Structure and Motion Laboratory

People

Dr John R Hutchinson

Reader in Evolutionary Biomechanics

Dr John R Hutchinson I'm an American biologist who has found a new home in the UK. I got my BS degree in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin in 1993, then received my PhD in Integrative Biology at the University of California with Kevin Padian in 2001, and rounded out my training with a two-year National Science Foundation bioinformatics Post Doc at the Biomechanical Engineering Division of Stanford University with Scott Delp.

I started at the RVC as a Lecturer in Evolutionary Biomechanics in 2003 in the Department of Veterinary Basic Sciences and was promoted to Reader in 2008. My interests are in the evolutionary biomechanics of locomotion, especially in large terrestrial vertebrates. I've studied birds, extinct dinosaurs and their relatives, elephants, and crocodiles. See my Research Interests page for details. I am now an Associate Editor for the Journal of Theoretical Biology (manuscripts must be submitted through their website).

John's homepage: http://www.rvc.ac.uk/AboutUs/Staff/jhutchinson/index.cfm

Phone: +44 (0) 1707 666 313

E-mail: jrhutch [at; remove this] rvc.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship

in Biomechanical Modelling and Simulation

Post now open to work in my team! Deadline 25 February!

New PhD studentships in my team for 2010!

Deadline for applications 12 February!

Biomechanical constraints on the anatomy of limb muscles (main supervisor)

Comparative sensory biomechanics of locomotion in horses, dogs, and insects (co-supervisor)

My RVC team comprises:

Postdocs:
1. Dr Alexis Wiktorowicz Conroy (BBSRC bone/gait scaling grant)
2. Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou (BBSRC mammalian foot biomechanics grant)
PhD students:

Vivian Allen (dinosaur evolutionary biomechanics)
Heather Paxton (broiler chicken biomechanics)
Sharon Warner (mammalian foot biomechanics and pathology)
Aleksandra Birn-Jeffery (co-supervisor with Monica Daley; bird stability and scaling)
Outside PhDs (as co-supervisor/major collaborator):
1. Thibaud Souter (Paris w/Anick Abourachid; bird/dinosaur pelvic morphometrics and function)
2. Michael Pittman (UCL w/Paul Upchurch; dinosaur tail mechanics/evolution)
3. Ashley Heers (U Montana-Missoula w/Ken Dial et al.; bird flight origin and evolution)

Technicians:
1. Julia Molnar
2. Andrew Greenhalgh
3. Philip Pickering
Many undergraduate/MSc projects (average 8 per year)!
And numerous outside collaborations (see here)
Former students/postdocs:
1. Lei Ren (was BBSRC elephant postdoc)
2. Dimitrios Tsaopoulos (was BBSRC elephant postdoc)
3. Charlotte Miller (elephant foot/limb mechanics)
4. Pattama Ritruechai (co-supervisor w/Renate Weller and James Wakeling; horse back mechanics)
5. Victoria Herridge (NHM w/Adrian Lister; dwarf elephant scaling)

Four websites related to research I've done with collaborators on dinosaurs and elephants:

Tyrannosaurus was not a fast runner
Dinosaur locomotion: Beyond the bones
Are fast-moving elephants really running?
Elephant speed and gait: the locomotor biomechanics of the largest land animals (coming soon)
Biomechanics and pathology of mammalian feet (new BBSRC grant w/Renate Weller and colleagues)

and a pdf of "unintelligent design" features in organisms (work in progress; for fun)

Old Web Pages (Berkeley)

Also see my page on Academia.edu

* MUSEUM EXHIBITS*

I was a consultant on Theropod Biomechanics at the American Museum of Natural History's "Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries" (12 May 2005-January 2006) exhibit, now travelling to other museums.

I am a consultant for the wonderfully interactive "Be the Dinosaur" exhibit currently touring museums in the USA:

http://www.bethedinosaur.com/

Publications (for more see here)

2009	Allen, V., Paxton, H., Hutchinson, J.R. 2009. Variation in center of mass estimates for extant sauropsids, and its importance for reconstructing inertial properties of extinct archosaurs. Anatomical Record 292:1442-1461. pdf
	Gatesy, S.M, Baeker, M., Hutchinson, J.R. 2009. Constraint-based exclusion of limb poses for reconstructing theropod dinosaur locomotion. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 29:535-544. pdf
	Doube, M., Conroy, A.W., Christiansen, P., Hutchinson, J.R., Shefelbine, S. 2009. Three-Dimensional Geometric Analysis of Felid Limb Bone Allometry. PLoS ONE 4(3): e4742. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004742 [free download]
2008	Zioupos, P., Cook, R.B., Hutchinson, J.R. 2008. Some basic relationships between cortical and cancellous bone. Journal of Biomechanics 41:1961-1968. pdf
	Ren, L., M. Butler, C. Miller, D. Schwerda, M. Fischer, J.R. Hutchinson. 2008. The movements of limb segments and joints during locomotion in African and Asian elephants. Journal of Experimental Biology 211:2735-2751. pdf and associated files (.zip archive)
	Miller, C.M., C. Basu, G. Fritsch, T. Hildebrandt, J.R. Hutchinson. 2008. Ontogenetic scaling of foot musculoskeletal anatomy in elephants. J. Roy. Soc. Interface 5:465-476. pdf and associated files (.zip archive)
2007	Hutchinson, J.R., V. Ng-Thow-Hing, F.C. Anderson. 2007. A 3D interactive method for estimating body segmental parameters in animals: application to the turning and running performance of Tyrannosaurus rex. Journal of Theoretical Biology 246:660-680 pdf
2006	Hutchinson, J.R., D. Schwerda, D. Famini, R.H.I. Dale, M. Fischer, R. Kram. 2006. The locomotor kinematics of African and Asian elephants: changes with speed and size. Journal of Experimental Biology 209:3812-3827. pdf
	Weissengruber, G.E., G.F. Egger, J.R. Hutchinson, H.B. Groenewald, L. Elsässer, D. Famini, G. Forstenpointner. 2006. The structure of the cushions in the feet of African Elephants (Loxodonta africana). Journal of Anatomy 209:781-792. pdf
2005	Hutchinson, J.R., Anderson, F.C., Blemker, S.. and Delp, S.L. Analysis of hindlimb muscle moment arms in Tyrannosaurus rex using a three-dimensional musculoskeletal computer model. Paleobiology 31 : 676-701. pdf
	Payne, R.C., Hutchinson, J.R., Robilliard, J.J., Smith, N.C., and Wilson, A.M. 2005. Functional specialization of pelvic limb anatomy in horses (Equus caballus). Journal of Anatomy 206:557-574. pdf
2004	Hutchinson, J.R. Biomechanical modeling and sensitivity analysis of bipedal running ability. I. Extant taxa. Journal of Morphology 262:421-440. pdf
	Hutchinson, J.R. Biomechanical modeling and sensitivity analysis of bipedal running ability. II. Extinct taxa. Journal of Morphology 262:441-461. pdf

Books Chapters & Reviews

	Hutchinson, J.R., C.E. Miller, G. Fritsch, T. Hildebrandt. 2008. The anatomical foundation for multidisciplinary studies of animal limb function: examples from dinosaur and elephant limb imaging studies. in H. Endo and R. Frey (eds.), Anatomical Imaging: Toward a New Morphology. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. pp 23-38. pdf

Structure and Motion Lab These pages maintained by the SML Contact: Alan Wilson