University of Hull

Post-Doc, Engineering

Other Affiliations: University of York, Archaeology
University of York, Biology

About

I am primarily interested in the relationships between skull morphology and the mechanical function of the feeding apparatus. I try to understand how the shape of a skull determines the bite forces that can be generated and how the skull bones resist these forces.

Being a biological anthropologist by training most of my research to date has focused on hominin skulls, but I am now extending my studies to other mammals and lizards. Lizards are interesting because their skulls show cranial kinesis, i.e. the different components of the skull move relative to one another, while mammals have rigid skulls. Since this kinesis is difficult to measure, its relationship to feeding performance is largely unknown. Another part of my research focuses on how the internal morphology of jaw bones adapts to feeding loads.

I study these relationships between form and function with a combination of computer-based 3D reconstruction, geometric morphometrics (GMM) and different engineering techniques, such as finite element analysis (FEA), multibody dynamics analysis (MDA) and the measurement of bone strain with strain gauges and speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI or DSPI).

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