Oliver Berg
I am a bachelor student here at Nyakaturalab, working on the trabecular structure of the femoral head in Muroidea. Analyzing microCT scans with ORS Dragonfly and RStudio, I am investigating the scaling of trabecular parameters with body size, as well as the influence lifestyle has on these variables, because of different loading and activities associated with them. We are working with muroid skeletons from museum collections, most skeletons being stemming from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and Zoologische Staatssammlung München. With my thesis I am part of the group project „Morphology and ecology of Muroidea“.
Research
Project: Morphology and ecology of Muroidea
This project currently comprises several bachelor thesis projects, analyzing the 3D shape, tracebular structure, and cross-sectional properties of the humerus and femur of pelves and femora. We received muroid skeletons from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and from Zoologische Staatssammlung München for the acquisition of microCT data. The scans are analyzed in ORS Dragonfly, ImageJ, and RStudio. Our goal is to explore the scaling properties of long bones with body size, how loading patterns resulting from different lifestyles influence the properties of the bone parameters and to analyze the shape of the bones in Muroidea and whether these properties reflect adaptations to diverse locomotor ecologies.
