UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy
LightNews LightNews
banner
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy
@ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
110 followers 13 following 65 posts
We are UCL's interdisciplinary research centre for every aspect of anatomy - comparative, evolutionary, developmental, medical and forensic.

We are part of the UCL Research Department of Cell & Developmental Biology @ucl-cdb.bsky.social.
Posts Replies Media Videos
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
At the 85th Annual Meeting of the Society of #Vertebrate #Paleontology, our Evans, Cox, Felice and Porro labs contributed. vertpaleo.org/svp-annual-m...

#Evolution #ecology #diversity #form #function @ucl.ac.uk @societyofvertpaleo.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
Group (named in post) from the Centre = nine people, standing below and in front of a brown, yellow and white slide showing the conference title and location (details in post)
November 18, 2025 at 12:42 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Our Maricci Basa (Felice Lab) has published a first-author paper in J Anat: she describes using comparative #embryology and various #imaging techniques to investigate how #snakes are able to have such wide gapes. #anatomy #formandfunction #jaws @ucl.ac.uk #biology @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
2 rows of 3 images: the first is a diagram of snake jaws, then scans and close-ups of collagen fibres. Fast green stain in the image highlights the collagen fibres that connect the bottom jaws of a snake
October 27, 2025 at 11:59 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Our Ryan Felice wins a @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social Research Grant with Dr Alana Sharp @livuninews.bsky.social to study the evolution of hollow spaces in the skull of mammals: do huge land animals air-fill their skulls to lighten their big heads? #anatomy @ucl.ac.uk @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
4 rows of 2 x diagrams of 3D models of the skull of the extinct giant marsupial, Diprotodon optatum, showing the large space taken up by air sinuses (blue) and small space taken up by the brain (pink)
October 27, 2025 at 11:39 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Great news! Two of our people won #teaching awards from @ucl.ac.uk Medical School:
Romain Perera won the Top Teacher Award 2024-25 for Year 2, with
Laura Porro as runner-up. Congratulations!
More info here: www.ucl.ac.uk/medical-scie... @ucl-cdb.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
Head & shoulders photo of Romain Perera Head & shoulders photo of Laura Porro
October 22, 2025 at 11:41 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Thank you to all who came to our World Anatomy Day Event at the @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social. We received 381 visitors (341 adults and 40 children); for comparison, a typical Saturday at the Grant Museum has about 230 visitors. Everyone seems to have discovered that #Anatomy is indeed Amazing!
Five of the staff from @UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy and @Grant Museum of Zoology, who helped host the 2025 World Anatomy Day event, Amazing Anatomy. They are standing in the museum (brown wood floor, wall panelling, cabinets having glass fronts/backs filled with specimens
October 22, 2025 at 10:45 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Susan Evans has just returned from the Institute of #Vertebrate #Paleontology and #Paleoanthropology, Beijing. She has been working on Mesozoic #fossil #reptiles with colleague, Dr Liping DONG, Professor (Associate). english.ivpp.cas.cn/about/Introd... @ucl.ac.uk @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
A woman (Susan Evans), dressed in blue sitting at a computer desk bearing a microscope, holding a Mesozoic fossil reptile specimen A woman (Susan Evans), dressed in blue sitting at a computer desk bearing a microscope, through which she is viewing a Mesozoic fossil reptile specimen
September 24, 2025 at 12:21 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
YAY! We have achieved Silver status in June's #Laboratory Efficient Assessment by @ucl.ac.uk's Katherine Howett. Thank you to all Centre members who worked hard to achieve such #sustainable #labs. Info: stainabilityexchange.ac.uk/leaf_a_new_a... @sustainableucl.bsky.social @uclnews.bsky.social
A pale blue square block, having top, centre a logo depicting the LEAF silver award (see post for explanation). Underneath in black lettering are stated (line-by-line): Awarded to: Centre for Integrative Anatomy (lime green highlight): In recognition of exemplary actions undertaken to improve the sustainability practices as part of the LEAF framework Awarded by: Kathering Howett {KH was the auditor}
July 7, 2025 at 12:57 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Creating a buzz: prepare to appreciate those #picnic pests! Wasps purr!! @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social hosts the World of #Wasps from 25 June 2025. Evening and #family events. #summer #wasp #exhibition #science #FamilyFun #insect @ucl.ac.uk @ucl-cdb.bsky.social @ucllifesciences.bsky.social #nature
A large, colour picture of the inside of the Grant Museum having superimposed thereon a mock-up of a wasp flying low over a grassy meadow - the pic being set above two smaller images: to the left a yellow and black depiction of 'World of Wasps' and to the right a close-up of a wasp on a white flower
June 19, 2025 at 1:09 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Congratulations to our Kat Gregory, who has just completed her 'Couch to 5k'. Kat, a PhD student with @rfelices.bsky.social, only started #running with *our Running Club in March 2025, so it's a great achievement!
