Pasha van Bijlert

Most birds use a funny running style: grounded running. It's a paradox: GR costs more energy than normal running, but animals usually minimize costs. Do birds waste energy? We resolve this with a model of the emu (the best bird). Published in @science.org Advances last Sept (reposting my x 🧵s) 1/18

New paper: "Dissecting the Metabolic Costs of Uphill and Downhill Walking." We used MSK simulations, evaluated against EMG, ultrasound, and metabolic data, to partition the metabolic cost of uphill and downhill walking into muscle force- and work-related costs onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

The biomechanics of running into a wall

Grounded running 🐦

😃 In a new article published in J Biomech, Bijlert demonstrates that the plane strain modulus and dissipation parameters are not scale invariant. 👀 buff.ly/JN8BqCF

Second new paper this week: Reconstructing the oral apparatus of the Silurian heterostracan Athenaegis. Led by @lisaschnetz.bsky.social and in collaboration with many colleagues, including @euphanerops.bsky.social (who rendered the animation) and @nitroshutter.bsky.social

Double preprint alert! 🚨 Jaws: Baby shark 🦈 We used micro-CT scanning to examine the tessellated calcified cartilage in the jaws of 10 young chondrichthyans in 3D. We found some surprises—like chunky trabeculae in a baby nurse shark! Many thanks to all my co-authors for their help and support!

www.colourfuljobs.nl/vacatures/ju...

Excited to share our new paper in Science Advances! Led by Dr Wei Wang at #IVPP in Beijing, it presents a complete skeleton of #Austronaga, the most marine of all archosauromorphs. To boot, this fossil preserves the oldest complete digestive tract of any reptile! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I am thrilled to introduce seven new species of diamond frogs from Madagascar! A new monograph on the genus Rhombophryne published #OpenAccess in Vertebrate Zoology. 🧪🐸 doi.org/10.3897/vz.7...

My Bachelor's thesis has been published! We examined the problematic taxonomy of Zygorhiza kochii and Dorudon serratus, with implications for the wider taxonomy of the basilosauridae. A small thread:

Excited to share our latest study highlighted on the cover of @science.org 🥳Combining a 3D dataset representing 250 taxa spanning the whole Cenozoic, 3D modelling & printing and material testing; we deciphered the form-function relationship in the lower 🦷 of mammals www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I’m happy to say the first chapter of my dissertation has just gotten published! Here, we compared the results of two prominent tools for measuring muscle architecture from contrast data, Xfiber and Goodfibes, with some recommendations for each. anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#Biomechanics family pictures at #SEBconference in Florence! #SEB2026 @sebiology.bsky.social

[1/2] Thank you very much for this great collaboration on #lagomorphs 🐇 Pillai et al @boehmergroup.bsky.social @uni-kiel.de 2026 Oikos. Home and away: allometry and #climate drive morphology of European #rabbits in their native and introduced range doi.org/10.1002/oik....

Had a great time presenting my final PhD chapter yesterday at SEB 2026 in Florence @sebiology.bsky.social Did you miss it, or just want to discuss dinosaur or emu locomotion? Come find me at the conference!

🚨 #preprint alert🚨 Everyone loves high resolution paleorecords, but what determines their temporal resolution and orderedness? New counterintuitive results with implications for #conservation #paleobiology and age depth modeling #sedimentology 1/n eartharxiv.org/repository/v...

Made these in celebration of all the dedicated dads of the animal world, and in memory of my stepdad.

New in @science.org ...since our first discoveries of early tetrapods, they have been thought of as "amphibians" characterized by aquatic larvae. But is this true? For the first time, we report exceptional fossils of stem tetrapod babies that upend this paradigm. 1/n www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@pashavanb.bsky.social zat bij Klokhuis, dus ik mocht in een van de zoogdierendepots rondhangen onder werktijd.

First paper of my PhD is out! 🎉 We ran a sensitivity analysis of digital range of motion and found that outcomes can vary a lot depending on how you select the articular surface or define joint centre. General takeaway is share your models alongside results! doi.org/10.1111/joa....

Muscles don’t just move you - sometimes they slam the brakes 🛑💪 New paper: starting length + temperature strongly reshape the biphasic force response during eccentric contractions

Interested in the Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs? Check out my review!

So cool! You can see how the chicken switches to a more columnar posture because it's Centre of mass is pulled closer to the hip!

Our work on mammalian hallucal grasping, led by Irene Montañez-Rivera during her time in the @johnnyakatura.bsky.social group, is out now in iScience. A true team effort; thanks to the whole crew for inviting me to contribute a small piece! www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

🚨NEW SCIENCE ALERT!🚨Read our new, open-access publication in Scientific Reports (@nature.com) describing #biofluorescence in #cassowary casques! Very excited to unveil this after keeping it secret for 5 years⬇️ www.nature.com/articles/s41... NYITCOM @akiopteryx.bsky.social @jonathanberman.bsky.social

It'll be emu time soon! (And also human, preying mantis, and guineafowl time!!)