Projects
Locomotion and social behaviour in a transgenic sheep model of Huntington’s disease
People: John Lowe, Alan Wilson
Huntington's Disease (HD) is an incurable neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects muscle coordination and some cognitive functions in humans.
3D modelling reveals how Tyrannosaurus rex grew
People: John Hutchinson, Vivian Allen
New research by Professor John R. Hutchinson and colleagues on Tyrannosaurus rex shows it was bigger and faster-growing than previously thought, and had some of the largest leg muscles of any land animal known.
Elephants get a ‘sixth toe’ for Christmas... after a 300 year wait
People: John Hutchinson, Andrew Pitsillides
Professor John Hutchinson and colleagues have published a new paper in Science magazine showing how elephants have evolved a remarkably bizarre false sixth "toe" in their four feet.
Assessing the limb mobility of the early four-legged vertebrate animal Ichthyostega
People: John Hutchinson
Research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, by researchers at the RVC and Cambridge, and published in the journal Nature, has revealed how the early four-legged vertebrate (tetrapod) called Ichthyostega, moved on land.
High speed galloping in cheetahs and racing greyhounds
People: Alan Wilson
Research by Alan Wilson's team and published in the Journal of Experimental Biology has revealed new insights into why cheetahs can achieve much higher speeds than racing greyhounds, even though they appear to have similar size and anatomy.
Evolution of dinosaur body shape and locomotion
People: John Hutchinson, Vivian Allen
An RVC-based team of researchers including Vivian Allen and John Hutchinson have revealed how the enlargement of the forelimbs changed the balance system of dinosaurs, causing them to adopt more crouched leg postures as in modern birds; published in Nature. RVC's story here and blog here.
V-formation flight explained
People: Alan Wilson, Jim Usherwood, Tatjana Hubel
New research published in Nature by Steve Portugal, Alan Wilson and Jim Usherwood proves that birds in V-formation arrange themselves in aerodynamically optimum positions.
Automated early lameness detection in dairy cattle
People: Alan Wilson, Thilo Pfau, John Fishwick
Lameness is a significant welfare and economic problem in dairy farming. We undertook research to develop an automated way of detecting which dairy cows were developing lameness.