# Peter Bishop Postdoctoral Fellow ![Peter Bishop](/sites/g/files/omnuum5771/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/spierce/files/peter.png?itok=HngAhZv4) email Originally from Australia, Peter has had a lifelong passion for palaeontology, geology and mathematics. He gained a BAppSc (Hons) in Geosciences from the Queensland University of Technology in 2012, completed his PhD in Evolutionary Biomechanics from Griffith University in 2017, and subsequently held post-doctoral research positions at Griffith University, the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Royal Veterinary College. Over this time he has studied many extinct animals including freshwater crustaceans, fish, stem tetrapods, lizards, early archosaurs and dinosaurs (avian and non-avian). Peter is particularly interested in integrating biomechanics with data from fossils and modern animals, using a rigorous, physics-based approach to examine the adaptive significance of evolutionary changes in the vertebrate skeleton. In his current role, his research focuses on the sprawling-to-erect postural transition that took place in synapsids on the line to mammals, where he is using biomechanical modelling and simulation to understand the anatomical and physical factors that influenced and constrained this transition. Since 2007, Peter has also been part of the Geosciences Program of the Queensland Museum, Brisbane, first as a student volunteer and more recently as an Honorary Research Fellow. #### Select Publications: - **Bishop, P.J.**, Brocklehurst, R.J. and Pierce, S.E. 2023. Intelligent sampling of high-dimensional joint mobility space for analysis of articular function. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14: 569–582. - **Bishop, P.J**., Norton, L.A., Jirah, S., Day, M.O., Rubidge, B.S. and Pierce, S.E. 2023. Enigmatic humerus from the mid-Permian of South Africa bridges the anatomical gap between “pelycosaurs” and therapsids. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 42: e2170805. - **Bishop, P.J.** and Pierce, S.E. 2023. The fossil record of appendicular muscle evolution in Synapsida on the line to mammals: Part II – Hindlimb. The Anatomical Record. vol. 307, pp. 1826-1896. doi: 10.1002/ar.25310 - **Bishop, P.J.,** Falisse, A., De Groote, F. and Hutchinson, J.R. 2021. Predictive simulations of running gait reveal a critical dynamic role for the tail in bipedal dinosaur locomotion. Science Advances 7: abi7348. - ## People terms [Postdoctoral Fellows](/people-terms/postdoctoral-fellows)