Episode 58: Animal biomechanics
Palaeocast
English - January 15, 2016 00:00 - 48 minutes - 67.1 MB - ★★★★★ - 154 ratingsNatural Sciences Science Education Courses evolution geology palaeontology paleontology science dinosaurs education fossils paleo Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
One of the most difficult aspects of palaeontology is understanding how extinct animals moved around. It’s one thing to find a fossil and reconstruct it’s morphology, but it’s completely another to put that morphology into action and understand the locomotion or behaviour. One reason for this is because of the lack of soft tissue and muscles. The field of biomechanics can help with this by looking at the actual physics of these structures to help understand things like the forces exerted on the bones or tendons of an animal.
Professor John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College of the University of London is an expert in biomechanics of both living and extinct vertebrates. He has worked on many aspects of the tetrapod tree including early tetrapods up to birds. This episode focuses on how we can use biomechanics to understand locomotion in extinct animals, including dinosaurs, early tetrapods, and how modern animals relate to this question.