Extremely excited to share the first paper from my postdoc, out today in Proceedings B @RSocPublishing ! We explore the diversity of jaw morphologies in lepidosaurs 🦎🐍 and its evolutionary drivers. Read all about it here: https://t.co/evi2ScFvnN #Evolution #morphology #reptiles

Another day another jaw-dropping discovery in mammal evolution! 🦴 Fossils from southern Brazil reveal mammal ancestors experimented with jaw and ear features millions of years earlier than thought! 🔍 👉 https://bhttps://brnw.ch/21wNc3r @UoBEarthScience @JimBobJud

Pleased that our paper on mammalian jaw evolution is out today in @Nature. First paper from James’ PhD arising from on-going collaboration with our friends and colleagues Pam Gill, @agu_martinelli, @MarinaBentoSoa2 and Cesar Schultz. Thread 🧵👇

Very excited to see the results of so much collaborative work published! Huge thanks to all my coauthours/supervisors @agu_martinelli, Pamela Gill, @MarinaBentoSoa2, Cesar Schultz, @jemilyr @BristolPalaeo and to @SWBio_DTP @NERCscience for making this project possible!

By contrast, we found no dentary-squamosal contact in Brasilodon, the closest relative of mammaliaforms. This means that the lineage of cynodonts that include Riograndia likely evolved this feature separately. Jaw joint evolution in cynodonts is more flexible than we thought!

We looked at the jaw joints of two Triassic cynodonts from Brazil, Brasilodon and Riograndia, and uncover an independent evolution of the 'mammalian' jaw contact. This feature shows up in Riograndia 17 million years before it first appears in mammal ancestors!

NEW PAPER!🚨Very pleased to announce that the first paper from my PhD on mammalian jaw joint evolution has been published today in @Nature! https://t.co/nLB5OMe2Iy Graphical abstract by @GraphicsSci

Widespread convergence towards functional optimization in the lower jaws of crocodile-line archosaurs https://t.co/rB7fwqKtWK | #ProcB #Biomechanics #Evolution #Palaeontology

This paper was distilled out of work done for my MSci thesis I completed back in 2021. Very glad to see it out and thanks to my coauthors @digitalpalaeo @DrTLStubbs @PalaeoTom @jemilyr @glpcjd for seeing it through!

We also found that resistance to Von Mises stresses (i.e. jaw strength during biting) is actually not a strong driver of morphology in our lower jaws, and may operate as a minimum boundary for viable shapes.

We found that ecologically convergent crurotarsans achieved similarly optimised jaw shape, though some of the best performing shapes in the morphospace remained unrealised. Diet seems to be a better predictor of jaw shape than habitat

Testing the performance of each shape for rotational efficiency, strength and hydrodynamics let us see how real jaws stacked up against shapes that never evolved, and a clever Pareto optimality algorithm let us test for optimality for a trade-off between multiple functions!

We used code developed by the brilliant @digitalpalaeo to characterise 2D lateral shape of 243 species using EFA and plot a grid of 500 theoretical jaws that went beyond the known morphological diversity of crurotarsan lower jaws https://t.co/NRfeDq0nKZ

Modern crocs vary a bit in their lifestyle, but this pales in comparison to the ecological diversity of their extinct relatives. We aimed to explore how repeated convergence and divergence across habitat and diet shaped the evolution of crurotarsan lower jaws

NEW #OpenAccess PAPER OUT TODAY from @BristolPalaeo! Here we explore the morpho-functional diversity of crocodile-line archosaur lower jaws, from their diverse origins in the Triassic to the crocodilians of today https://t.co/gvZ9L2SsFD

Thrilled to see these mind-blowing specimens published. Every day working on the tomographic data revealed new intricate details. I still can’t quite believe that they exist, never mind that I got to work on them. https://t.co/tM18SKBtDE

Super proud to announce my first publication: https://t.co/18AmiiFrYG. A big thanks to all those involved, @jfabrombacher @anjgoswami @tomezard, Alex Searle-Barnes and Marisa Sweeney!

Book your calendars🗓️! registration and abstract submission opens this month 🌿🦕!!

We are proud to announce that the University of Bristol ( @BristolUnil ) will be hosting #ProgPal2024 on 17th-20th June 2024! Many thanks to Natalia Jagielska (@WryCritic) for designing our amazing logo featuring Bristol’s local dino Thecodontosaurus!

If you're around at #Svp2023, come and see my talk at 11 tomorrow in the synapsid session on 3D modelling the jaw and middle ear in cynodonts!