article out:
The effects of sleep disturbance on a songbird’s vocal performance
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
#science #birds #sleep #birdsong #urbanecology
Harry Gill first PhD paper is out, applying @deeplabcut.bsky.social to dog gait analyses ... and it worked pretty well :)
You can access the paper here:
authors.elsevier.com/c/1lXNEcF2Ow...
@cbrassey.bsky.social
Review in #ProcB - After the fight: post-contest acoustic signalling #OpenAccess #Behaviour @andyradford.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
