John R. Hutchinson

I am a Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics and an anatomist. I study how locomotion works in individual species in order to reconstruct how locomotion has evolved across vast phylogenetic spans. In particular, I'm curious how body size influences locomotor abilities (such as how fast or how well an animal can run) and how anatomy and function are related (or not).

Dinosaurs (including birds), elephants, crocodiles, early tetrapods and more species have been favourite subjects of my research. Could Tyrannosaurus rex run and how fast? Do elephants actually run (i.e. bounce) and why don't they gallop? How did the first four-legged vertebrate animals use limbs to walk on land? I have worked on and at least partly answered fun and important questions like these.