RSSA May 2026 Meeting and Scientific Presentation

The Royal Society of South Australia is pleased to invite you to its May meeting and scientific presentation.

Guest Presenter: Dr Rex Mitchell

Form and function of the skull: Refining the assumptions

Abstract

Scientific progress is often framed as the accumulation of new discoveries. Yet some of the most important advances arise from a different process: re-examining the assumptions that underpin what we think we already understand.

In this talk, I revisit one of the most widely studied problems in vertebrate biology: how the skulls of animals handle the forces of biting. For decades, several influential models have described how stresses move through the skull during a bite, typically focusing on stresses that arise from the teeth and their transmission through the face for dissipation across the braincase. These frameworks have been powerful and widely applied.

However, modern digital techniques for analysing bite-related forces across diverse animals reveal patterns of stress that do not align with these predictions. Rather than routing stress to the braincase for dissipation, stresses instead organise along distinct and consistent pathways throughout the skull, forming load-bearing zones of compression between the jaw joints and biting teeth.

Tracing these patterns back to first principles of mechanical engineering leads to a different interpretation of skull function. The skull behaves not as a structure that routes stresses away from the bones of the face, but as a system that manages bite forces by distributing stress as arcs of compression, similar to how arches in buildings and bridges support loads.

Bio

Dr Rex Mitchell specialises in skull function and evolution, with a focus on feeding biomechanics. His work predominantly utilises finite element analysis, 3D data visualisation, and geometic morphometrics. Rex completed his PhD in 2019 at the University of New England, then continued his research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Arkansas, University of North Texas, and has been in Adelaide since 2021 at Flinders University. He is the founder of The Skullywag Lab YouTube channel (3,500+ subscribers), with expertise in video editing and Blender animation, and is passionate about translating complex scientific data into actionable insights.

Event Information

The event will begin at 6:00 pm with nibbles, refreshments and opportunities for pre-meeting discussions and networking. A small donation to the RSSA is greatly appreciated to partake in this and support the continued provision of these pre-meeting treats.

This event will be held in-person in the Royal Society rooms, but we will simultaneously live-stream the meeting via Zoom for those not able to attend on the night.

To attend either in person, or online, you must register here. The zoom link will be sent to you on registration. Please feel free to share this event with your institution or networks.

If in-person tickets are sold out, please be aware that we are unable to admit more people than our room capacity. If online tickets are sold out, please contact admin@rssa.org.au and we can supply the zoom link to you.

For more information on the location of the RSSA rooms, please visit https://www.rssa.org.au/contact/