Dr Olivia Plateau, Department of Earth Sciences, writes:

Birds, the only surviving branch of the theropod dinosaurs, are one of the most species-rich extant vertebrate groups with more than 11,000 species. They show great diversity in terms of size, colour, shape and ecology, occupying almost all habitats on the surface of the Earth.

I am an evolutionary biologist, and I am particularly interested in the study of bird osteology. For palaeontologists, the skeleton is extremely important because it is one of the only vestiges of past species to be found in the fossil record. By comparing the bone morphology of fossil specimens with the bones of living species, researchers can establish a connection between the past and the present in order to better understand evolution. For my research, I also use bird skeletons to understand the link between morphology and ecology.

When feeding, birds mainly use their beaks to collect food such as fruit from trees, small insects from the ground or water, or even pieces of flesh from other animals. Evolutionary biologists have therefore attempted to test the association between beak morphology and dietary factors to gain a better understanding of the drivers behind the extreme beak shape diversity in birds.

However, the beak is not the only part of the skull that plays an important role in bird feeding. To obtain food, birds move their upper and lower jaws. Movement of the upper jaw, known as cranial kinesis, is made possible by an association of several bones on the ventral surface of the skull known as the palatal bones. The aim of my research is to characterize the shape diversity of palatal bones and to investigate the relationship between bird palate morphology and feeding ecology.

To study the shape of the palate bones, I use X-ray microtomography (= μCT), which can be compared with medical X-rays. Then I can extract the shape of each bone in 3D and compare the morphology of the bones directly on my computer. I then gather all the ecological information about the birds in my study: what do they eat? How do they use their beaks to feed? And so on. Using statistical tools, I test the link between bone morphology and bird ecology. If feeding strategies are strongly correlated with the morphology and topology of the palate, that gives us a better understanding of the driving forces behind the evolution of cranial kinesis.