Saturday, March 21 2020

New publication: Modularity of the neck in birds

Traditionally, the neck of birds can be divided into three morphofunctional regions. To date, we lacked a quantitative test in a phylogenetically broad sample.

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Monday, December 30 2019

Gulper, ripper and scrapper - Publication on the anatomy of birds

That's a great start for the new year 2020: Avineck Postdoc Christine Böhmer and her colleagues have published their results on the comparative anatomy of three species of vultures (Böhmer et al. 2020 Journal of Anatomy).

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Tuesday, December 3 2019

7th meeting Avineck

The 7th meeting of the Avineck team took place in Paris during the first week of December 2019. It was the occasion to present and discuss the latest results on the anatomy, ecology and biomechanics of the neck in birds.

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Sunday, October 27 2019

Conference of the French Society for Biomechanics

The Avineck team participates at the Conference of the French Society for Biomechanics in Poitiers.

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Tuesday, October 22 2019

Avineck at biomim'expo 2019

Biomim'expo is a trade show and an exhibition dedicated to the development of Biomimicry. Avineck project leader Anick Abourachid and Avineck PhD student Mathieu Furet participate in this event.

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Thursday, October 10 2019

Hot off the press! Avineck team publishes on the ecology of Black woodpeckers

Avineck student Camille Puverel, her supervisor Yoan Paillet and colleagues have published their results on the factors driving cavity excavation by the Black woodpecker (Puverel et al. 2019 Forest Ecology and Management).

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Thursday, June 13 2019

International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology 2019

The International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology (ICVM) will take place in Prague (Czech Republic) in July 2019. Several Avineck team members will participate in this amazing meeting!

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Monday, May 27 2019

6th meeting Avineck

The 6th meeting of the Avineck team will take place in Nantes during the first week of June 2019. This will be a highly productive meeting!

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Thursday, May 2 2019

Hot off the press! First AVINECK publication

In our publication (Böhmer et al. 2019 Royal Society Open Science), we analyzed more than 100 extant bird taxa in order to provide new insights into the evolution of the vertebral formulae and the scaling relationships between skeletal dimensions and body size.

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Field work in the Zoo d'Upie - Jardin des Oiseaux

After a first visit with highly promising results, the team Avineck works again at the Zoo d'Upie - le Jardin des Oiseaux in order to collect some more data on the biomechanics of parrts.

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Wednesday, April 3 2019

Workshop at the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI)

The Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI) is a French educational institution that offers interdisciplinary research-based study, and awards a bachelor’s and master’s degree in interdisciplinary approaches to life sciences. Each year there are Thematic Workshops that aim to create a discussion and exchange amongst PhD and master’s students as well as the CRI community.

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Wednesday, March 20 2019

8th International Woodpecker Conference in Białowieża, Poland

Avineck collaborator Yoan Paillet presented the work of his student Camille Puverel and colleagues.

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Monday, March 18 2019

Annual meeting of vertebrate palaeontologists (AKW) in Vienna

The vertebrate palaeontology meeting (AKW) of the German Palaeontological Association took place in Vienna. The team of Avineck participated with a presentation and a poster in this inspiring conference.

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Tuesday, October 30 2018

5th meeting Avineck

The 5th meeting of the Avineck team will take place on December 5, 2018. We look forward to a highly interesting and inspiring meeting!

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Prize for Avineck PhD student

Avineck PhD student Matthieu Furet and his supervisor Philippe Wenger won the silver prize for the best research paper.

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Friday, July 20 2018

IOCongress in Vancouver 2018

The International Ornithological Congress (IOC) takes place in Vancouver, Canada, from 19-26 August 2018.

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2nd Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology in Montpellier 2018

Avineck researchers present new results at the second joint congress "Evolution" in Montpellier, France, from 19-22 August 2018.

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Field work in New Zealand

Avineck project coordinator Anick Abourachid and our collaborator Pauline Provini are in the field in New Zealand to work on the enigmatic kiwi.

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Wednesday, July 18 2018

IPC5 in Paris

The 5th International Palaeontological Congress (IPC5) took place in Paris, France. The Avineck team was represented by postdoc Christine Böhmer.

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ICVM symposium 2019 in Prague

Amazing news for all who are fascinated by the vertebral column: special symposium at the International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology in Prague 2019.

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SEB conference 2018 in Florence

Avineck researcher present their latest results at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) in Florence, Italy, from 3-6 July 2018.

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Avineck students 2018

The Avineck students are working hard on their master's projects.

