Alec Wilken
@alec_wilken
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(he/him) PhD candidate @UChicago, Functional Morphology, Paleontology, Anatomy
Joined November 2020
RT @WitmerLab: Excited to be part of this article in @PNASNews ably led by @alec_wilken & @CrocHolliday presenting results of our @NSF gran….
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Thank you so much to all my wonderful coauthors @kalebsellers, @Ornithanatomist, Julian Davis, Kevin Middleton, @WitmerLab, and @CrocHolliday (9/9).
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Luckily, Ichthyornis had palate muscles in place to help control and limit pathological cranial mobility like we see in modern akinetic lizards and early theropods (8/?)
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When we use these observations to calculate the overall mobility of the skull, we don't see appreciable cranial kinesis possible until Neognathae 🐦🐦⬛🦅🦆🦜 but Icthyornis represents a hopeful monster of mobility (7/?)
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What is an orbital process if not an epipterygoid persevering? (6/?)
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From this survey, developmental, and anatomical evidence in the lit we suggest that the orbital process of the quadrate make actually be an epipterygoid! (5/?)
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We performed a survey of palate anatomy across this great transition and identified novel joints between the palate and braincase in key taxa like Ichthyornis (4/?)
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And while jaw muscles were getting smaller, they changed direction from vertical to fore-aft (3/?)
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We found that as bird line dinos got bigger brains, the expanding braincase made jaw muscles smaller 🧠💪 (2/?)
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Hey everyone! Check out our new paper on the evolution of cranial kinesis in birds out in PNAS! We used 3D muscle modeling, linkage mechanics, and phylo methods to investigate feeding across the dino-bird transition 🦖🐦⬛(1/?).
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More stellar science for the clavicle superstar herself!!.
My last paper may have left you wondering, “What about the #trabecularbone?”. Well don't you worry, "Locomotor signals in the trabecular structure of the hominoid clavicle" is out in @JournalofAnat! #OpenAccess 🦴💪. 🔗 🧵👇.
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RT @armanafzadeh: Our latest @Patelladoc paper, led by student J. Sieberer, is out in The Knee (my favorite journal name yet). We create &….
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Check out this great new work from Hannah!!.
Excited to share my first paper is out in #JHE! Big thanks to my co-author Zeray, + funding from @UChicago, @TheLeakeyFndtn, and @NSF! We explore how the cross-sectional geometry of the ape clavicle through ontogeny reflects their locomotor behaviors 🦍🦧🧵
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RT @armanafzadeh: Thrilled to share: out now in @Nature (!) & just in time for US Thanksgiving, the dinosaurian history of how your turkey….
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RT @mayajuman: The first chapter of my PhD is out today in @Ecol_Evol! We analyzed seasonal patterns of henipavirus seroprevalence in Afric….
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RT @J_Exp_Biol: In his ECR Spotlight, @alec_wilken discusses how a high school zoology class ignited his passion for biology, why the thing….
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we hypothesize this is all due to simple bending mechanics and where stress will be located in a beam (7/n)
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