*Anyone from @ucl-cdb.bsky.social welcome - contact r.marek@ucl.ac.uk for info.
Mobile phone screenshot of schematic map of Gunnersbury Park showing route Kat Gregory ran (around the periphery - a red line) marked with her various personal bests and showing she completed both the Couch to 5K and also ran for 1 hour straight (distance 5.72km, average pace 10.3/km)
June 16, 2025 at 10:40 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Four of our postgraduate #researchers (#PGRs) are talking about their work to @ucl-cdb.bsky.social's PGR #Student Symposium: Kat Gregory & Matt Mitchell (supervised by Ryan Felice), Atena Soltanian (Phil Cox), & Patrick Hennessey (Laura Porro). Topics range from #chickens to giant #crocodiles!
A white poster with UCL logo in black and details of the location of the PGR student symposium on Thurs 19 June 2025 in the JZ Young Lecture Theatre (LT) with refreshments etc in the opposite LT, Gavin de Beer
June 13, 2025 at 3:03 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Our #Artist-in-Residence, Mary Yacoob, has produced new large-scale #cyanotype prints reimagining of #scientific visual data from @ucllifesciences.bsky.social #researchers. Faculty private #exhibition details here: tinyurl.com/YacoobUCL
#artandscience #art #artwork @ucl.ac.uk @ucl-cdb.bsky.social
Poster from UCL Faculty of Life Sciences headed in olive green, under which are images of cyanotypes (whole image to left in blue and white, partial detail to right in blue & green on dark background) under which is a substantially blue and white panel detailing the event, speakers and background info - all available more accessibly via the online link.
June 6, 2025 at 12:27 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
News! 2025's World Anatomy Day is on 15 October, focusing on 'global perspectives of #anatomy – recognising differences while celebrating similarities within the international anatomy community. We'll be celebrating - watch this space! @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk #WAD2025
Lozenge-shaped blue-mauve banner having a blue/green glob held by a brown hand to the right edge, with the words World Anatomy Day (orange), Global Perspectives of Anatomy (white), 15 October 2025 (orange) arrayed to the left side
April 25, 2025 at 10:37 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Susan Evans & co-researchers suggest #lizard-like #reptiles may have climbed on waterside vegetation, dropping into the water if threatened. Hand #bone scans show suitably long, curved phalanges. @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @nhm-london.bsky.social @natural-history.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk
The paper provides a reassessment of the lifestyle of the small Middle Jurassic lizard-like reptile, Marmoretta (Reptilia: Lepidosauromorpha), based on new high-resolution hashtag#scans of a specimen from hashtag#fossil deposits on the Isle of Skye. Marmoretta was previously interpreted as partially aquatic, as its hashtag#bones were found in a lagoonal hashtag#environment and in similar numbers to those of aquatic reptiles and hashtag#amphibians. The bones of terrestrial members of the assemblage are generally rarer. However, the new scans reveal the hand of Marmoretta to have long, curved, penultimate hashtag#phalanges – a feature of modern arboreal-scansorial** lizards, like geckos and iguanians, that climb on vertical surfaces. A possible scenario to explain the relative abundance of their bones is that they may have climbed on vegetation close to the water’s edge, dropping into the water if threatened. South American basilisk lizards have been seen to do this when cornered on branches by predatory monkeys. Ford DP, Benson RBJ, Griffiths EF, Evans SE. 2025 Evidence for clinging arboreality in a Middle Jurassic stem lepidosaur. Proc. R. Soc. B 292: 20250080. https://lnkd.in/e-rK2e36. Susan's collaborators are from the Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum; the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History; and the Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford Earth Sciences **"Arboreal" refers to an animal that lives primarily in trees, conducting most of its life activities there, such as feeding, nesting, and reproduction. "Scansorial," on the other hand, describes an animal's ability or propensity to climb, often on trees or other three-dimensional surfaces, but not necessarily living exclusively in them. While scansorial animals may climb and occasionally utilize trees for resources, they are not necessarily arboreal.
