SEB 2021 – Virtual conference

From June 29 to July 8, 2021, the virtual conference of the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) brought together researchers from all over the world. More than 900 registered delegates presented and discussed their most recent work in multiple sessions.

The presentations during the Animal Biology and Open Biomechanics session, in particular, were highly interesting. My contribution to the latter session involved collaborative work with colleagues from the Humboldt University Berlin. The giraffe’s iconic long neck puzzled us for centuries! Why is it so special? To put it in a nutshell, neck length affects the functional morphology of the neck-trunk transition. Our results revealed that the first trunk vertebra (T1) in long-necked taxa such as the giraffe resembles a neck vertebra. By contrast, the last neck vertebra (C7) in short-necked taxa such as European bison is more similar to a trunk vertebra. Read more on our publication here.

All 3D models related to our publication are available open access through MorphoMuseuM.

References:

Böhmer, Müller M A, Merten L and Nyakatura JA (2021) Long necks, short necks: Form-function relationships in the vertebral column of cetartiodactyls reveal the secret of the giraffe’s body plan. Abstracts book: Society for Experimental Biology (SEB)

Müller M A, Merten L, Böhmer C and Nyakatura JA (2021). Pushing the boundary? Testing the ‚functional elongation hypothesis‘ in the giraffe’s neck. Evolution. DOI: 10.1111/evo.14171

Müller M A, Merten L, Böhmer C and Nyakatura J A (2021). Pushing the boundary? Testing the ‚functional elongation hypothesis‘ in the giraffe’s neck. MorphoMuseum DOI: 10.18563/journal.m3.129

Nyakatura JA, Müller MA, Merten L, Böhmer C (2021) Analysing form and function of the cervicothoracic transition in cetartiodactyls confirms the ‘functional elongation hypothesis’ of the giraffe neck: Abstracts book: Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB), Virtual meeting