@TIPollock

Tooth morphology🦷 biomechanics🦴 feeding behaviour🥩 | Post-doc @BristolPalaeo | Research Affiliate @EvansEvoMorph lab | @BristolUni & @MonashUni | she/her

 Melbourne, Victoria
Joined August 2017
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My fourth #PhDpaper is out in @RSocPublishing Open science and is #OpenAccess Here's the link: doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220701 We look at tooth #biomechanics & show how canine shapes have evolved to help tolerate the stresses experienced when killing and feeding on prey 🦷🍴🌈🐯 1/11
Photo credit Max van den Oetelaar (snow leopard) via Unsplash

ALT Photo credit Max van den Oetelaar (snow leopard) via Unsplash

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The long, sharp, blade-like canines found in many extinct predators evolved at least five times throughout history. @TIPollock @MonashUni theconversation.com/new-rese…

New research reveals why sabre-toothed predators evolved their deadly teeth

The long, sharp, blade-like canines found in many extinct predators evolved at least five times throughout history.

theconversation.com
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Really cool work on sabre teeth here; produced by a fantastic group at @BristolPalaeo! Congrats to all authors. Great stuff! 😁🐅🦷
Narimane Chatar@NarimaneChatar9 Jan 2025
New paper about the functioning of saber teeth led by the amazing @TIPollock 🥳 combining 3DGM with biomechanical testing we identified functional optimality as a key driver underpinning the repeated evolution of extreme saber-tooth morphologies 🔪🦁 cell.com/current-biology/ful…
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Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology: Current Biology cell.com/current-biology/ful…

Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology

Saber teeth are a classic example of convergence, having evolved repeatedly throughout mammalian history. Using 3D morphometrics, biomechanical testing, and a Pareto optimality analysis, Pollock...

cell.com
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Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
Narimane Chatar@NarimaneChatar9 Jan 2025
New paper about the functioning of saber teeth led by the amazing @TIPollock 🥳 combining 3DGM with biomechanical testing we identified functional optimality as a key driver underpinning the repeated evolution of extreme saber-tooth morphologies 🔪🦁 cell.com/current-biology/ful…
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Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
University of Bristol@BristolUni9 Jan 2025
A new @BristolPalaeo study reveals why sabre-toothed predators repeatedly evolved. Sabre-teeth evolved because they were optimal for puncturing prey - their blade-like teeth giving them a serious advantage. 🔪 brnw.ch/21wPTny @MonashUni @TIPollock
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Chris Simms@chrisnsimms9 Jan 2025
Replying to @chrisnsimms @TIPollock @BristolPalaeo @EvansEvoMorph
It turns out that classic sabre teeth would puncture flesh with up to 50 per cent less force than the other teeth could, which shows why these weirdly long canines were so useful and evolved again and again. Read more about this @newscientist here: newscientist.com/article/246…

Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again | New Scientist

Sabre teeth can be ideal for puncturing the flesh of prey, which may explain why they evolved in different groups of mammals at least five times

newscientist.com
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Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
Chris Simms@chrisnsimms9 Jan 2025
How do you test just how lethal the extraordinarily long canines of sabre-toothed cats like Smilodon were?
Smilodon skull photographed by Steve Morton

ALT Smilodon skull photographed by Steve Morton

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Sabre teeth are a classic example of convergence. Our new study, integrating 3D shape, biomechanics, and optimality modelling, helps explain why: revealing that functional optimality was a key driver behind the repeated evolution of extreme sabre-tooth morphologies🔪🦷 Link⬇️
Smilodon skull taken by Steve Morton

ALT Smilodon skull taken by Steve Morton

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Out today in Current Biology: cell.com/current-biology/ful… Thank you to @GraphicsSci for the fab graphical abstract

Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology

Saber teeth are a classic example of convergence, having evolved repeatedly throughout mammalian history. Using 3D morphometrics, biomechanical testing, and a Pareto optimality analysis, Pollock...