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Friday, May 25 2018

Field work in the zoo Upie Jardin des Oiseaux

 The team Avineck collected data on the biomechanics of the neck in birds. The aim of this project is to better understand the kinematics of their suspended locomotion.

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Friday, April 27 2018

Field work in the woods

Our collaborators (specialized in ecology) from irstea - National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture in Nogent surf Vernisson work in the woods to collect quantitative data on birds.

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Thursday, April 19 2018

Invited

Avineck postdoc Christine Böhmer is invited to give a lecture (Evolutionsbiologisches Kolloquium) at the Institut für Zoologie at the Forschungsmuseum Koenig in Bonn, Germany.

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4th meeting Avineck


The 4th meeting of the interdisciplinary Avineck research group took place in the Cévennes in south-central France. The field trip organized by Olivier Duriez (CEFE, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionelle & Evolutive, UMR 5175 CNRS Montpellier) and Anick Abourachid (project coordinator and professor at UMR 7179 CNRS/Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris).

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Sunday, March 25 2018

Annual meeting of vertebrate palaeontologists (AKW) in Magdeburg

The annual meeting of vertebrate palaeontologists in Germany (AKW) took place in Magdeburg. The overall topic of the conference this year was "Biomechanics" and fitted extremely well with the research of the project Avineck. The team of Avineck participated with a presentation on the functional morphology of the neck in birds.

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5th Young Natural History Scientists Meeting (YNHM) in Paris

The 5th Young Natural History Scientists Meeting (YNHM) took place in Paris. The team of Avineck participated at this annual conference with a work on the cervical vertebrae of birds.

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Thursday, February 15 2018

Student & Supervisor meeting Avineck

A number of students (biologists, ecologists and enginieers) started their internship recently. The "Student & Supervisor meeting" in Paris on February 15, 2018 was a great opportunity to exchange information. 

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Saturday, January 20 2018

SICB 2018 in San Francisco

The annual conference of the Society of Integrative & Comparative Biology took place in San Francisco in January 2018. Members of the Avineck team present their research results.

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Wednesday, December 13 2017

Advances & future steps in the project Avineck

Progress report on the recent achievements within the project Avineck. The end of the year is approaching and this is a perfect opportunity to review the research work of the Avineck team.

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Thursday, December 7 2017

GDR Robotique, the French National Network in Robotic Research

The annual meeting of the French research group in robotics (GDR Robotique) was held in novembre 2017. The Avineck team was represented by our colleagues of the ReV (Robotique et Vivant) UMR6004 LS2N (Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique) de Nantes

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Sunday, November 26 2017

Student opportunities!

Undergraduate students wishing to conduct research within the ANR-funded project Avineck can apply for a limited number of posts.

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Wednesday, November 22 2017

IMT Atlantique Nantes SUBATECH

Meeting with our collaborators working in the SUBATECH research unit at the IMT Atlantique in Nantes.

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Monday, November 6 2017

Welcome to our new postdoc Christine Böhmer

Avineck welcomes Dr. Christine Böhmer, who joined our group as a postdoctoral researcher from the beginning of November.

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Thursday, October 5 2017

3rd meeting Avineck

On recent advances & future prospectives: 3rd meeting of the interdisciplinary Avineck research group in Paris on October 10, 2017.

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Thursday, June 22 2017

2nd meeting - Avineck

The interdisciplinary team of researchers will come together for a 2nd meeting in Nantes on June 23, 2017.

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Tuesday, June 20 2017

Visit: Nogent sur Vernisson

Meeting with our collaborators (specialized in ecology) working at the irstea - National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture in Nogent surf Vernisson.

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Tuesday, June 13 2017

Bird capture & ringing

The objective of the Avineck project is to quantify and understand the relationship between the anatomy of the bird neck, its mechanical properties and function. Therefore, the performance of selected avian species is measured.

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Thursday, May 11 2017

Climbing training

In order to be able to climb safely in trees and to take measurements in great heights, members of the Avineck project sucessfully participated in a climbing course.

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Wednesday, April 26 2017

1st meeting

Avineck is a highly interdisciplinary project and involves a number of collaborators.

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Saturday, April 1 2017

Funding by ANR

Exciting news!

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The neck of birds, an arm for robots

The evolution of flight in birds led to a highly specialized appendicular apparatus. The transformation into wings limited the functional versatility of the forelimbs and, thus, the avian neck became the functional equivalent of the arm. In combination with the beak, the head-neck system of birds acts as a tool-bearing arm.

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