Category Archives: Uncategorized

In late November 2023, I travelled with colleagues from the the UK and France to Johannesburg, South Africa. We visited the hominin fossil collections at Wits University, toured the Cradle of Humankind and, more specifically, Sterkfontein cave system, attended a two day long workshop called BrAIn (evolution of the brain in our own lineage andContinue reading “Research trip to South Africa!!”

Hot off the press – the soft tissue reconstructions of Lucy were published today in Royal Society Open Science – and the best part? ALL DATA IS FULLY OPEN ACCESS. Read the press release here Digital modelling of legendary fossil’s soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree dwelling,Continue reading “New paper published!”

There was a busy start to 2023 with two new papers published! Paper 1: We started off the year with our publication on quantitative biomechanics of the Euparkeria capensis pelvis and hindlimb – this is a Middle Triassic critter which may or may not have walked bipedally. We tested the pitch of this critter toContinue reading “Two new paper alerts!”

Dr Edgard Camaros I Perez recently won funding to present a booth at the Science if Wonderful! outreach event in Brussels, hosted by the EU Commission, funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. Edgard very kindly invited me along to join him and help host the booth. The event was wonderful! 4000 schoolkids from across EuropeContinue reading “Science is Wonderful! Outreach Event in Brussels, March 2023”

In January I travelled to the NMK in Nairobi, Kenya to scan some fossil specimens. The trip as a whole was a such a wonderful experience – and one that I really hope I can repeat in the future! The opportunity to enter the vaults in the NMK and have a precious, 2.5 million yearContinue reading “Research Trip to Nairobi, Kenya!”

3D volumetric muscle reconstruction of the Australopithecus afarensis pelvis and limb, with estimations of limb leverage In this project, my main aim is to reconstruct the soft tissues of fossil hominins and then assess their locomotory capabilities… and I’m so pleased to announce that my preprint is finally available on BioRxiv! Before we can reconstruct movement, weContinue reading “Research paper available on BioRxiv!”

Our latest paper from the DAWNDINOS project has just been published – see it here! Our paper tackles a conundrum in evolutionary biomechanics – how can we accurately estimate the size (PCSA; Physiological Cross Sectional Area) of a muscle in fossil specimens when soft tissues do not preserve? And why is this important? Well, theContinue reading “New paper published!”

Last week, I returned to Le Rozel in Normandy, France – a site which is infamous for the discovery of many Neanderthal footprints (read more about it here). I conducted a few experiments (more about that in due course…), excavated a few exciting things (more about that in due course…), spoke to a few journalists,Continue reading “Successful fieldwork season, 2022!”

Reconstructing articular cartilage in the Australopithecus afarensis hip joint and the need for modelling six degrees of freedom The first paper of my Leverhulme Trust funded project has just been published in Integrative Organismal Biology – Read the paper here! A detailed post about the paper, methods and results can be found on the Projects UpdateContinue reading “New paper published:”