cell.com
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Thanks to all my coauthors, @digitalpalaeo @NarimaneChatar Pablo Milla Carmona @DSRovinsky Olga Panagiotopoulou @WMGParker Justin Adams @DPHocking @glpcjd @jemilyr @DrTeethAl 🐯
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Natasha Tay@NTay_23 Feb 2024
Fantastic work from Vanessa Thomas' Honours research. Stay tuned for the manuscript just accepted in @JournalofMorph. @aNATomy_Lab @MurdochUni
Australian National Imaging Facility@NIFAus4 Feb 2024
#ImagingTheFuture @czi: Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) jaw muscle arrangement from NIF @Cmca_UWA user Vanessa Thomas and Jeremy Shaw, @MurdochUni – Imaged with the expertise and assistance of NIF Fellow @DianaPatalwala @UWAresearch
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For centuries, paleontologists have had to rely on intuition re whether reconstructed joint poses "look right." Today in @NatureComms: we created a way to formalize & test that intuition, & discovered that articular surface interactions distinguish locomotor poses in dinosaurs 🧵
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Will Deakin@digitalpalaeo14 Feb 2024
Just trying something fun - the reconstructed evolutionary pathway of the jaw, from the ancestor of modern crocs to the American Alligator
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Millacarmonia@millacarmonia14 Feb 2024
Check out our new preprint and this awesome thread by @phyloprog on the use of chronospaces to assess the impact of methodological choices over time calibration of phylogenetic trees! biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… github.com/mongiardino/chron…

Chronospaces: an R package for the statistical exploration of divergence times reveals extreme...

Much of our understanding of the history of life hinges upon time calibration, the process of assigning absolute times to cladogenetic events. Bayesian approaches to time scaling phylogenetic trees...

biorxiv.org
Nicolás Mongiardino Koch@phyloprog12 Feb 2024
I am really happy to share a preprint that @millacarmonia and I just released, including our new R package chronospace, which includes novel tools to explore and visualize sensitivity in the estimation of divergence times 1/x biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/…

Chronospaces: an R package for the statistical exploration of divergence times reveals extreme...

Much of our understanding of the history of life hinges upon time calibration, the process of assigning absolute times to cladogenetic events. Bayesian approaches to time scaling phylogenetic trees...

biorxiv.org
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Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
Travis Park@Blogozoic29 Jan 2024
Very pleased to announce that as of today, I am now an associate editor @JVP_vertpaleo! Looking forward to seeing exciting new fossil marine mammal papers being sent my way! Many thanks to Olivier Lambert for the opportunity, and to @SaberCatWoman and Mike for the JVP welcome!
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Read this month's Editors' Choice: The dual function of prokinesis in the feeding and locomotor systems of parrots by @melodyoungg, Michael Granatosky @animal_motion & co @nyitanatomy @nyitcomdo @alec_wilken @armanafzadeh journals.biologists.com/jeb/…
Photograph of a rosy-faced lovebird biting onto two bite plates (spaced 10 mm apart) that were attached to a dual hinge system that allowed for separate, independent movement of the plates to measure the bird's bite force

ALT Photograph of a rosy-faced lovebird biting onto two bite plates (spaced 10 mm apart) that were attached to a dual hinge system that allowed for separate, independent movement of the plates to measure the bird's bite force

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Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
Dai Koyabu@Dai_Koyabu21 Jan 2024
A new monographic study led by our student @nicolas_brualla sheds light on the diversity and evolution of the vocal apparatus in bats 🦇. This study provides a robust foundation for future research into the evolution of echolocation in bats. Open access! doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/z…

Comparative anatomy of the vocal apparatus in bats and implications for the diversity of laryngeal...

Abstract. Most of over 1400 extant bat species produce high-frequency pulses with their larynx for echolocation. However, the debate about the evolutionary

academic.oup.com
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Exploring biomechanics of Proterochampsa sheds light on unique features compared to modern crocs. Despite differences in adductor chamber, Proterochampsa's bite forces rival Alligator, revealing adaptations in S. Amer. archosauromorphs Simão-Oliveira et al doi.org/10.1002/ar.25380
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Prof. Christine Böhmer@VertEvo22 Jan 2024
Evolution of the #beak is related to reduction of #teeth, but does not explain toothlessnes #edentulism Aguilar-Pedrayes et al 2024 @RSocPublishing The coevolution of rostral keratin and tooth distribution in #dinosaurs doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.17…
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A week ago I passed my PhD Viva!! Firstly, I would like to thank the examiners for the great discussion and their suggestions, and my supervisors Davide Pisani, @glpcjd @anariesgogil for guiding me through this marvelous and difficult journey on sponges' evolution! #PhDone
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