Finalized version of my latest paper now online! All the same great biology linking myosin protein composition, muscle anatomy and lever mechanics across scales in rodents. Now now in a prettier, shinier pdf! www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Trace fossils constrain the perceptual ranges of the earliest motile animals | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Just published in @pnasnexus.org : our collaboration with Soft BioRobotics Perception Lab (IIT, Genova) reveals how Asian elephant trunk skin combines protection, grasping and tactile sensing—a blueprint for soft robotic skins.
doi.org/10.1093/pnas...
Fantastic research led by @lucyroberts.bsky.social examines the evolution of axial skeletal complexity in reptiles. Turns out the textbooks were wrong- highly complex vertebral columns evolve multiple times within amniotes!
Roberts, L.E., Head, J.J. Nat Commun (2026). doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Beaks of the Permo‐Triassic: a morpho‐functional analysis at the dawn of a novel structure in tetrapod evolution - Landi - 2026 - Palaeontology - Wiley Online Library onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Drivers of variation in head shape and bite force in monitor lizards academic.oup.com/biolinnean/a...
Despite variations in muscular attachments, the posterior layer of the thoracolumbar fascia consistently contained collagen bundles oriented in an inferolateral direction from the lumbar spine to the iliac crest, independent of the orientation of the muscular aponeuroses. doi.org/10.1111%2Fjo...
Cranial soft tissues scale non-uniformly in geckos, a group w/extensive body-size variation. DiceCT, μCT & phylogenetic comparative methods revealed negative brain allometry, positive allometry of jaw adductors & variable eye scaling.
Lagorio et al anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
You should look a gift ungulate in the mouth: Using 2D occlusal cheek tooth morphology to study the evolution of molarization in ungulates academic.oup.com/iob/article/...
New material of Enchodus petrosus from Late Cretaceous Bearpaw Fm (Alberta) sheds light on this widespread predatory fish. Four well-preserved skulls reveal novel braincase anatomy, premaxillary fang fossa, & sympatry w/E. gladiolus.
Nelson et al
anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Multi-scale analysis of the rodent craniofacial system reveals correlated bite force adaptations at the molecular, muscular and skeletal scales, that further correlate with feeding ecology.
www.nature.com
The late Ediacaran marks a pivotal interval in early animal evolution, when benthic
organisms began engaging with increasingly heterogeneous and dy...
Abstract. Muscular hydrostats, like the elephant trunk, face a fundamental biomechanical conflict between robust protection and delicate manipulation. How
doi.org
Complex axial skeletal morphology has evolved in mammals and some reptiles. Here the authors combine morphometrics with a maximum likelihood model to find that axial heterogeneity is associated with b...
Abstract. Monitor lizards (Varanidae) comprise 88 species exhibiting morphological and ecological diversity. Because diet and habitat impose functional con
academic.oup.com
The Triassic was a unique time for beak evolution, as seen in a wide diversity of terrestrial tetrapods. Beaks were present in dicynodont synapsid survivors of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction even...
Abstract. Cheek teeth are filled to the cusp with information about mammalian evolution. Studying the evolution of mammalian cheek tooth crown complexity h
