FWO Success! A new direction for the project

Success! 

Last June I learned that my application for a 4 year project specialising in morphometrics and osteology of the forelimb of Perissodactyla (horses and their relatives) was approved, and I therefore "began" my PhD afresh in October...2014...yes, ok, I have been sitting on this one for a while!

Obviously, this is not entirely accurate - I have not in fact "started again", as I have already begun my PhD sponsored by the grant awarded to my supervisor Dr. Sandra Nauwelaerts. This project is looking at gait analysis in perissodactlys, recently working on Grevy's Zebra, Malayan and Lowland tapirs. From October 2014, I began taking the project in a brand new direction, which is very exciting. With additional funding for an extra year, this has offered me a great opportunity to get the very best out of the project, and test some very interesting biological questions regarding perissodactyl locomotor mechanics and morphological evolution.

My FWO (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) grant allows me to pursue an osteological and morphometric avenue of research. This new funding is enabling me to focus my energies on collecting museum samples for scanning, and analysing the scanned material using 3D landmark analyses, testing for integration and phylogenetic/ecological signal. 

The sub-project I am now working on will look to assess the morphological variation within the forelimbs of extant tapirs. For those who are not aware, tapirs are primitive, long-nosed, pig-like relatives of rhinos and horses! There are five extant species: The large Malayan tapir; the Central American Baird's Tapir; the relatively well known Lowland Tapir; the small, woolly Mountain Tapir; and the recently described Kabomani, or Little Black Tapir (link to Scientific American article: Tetrapod Zoology: new-living-species-of-tapir.)

Currently, I am assessing the morhological differences within the forelimb skeleton of modern tapirs, looking to find morphological differences using 3D morphometrics to show up variation not previously described. This way, we hope to result in a morphometric 'tool-box' for assessing museum specimens of tapirs without invasive sampling! So far we have fully scanned sixteen specimens, with plenty more to come. Here is a chance for me to thank the museums from Berlin (Museum fur Naturkunde), Vienna (Naturhistoriches Museum Wien), Paris (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle) and Leiden (Naturalis Biodiversity Centre), in addition to Mr. Luc Tyteca, a private collector who has provided invaluable support to the project so far! To give you a sense of the scans we have taken, here is a rendering of a limb from a Baird's tapir I recently processed in Blender:

Render of RMMNH 43495 Tapirus bairdii, courtesy of the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, Leiden, NL

Ciao for now readers - I very much appreciate your time if you bothered to read this far! Next blog will be a review of my excursion to Barcelona in September!

Until then, goedenavond and good night :)

Zebo's Adventures - Geometric Morphometrics in Barcelona

So, the epic voyage begins. Striding out into a brand new world (well, not entirely, I'll explain later), Zebo and I have made it to the Transmitting Science course on Geometric Morpohometrics. The course was being held, as with many of Transmitting Science's courses and workshops, in the picturesque surroundings of the Pyreneean foothills, beneath the shadow of Montserrat, at the Centre de Restoracio i Interpretacio Palaeontologic (CRIP). Before the relatively brief, if rather sleep-inducing, voyage from Placa de Catalunya to the field centre/hostel at CRIP, Zebo decided he would like to taste some local ale at a friendly (if rather American) tapas bar. Unfortunately, Catalonian law dictates no alcohol is to be served to convicted golf club covers, how ever much they bray in protest. In light of this, we shared a Coke.

On arrival at the field centre in the mountains, 15 humans, two equids and a child converged on the labs of the CRIP - a fascinating place, most famous for the local legend Pau (Pierolapithicus catalunicus). We were lead by co-founder of Transmitting Science, Dr. Sole Estaban, without whom we would not have been able to attend such an informative course. The scientists at the Pierola site have discovered a wide array of fossil material, including turtles, rhinoceros, a wide variety of primates, and even the odd dinosaur! Due to the mountainous nature of the landscape, one occasionally found oneself above the clouds - not something Zebo was entirely familiar with! For more information on the centre, and the great restoration and preservation work they do there, find them at www.crip.cat.

Over the ensuing days, it can be said that a great many things were learned. On the academic side, our multi-cultural, multi-lingual group discovered the many delights of applying geometric morphometrics (method for analysis of shape, independent of size and orientation) to 3D scans in Landmark Editor - a free software package that can be used to visualise and place landmark data onto scans, such as horse bones. This software is the product of the Institute for Data Analysis and Visualisation at the University of California, and is being used dramatically increase the options biologists, palaeontologists and even mineralogists have at their disposal for assessing shape data in three dimensions. More info on the program can be found at graphics.idav.ucdavis.edu/research/EvoMorph. 

Throughout the course, we also dabbled in Morphologika, MorphoJ, PAST (which since its renovations has become rather odd!), Meshlab, Checkpoint - the list goes on. It can safely be said that much knowledge was gleaned from our excellent instructor, the effervescent Dr. Melissa Tallman, and that no matter what organisms we are planning to study, we will now know how to apply the programs to answer our question...well, for the most part!

It must be said that these computationally intensive skills were not the only things learnt on this excursion - the conveniently located bar not 30 seconds walk from the classroom provided the setting for a diverse range of discussion topics. Subjects included (but were not limited to):

1) the orientation of the swastica, and how it would be so much easier if the Nazis had taken the mean average shape of the symbol so as not to confuse dyslexic graduate students in the 2010s (points clockwise, for those still unsure);

2) the incontrovertible fact that a yard of ale is nothing more or less than three feet in height;

3) the reenactment of 18th Century naval battles by hermaphroditic sea slugs, firing sperm at one another a'broadside, presumably in order to minimise foreplay and get on in life;

4) various and nefarious regional songs, including Dominick the Italian Christmas Donkey, which lead us on a greasy slope, past Nelly the Elephant, to the subject of Christmas. Frankly, I must say that a quail inside a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey inside a goose inside a swan is an inspired idea for Christmas dinner...but Turducken will suffice for the moment;

5) and finally, the apparent confusion and utter division of opinion as to whether one should or should not apply phylogenetic corrections to ones data, resulting in a 2hr debate with no tangible outcome!

At one point, Zebo became so frustrated with the utter futility of one conversation (something about a siege and a carrier pigeon...) that he was driven to fags and booze:

All in all, the course was a roaring success in my eyes, and I hope for the rest of the participants also. Both Zebo and I would like to thank Sole, Lissa and the fine people at the hostel for their organisation, their patience, their culinary expertise respectively...and, of course, their coffee. It has been a memorable trip, I have made many good contacts and hopefully some good friends, all of whom I hope to see on the academic circuit in the near future.

That's all folks. Until the next instalment of Zebo's Adventures, it's goodbye from me, and its *neigh-neigh* from him.