Tag: lab news
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UA Magazine feature!
Our woodpecker research was just featured in The Collegian, a magazine by The University of Alabama’s Barefield College of Arts and Sciences. Two students from the CVN lab, Emma Bowie, an undergraduate, and Preston Herring, a Masters student, both spoke about their woodpecker research at Tanglewood Biological Field station. Read all about it here: Find…
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We’re hosting a livestream!
On Tuesday December 9th 2025, the CVN lab will be hosting an educational livestream from 7am to 7pm CST (or as long as we can manage!). Lab members will be competing to see who can collect the most headbutting data and we’ll be sharing our goat videos live on the stream! At the top of…
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NEW PAPER! Headbutting history
A new paper is out from the CVN lab! Published in The Anatomical Record as part of our thematic issue “TBI, not just for humans”. Here is the press release: A newly accepted paper by Dr. Nicole Ackermans of The University of Alabama is poised to reshape scientific understanding of brain injury in animals. Titled…
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A new addition to the CVN lab!
Although I’m a little late to announce it, please welcome the latest additions to the CVN lab, Dr. Ananth Srinivas and his faithful companion Dr. Thea! Dr. Srinivas joined the lab in January of 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher, with the goal to focus on the biomechanics of headbutting bovids (and woodpeckers, if I can…
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New paper on headbutting anatomy!
A new publication is out in The Anatomical Record, entitled “Only skull-deep? Headbutting adaptations may not extend to the brain cavity“, authored Nicole Ackermans and Joy Reidenberg.This paper is part of a special issue for The Anatomical Record on TBI, organized and guest-edited by Nicole Ackermans. Get the full article here! https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25623 Subscribe to lab…
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Featured on “I Know Dino” podcast
July 31st 2024. The popular prehistoric podcast I Know Dino has featured the most recent paper from the CVN lab in an episode entitled The state of Headbutting Science. The “headbutting through time” paper was published this summer in The Anatomical Record and reviews headbutting behavior across various extinct species, including pachycephalosaurids. This collaborative effort…
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Comic art collaboration
The CVN lab’s research is featured in an all new format, a comic! Our headbutting research was selected for a collaboration with students from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (or MassArt) and their Integrative Sciences and Biological Arts Department. This collaboration is the brain child of Dr. Caroline Hu, an Assistant professor at…
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The Tanglewood woodpecker project has begun!
Back in April, the CVN lab was approved to begin a project at the Tanglewood Research Station. Tanglewood, also known as the J. Nicholene Bishop Biological Station, is a 570-acre nature reserve and research facility that is a part of the University of Alabama. We are very excited to take advantage of this wonderful research…
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Goat pilot experiment is a wrap!
The CVN lab has been working on a pilot experiment for the last six months. As of this April we have successfully completed all sample collection for the goat pilot. This project involves using goats as a model for Alzheimer’s disease, specifically because they self-inflict brain injury by headbutting. We collaborated with Mississippi State University…
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New paper on dinosaur headbutting!
A new review is out in The Anatomical Record, entitled “Headbutting through time: A review of this hypothesized behavior in “dome-headed” fossil taxa“. Co authored by Cary Woodruff and Nicole Ackermans.This paper is part of a special issue for The Anatomical Record, organized and guest-edited by Nicole Ackermans. Get the full article here! https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25526 Subscribe…
Nicole Ackermans, CVN lab 