April 23, 2025 at 11:50 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
We in the Centre are pleased to have (a) completed the work for & (b) made our application for a #LEAF silver award. We already have bronze status. LEAF is a scheme to support more #sustainable #labs in #research orgs.
@ucl.ac.uk @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl-cdb.bsky.social #environment #esg
The LEAF logo with the word LEAF in white in a pale blue roundel, edged with a slightly darker blue and (in white) the words The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework at its perimeter. Inside the roundel, and background to 'LEAF' is a dark blue round-bottomed flask, half -obscured by a lime green leaf pointing slightly diagonally from right to left A table showing, across the top, the three levels of LEAF award: bronze, silver, gold; and down the left side, the five categories of focus: waste, people, sample/chemical management, equipment and ventilation. The table is completed with the criteria that must be met for each award level. The whole table has lines and background to header in lime green
April 7, 2025 at 11:05 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
At American Association for Anatomy's '#Anatomy Connected' conference, Susan Evans & Marc Jones presented on the #evolution of bony arches surrounding #skull apertures in reptiles (lizards, snakes). @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @anatomyorg.bsky.social @nhm-london.bsky.social @ucl-cdb.bsky.social
Cover slide from Susan Evans' talk having the Centre for Integrative Anatomy logo, top right, with Marc Jones' head-and-shoulders photo to its left, and (justified left in two lines) the words: The Lepidosaurian lower temporal bar - losses or gains? in black type. Below is a large picture on one example, having a bright green body with brown stripes between 'nostril' and 'eye', inset to which is a small photo of a pale greenish-brown example. Underneath and to the left of the photos are named the two presenters and their research centres - see main text for more info Logo of Anatomy Connected held in Portland, Oregon, USA 28-31 March 2025, which comprises navy and mid-blue and citrus yellow intersecting and crossing wavy lines/ Part of their banner is also shown beneath, being a pale blue background, fading from left to right, on which are two bands of colour, curved from top to bottom: the LH band is mid-blue having many worm-like citrus yellow squiggles and the RH band is the reverse colour scheme but having small circles, not squiggles
April 7, 2025 at 9:58 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Matt Mitchell is presenting at the British Ornithologists' Union conference today, with a concurrent BlueSky presentation going live at 17:15 from his account @m-j-mitchell.bsky.social. Matt is a Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (PGTA) in @ucl.ac.uk's Division of Biosciences #birds
A head photo of Matt Mitchell, wearing a dark shirt and brown glasses
April 3, 2025 at 12:03 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Delighted to be awarded a prestigious Human #Science Frontiers Program (@hsfpo.bsky.social) #Research Grant entitled “Musculoskeletal system of head-first burrowers: an interdisciplinary approach”. $1.5M award/3 years/4 international #scientists. @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @mmoazen.bsky.social
Heading of letter from HFSP with the award title as in the main text of the post
March 31, 2025 at 8:02 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
On Friday, four of us from the Centre sang (with London City #Chorus in St Andrew's, Holborn) Michael Haydn's Requiem & Vivaldi's Gloria. As the photo shows, a good time was had by all! To join, see londoncitychorus.com/Joinachoir
#sing #choralmusic #choir
@ucl.ac.uk @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
A colour photo of 4 people standing, smiling, in a row, all wearing black, comprising three women and a man, namely: Mary Yacoob, Julie Barrett, Sandra Martelli and Phil Cox. In the background are part of the wooden pulpit and arches of St Andrew Holborn church, and the cream walls and leaded windows looking out into greenery
March 31, 2025 at 7:56 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Our Annual Symposium 2025 on interdisciplinary aspects of functional morphology was enjoyed by over 70 attendees, incl. 17 speakers, yesterday (20 February). This full-day conference delved into the fascinating and inter-disciplinary world of #anatomy. @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Group photo of attendees remaining after 5pm at the UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy's annual symposium 2025. A large group of people are standing on a light, parquet floor, looking up at the camera with smiling faces
February 21, 2025 at 12:38 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
It's official - our #Symposium is now sold out/oversubscribed!
