ABOUT US

Research interests

Varanus panoptes

We are interested in the relationship between form, function and ecology of living and extinct animals. Our projects focus on the different ways that biomechanics of movement can limit the pathways available for evolution.

Our current research at the University of the Sunshine Coast continues research into lizard locomotion, with a focus on the design of biologically inspired climbing robots.

Interested in joining our lab? See the get in touch button below

Recent news coming out of the Clemente lab

Lizard robot paper is out in Royal Soc B

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Using a biologically mimicking climbing robot to explore the performance landscape of climbing in lizards

Muscle fibres change with body size!

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How do you get bigger muscles as you grow in size? more muscle fibres?, or larger muscle fibres? We explore this in our paper. The answer depends on which taxonomic group you explore!

Review paper in kangaroo locomotion 2022

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Kangaroos are the largest hopping animals, but why they hop is still a mystery. Our review paper on the unusual locomotion and body shape of kangaroos is out in the Australian Journal of Zoology.

Tail movment in lizards 2021

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Our multi-species comparative study on lizard tail biomechanics is published! Analysis of >40 species of 4 families showed: inter-tail bending vs inter-spine bending increased with rel tail length but tail deflection vs spine deflection with rel speed.

December 2019.

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The Clemente lab is recuiting Honours and PhD students. Scholarships are available. Contact us now!

December 2019. Well done Josh on his latest paper in JEB!

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Koalas climb like apes but bound like marsupials.

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The influence of speed and size on avian terrestrial locomotor biomechanics: Predicting locomotion in extinct theropod dinosaurs.

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Surface friction alters the agility of a small Australian marsupial

Recent papers coming out of the Clemente lab in 2017

Click for varanid muscle scaling paper

A conversation article detailing our work on dinosaur step width.

Our PLOS biology paper exploring the problems animals have at large body sizes

Contact me

Below is a link to my page in the University of the Sunshine Coast