Dr Christine Böhmer - Palaeobiologist
Birds vary significantly in the number and shape of vertebrae in the neck. Despite this variation, a similar regionalization along the neck of a diversity of avian species has been observed. Depending on their...
Our publication on the neck anatomy of vultures (Böhmer et al. 2020 J Anatomy) got featured by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF). The Vulture Conservation Foundation is an international non-governmental organization committed to the...
The head-neck system of birds is a highly complex structure that performs a variety of demanding and competing tasks. We here analyzed the neck anatomy of three closely-related vultures that distinctly differ in feeding...
The 44th conference of the French Society for Biomechanics (Congrès de la Société de Biomécanique) takes place in Poitiers (France) in 2019. The scientific program includes a number of interesting contibrutions to the following...
With a mean body mass of about 300g and a wingspan of about 70cm, the Black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) is the largest woodpecker species in Eurasia. It feeds by using its bill to hammer...
The neck is a biomechanical innovation that contributed to the diversification of vertebrates. A better understanding of the functional morphology of the neck can help to develop design principles for technical applications. The range...
The International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM) took place in Prague (Czech Republic) in July 2019. My colleague Emily Buchholtz and I organized a symposium on „The axial skeleton: diversity, patterning and function“ which...
The neck of birds has always been regarded as a classic example of high variability in the number of vertebrae ranging from ten cervical vertebrae in parrots to 26 cervical vertebrae in swans. And...
As a result of the special symposium on „What an interdisciplinary approach can tell us about the evolution of grasping and manipulation“ organized by my colleagues Dr. Emanuelle Pouydebat and Dr. Ameline Bardo at the...