Lieu: Salle de réunion du RDC du Bâtiment d'Anatomie Comparée, 55 rue Buffon (entrée par le 43 pour des raisons de sécurité)


Abstract: Motions in vertebrates allow the achievement of vital functions, such as food capture and respiration, as well as many other ecologically pertinent tasks, like foraging, predator-prey interactions or mate finding. Understanding how animals move is closely related to motions recording techniques. For example, high-speed video cameras helped studying more rapid motions, X-ray imaging provided data on skeleton movements, particle tracking velocimetry allowed studying the water or air flow associated with a given motion. In this presentation, I will take the example of bird locomotion and fish feeding to show how recent access to traditionally engineer techniques allows the exploration of previously concealed motions of both the animal and its environment. I will show how, together with advances in shape quantification, we are gaining the ability to address previously unanswerable questions, and forging new links with other fields to help establish functional morphology as a truly integrative discipline.