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HDR defense: Eglantine Heude
| When |
Sep 15, 2025
from 01:30 to 04:30 |
|---|---|
| Where | Condorcet room |
| Contact Name | Eglantine Heude |
| Attendees |
Mélanie Debiais-Thibault, Professeure, Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution de Montpellier (pré-rapportrice); Nicolas Narboux-Neme, Maitre de conférence, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris (pré-rapporteur); Florence Ruggiero, Directrice de recherche CNRS, IGFL, ENS Lyon (pré-rapportrice); Sophie Pantalacci, Directrice de recherche CNRS, LBMC, ENS Lyon; Anthony Herrel, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris; Anamaria Necsulea, Chargée de Recherche CNRS, Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Lyon. |
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Eglantine Heude will present her habilitation to supervise research on Monday, September 15th, at 1:30 pm in Salle Condorcet, on the following topic:
"Developmental and evolutionary origins of cranio-cervical structures in vertebrates"
Abstract:
In vertebrates, the successive emergence of the head and the jaws enabled new functions of environmental perception and nutrition in the aquatic habitat. The conquest of land was accompanied by the appearance of the neck in tetrapods, a key innovation that supports diverse functions such as head mobility, feeding, aerial respiration, and vocalization. From a developmental perspective, this pivotal region represents a hybrid zone at the interface between the embryonic programs shaping the musculoskeletal systems of the head and trunk.
My work has revealed the central role of the connective tissue in coordinating the formation of an integrated and functional musculoskeletal system. We showed that connective tissue progenitors are essential for the development of masticatory muscles and for the organization of organs involved in acoustic communication. We also established that the cervical muscles and their associated connective tissue have mixed embryonic origins, reflecting the hybrid nature of the neck. Finally, a comparative approach demonstrated that all neck muscle groups were already present in fish and were co-opted in tetrapods to acquire new functions adapted to a terrestrial life.
The neck thus emerges as a major innovation and a model for exploring anatomical assembly, phenotypic diversification, and evolutionary constraints. Our work combines developmental biology, comparative anatomy, functional genomics, and biomechanical modelling to shed light on its cellular and molecular bases, its evolutionary trajectory, and its biomedical implications.