Tooth morphology🦷 biomechanics🦴 feeding behaviour🥩 | Post-doc @BristolPalaeo | Research Affiliate @EvansEvoMorph lab | @BristolUni & @MonashUni | she/her
Joined August 2017
- Tweets 677
- Following 514
- Followers 654
- Likes 5,577
63 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
24 Oct 2022
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
ALT Photo credit Max van den Oetelaar (snow leopard) via Unsplash
4
35
111
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
The long, sharp, blade-like canines found in many extinct predators evolved at least five times throughout history. @TIPollock @MonashUni theconversation.com/new-rese…
2
2
6
1,553
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
9 Jan 2025
Really cool work on sabre teeth here; produced by a fantastic group at @BristolPalaeo!
Congrats to all authors. Great stuff! 😁🐅🦷
9 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…
3
14
715
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
Functional optimality underpins the repeated evolution of the extreme “saber-tooth” morphology: Current Biology cell.com/current-biology/ful…
20
68
1,874
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
9 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…
1
72
243
9,529
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
9 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
3
8
1,439
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
9 Jan 2025
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…
1
2
114
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
9 Jan 2025
How do you test just how lethal the extraordinarily long canines of sabre-toothed cats like Smilodon were?
ALT Smilodon skull photographed by Steve Morton
1
1
2
159
9 Jan 2025
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⬇️
ALT Smilodon skull taken by Steve Morton
1
25
78
5,831
9 Jan 2025
Out today in Current Biology:
cell.com/current-biology/ful…
Thank you to @GraphicsSci for the fab graphical abstract
1
1
16
334
9 Jan 2025
Thanks to all my coauthors, @digitalpalaeo @NarimaneChatar Pablo Milla Carmona @DSRovinsky Olga Panagiotopoulou @WMGParker Justin Adams @DPHocking @glpcjd @jemilyr @DrTeethAl 🐯
1
10
337
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
23 Feb 2024
Fantastic work from Vanessa Thomas' Honours research. Stay tuned for the manuscript just accepted in @JournalofMorph. @aNATomy_Lab @MurdochUni
4 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
4
8
738
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
16 Feb 2024
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 🧵
6
228
1,061
94,805
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
14 Feb 2024
Just trying something fun - the reconstructed evolutionary pathway of the jaw, from the ancestor of modern crocs to the American Alligator
3
16
108
4,554
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
14 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…
12 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/…
5
18
880
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
29 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!
1
2
40
1,323
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
22 Jan 2024
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/…
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
4
9
1,253
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
21 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…
16
35
2,176
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
22 Jan 2024
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
26
117
7,766
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
22 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…
2
19
754
Dr Tahlia Pollock retweeted
17 Jan 2024
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
10
4
78
4,066