Looking forward to greeting our speakers and hearing their short (15 mins) talks, listening to our Keynote Speaker (30 mins) and discussing all things #anatomy#morphology #evolution#development &c @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Snip of the Eventbrite page showing details of the Symposium and the fact that it is now sold out to non-speakers
February 18, 2025 at 2:37 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
#Anatomy Lab #Forensic Unit published a multi-disciplinary framework for ethical study of human #decomposition, gathering data from #human #burials & promoting collaboration among European forensic experts. #palaeontology #fossils @ucllifesciences.bsky.social doi.org/10.1016/j.sc...
Diagram, flow chart style, illustrating a study that introduces the UK-Netherlands Decomposition Experimental Research (UNDER) group, a pioneering initiative in forensic taphonomy. It establishes a multidisciplinary framework for the ethical study of human decomposition, gathering data from human burials and promoting collaboration among European forensic experts. Initial concepts for UNDER preliminary study, highlighting all considered research datasets to maximise donor use. VOC – volatile organic compounds; TD – thermal denaturation; CCTV – closed-circuit television (video surveillance). Brown shading indicates burial factors, red indicate pre-burial consideration, blue indicate imaging, green highlights cadaver-based sampling, yellow indicates site monitoring. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
February 6, 2025 at 10:18 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Exciting to get our J of Morphology email alert on articles published today and see our Alice Leavey's paper on #frogs highlighted. Fruitful collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College and her supervisor, our LauraBPorro. #biology@leaveylab.bsky.social
@ucllifesciences.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk
Photo showing front cover of the Journal of Morphology with issue information, title of Alice Leavey's research article and image of coloured scan of frog leg musculature
January 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
@ucl.ac.uk #Anatomy Lab is sharing tips to help #labs (and associated offices) be more #sustainable, including a note of some #plants to promote cleaner #air, including the commonly-available spider, pothos and snake plants, which are said to absorb certain organic chemicals and #CO: #LEAF #green
An information sheet having a green background headed Lab Plants for Cleaner Air, with three white boxes (alternating left and right sides), each showing a plant (spider, pothos and snake), with an adjacent pale green box naming the plants and suggesting they help to purify air by removing formaldehyde, benzene, xylene and CO/CO2
January 16, 2025 at 12:29 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
We've just received this interesting fact from our associates in the @ucl.ac.uk #Anatomy Lab, which we thought worth sharing, on #stress effects on human #teeth! #ecology #sustainability #LEAF
A label having a rounded, green, rectangular perimeter with the word Eco-Anatomy prominently towards the top and a fun fact at the intersection of bodies and sustainability below. It includes (bottom, left) a QR code to get more info on the UCL Green effort plus (bottom, right) a stylised outline of a 'sparkling' human tooth (with smiley face) and - to the right of that - a stylised image of a tree (green foliage, brown trunk)
January 16, 2025 at 12:19 PM
ucl-c4ia.bsky.social
Today @ucl.ac.uk,Laura Porro is hosting a visit and talk by Professor Anthony Herrel @cnrs.bsky.social, Paris on the #evolution of burrowing in legless lizards wrt the shape of the #cranium v forces produced, and comparing those in these #lizards with those in #snakes @ucllifesciences.bsky.social
Photo of Anthony Herrel (white, male, wearing glasses) looking at a lizard he is holding, outdoors in a grassy area with trees in the near and distant background
January 16, 2025 at 11:23 AM