Alec Wilken

Alec Wilken

Alec Wilken

Alec Wilken

PhD Student in Integrative Biology
atwilken@uchicago.edu  

Alec Wilken is a graduate student interested in vertebrate biomechanics and evolution. For his dissertation, Alec is investigating the evolution of the mammal jaw and the mammalian middle ear. Much of Alec’s work employs Finite Element Analysis (FEA), an engineering technique, to explore the biomechanical environment of the feeding apparatus, combining work from novel imaging techniques and in vivo data to construct robust biomechanical models. Alec has previously conducted research studying the evolution of kinetic, mobile skulls in lizards, birds, and non-avian dinosaurs and the burrowing adaptations of North American shrews.

Related Publications

Connecting the chondrocranium: Biomechanics of the suspensorium in reptiles
Wilken AT, Sellers KC, Cost IN, Rozin RE, Middleton KM, and Holliday CM. Vertebrate Zoology. 70(3): 275-290 (2020) [DOI]

Comparative functional skeletal morphology among three genera of shrews: implications for the evolution of locomotor behavior in the Soricinae (Eulipotyphla: Soricidae)
Woodman, N and Wilken, AT. Journal of Mammalogy. 100(6): 1750-1764 (2019) [DOI]

The roles of joint tissues and jaw muscles in palatal biomechanics of the Savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus) and their significance for cranial kinesis.
Wilken AT, Middleton KM, Sellers KC, Cost IN, and Holliday CM. Journal of Experimental Biology. 222 (18): jeb201459 (2019) [DOI]

See how they ran: morphological and functional aspects of skeletons from ancient Egyptian shrew mummies (Euliptophyla: Soricidae: Crocidurinae)
Woodman, N, Wilken, AT, and Ikram, S. Journal of Mammalogy. 100(4): 1199-1210 (2019) [DOI]