Honoured to receive the Ruth Bowden Award for my PhD research on the cool biomechanics behind how birds stand up from British Federation of Women Graduates! Grateful to the committee and everyone who supported this journey.
#BFWG #BritishFederationofWomenGraduates
Group photo of attendees remaining after 5pm at the UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy's annual symposium 2025. A large group of people are standing on a light, parquet floor, looking up at the camera with smiling faces
Our Annual Symposium 2025 on interdisciplinary aspects of functional morphology was enjoyed by over 70 attendees, incl. 17 speakers, yesterday (20 February). This full-day conference delved into the fascinating and inter-disciplinary world of #anatomy. @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Thanks Kris!
Watch our video to learn how compressive forces sculpt the intricate head scales of #crocodiles! 🎥🐊
And read the full @nature.com article here ⬇️
nature.com/articles/s41...
@rorylcooper.bsky.social @genevunige.bsky.social
And just for fun, think about how you can stand up like an emu.
Grateful to London Interdisciplinary Biosciences Consortium Doctoral Training Programme for supporting this work with a research grant!
Special thanks to Masaya Iijima, Delyle T. Polet, Stacy Ashlyn, and Mauro B.C. Lacerda for their support throughout my first PhD year! Also, many thanks to @pashavanb.bsky.social, Jim R. Usherwood, and Monica A. Daley for their insights into bird biomechanics in this project.
This study marks the first chapter of my PhD at Royal Veterinary College and University College London. Huge thanks to my co-authors Jeffery W. Rankin, Luís P. Lamas, @mmoazen.bsky.social, and @johnrhutchinson.bsky.social! I couldn’t have done it without them. 🎊
It also has practical applications in fields like robotics 🤖 and animal welfare 🐓
See below a video of Troody created by Peter Dilworth from MIT.
Understanding how emus and other species stand up will provide important implications for how non-locomotor behaviours shape musculoskeletal form and function and drive evolutionary adaptions.
See the cool video of our simulations!
SECONDARY FINDING: We further compared dynamic (with compliant tendons) vs static simulations (with rigid tendons), and found that tendons play a major role in reducing excessive muscle fibre length changes and forces.
MAIN FINDING: Much as for our prior study with greyhounds (and others' work with people), emus use large muscle fibre length changes, activations and forces; and more so when they go from sitting to walking vs. sitting to standing.
Measuring muscle activations and forces directly is tough, so we combined experiments with computer simulations of musculoskeletal biomechanics to estimate how emus use their muscles to stand up. 👩💻🍗
In our study, we focused on emus 🦵, and we collected data from force platforms that the emus used to stand up and motion capture cameras.
See below a video of our experiment.
Unlike humans, animals do not normally have a seat, and they start off from very crouched position, and thus many animals probably have large joint moments which give them a weaker strength-to-weight ratio. They also have diverse sizes, morphology, ecology and so on…
Terrestrial vertebrates—including humans—often sit to rest and stand to move around. While we've studied how humans stand up extensively, surprisingly little research exists on how other animals transition from sitting to standing.
Ever wondered how birds stand up? Our paper explores how emus use their muscles to stand up. We found that these large, flightless birds use large muscle fibre length changes, activations and forces. My 1st PhD chapter, out now in @jexpbiol.bsky.social!
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Screen shot of the top of the first page of the Journal of Experimental Biology Editorial, JEB launches a new article type for theory and modelling studies, written by S. N. Patek, Monica A. Daley, Matthew McHenry and Sanjay Sane. The first sentence of the Editorial reads: JEB recently launched a new article type called Theory & Modelling.
Find out more about JEB's new article type, Theory & Modelling, allowing scientists to publish research leveraging modelling and theory to address new biological questions, in Sheila Patek, Monica Daley, Matt McHenry & Sanjay Sane's Editorial
journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/...
Oh groovy, our paper on the hindlimb biomechanics of the Triassic dinosauriform Lagosuchus is out! A quick thread for now. We uCT-scanned most of the existing skeletal material for this important outgroup to Dinosauria. We sorted through the elements and chose the best ones to make a 3D model from.
Very cool science!! Explainer video here-- www.nature.com/articles/d41...
London's Centre for Ecology and Evolution is having a 1-day symposium on climate change and (broadly defined) biodiversity, all day, Friday 8 September -- free tickets here:
www.kcl.ac.uk/events/centr...
So excited!
First time!
