Dr Thomas O'Mahoney

Thomas joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2019 and currently leads Level 4 anatomy and physiology in the School of Life Sciences.

Before joining ARU, he completed a PhD in morphometrics at the University of Manchester and subsequently worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on projects investigating evolutionary anatomy and primate vocal anatomy. His research combines anatomy, developmental biology, advanced imaging and quantitative methods to investigate human growth, skeletal development and morphological variation. He is committed to interdisciplinary approaches that connect anatomy with real-world research challenges

Thomas's work spans biomedical science, biological anthropology, palaeontology and heritage science, with particular expertise in geometric morphometrics, 3D imaging and virtual reconstruction. He has contributed to projects ranging from human developmental anatomy to the first full-body digital reconstruction of Australopithecus afarensis ("Lucy"), and subsequent research exploring locomotor evolution in early hominins through biomechanical simulation.

Alongside his research, Thomas is committed to research-informed teaching and ensuring students engage with authentic scientific enquiry, contemporary methods and quantitative approaches from the earliest stages of their studies. He is committed to research-informed teaching 

• French
• English

Thomas's research focuses on understanding how anatomy changes through growth, development and evolution. He combines anatomical expertise with advanced imaging, geometric morphometrics and quantitative methods to investigate patterns of skeletal development, biological variation and form-function relationships.

• Human growth and development
• Developmental and foetal anatomy
• Skeletal biology
• Geometric morphometrics
• Quantitative anatomy
• Medical imaging and image analysis
• 3D scanning and virtual reconstruction
• Human evolution
• Research-informed teaching

• Human growth, development and skeletal biology
• Anatomical imaging, 3D reconstruction and image analysis
• Geometric morphometrics and quantitative anatomy
• Human evolution and evolutionary anatomy

• BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science
• Module leader for Human Anatomy and Physiology

• PGCert Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, ARU
• PhD, Environmental Biology, University of Manchester
• MSc Palaeoanthropology and Palaeolithic Archaeology, UCL
• BA (Hons) Archaeology, University of Bristol
• Biosafety Practitioner Level 1 (Foundation) Course, Biosafety Training Institute University of Edinburgh

• Life Fellow, Cambridge Philosophical Society
• Member, Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
• Guest Editor, Anatomia

• Co-Supervisor, Cambridge Philosophical Society Doctoral Studentship (c. £100,000)
  Evolution of the Mammalian Larynx. Providing interdisciplinary supervision in anatomy, imaging, morphometrics and evolutionary biology
• Sabbatical Award, Anglia Ruskin University (2023-24), c. £15,000
  Competitive institutional award supporting research development and publication activity.
• Principal Investigator, QR Strategic Research Funding, Anglia Ruskin University (2021), £10,000
  Increasing the 3D imaging capabilities of the School of Life Sciences
• Technical Consultant, Polyga Inc
  Advising on research applications of structured-light 3D imaging technologies and contributing technical guidance and industry-facing publications
• Advisor, Turkana Basin Institute African Fossils Project
  Providing expertise in digital reconstruction, imaging and quantitative analysis.
• Erasmus+ Staff Exchange, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Bernadette de Bakker Lab (2020)
  Collaborative research and knowledge exchange in developmental anatomy and advanced imaging
• Member, BABAO Working Group on the Ethical Use of Digital Imaging of Human Remains (2019)
  Contributed to sector-wide guidance on the ethical application of 2D and 3D imaging technologies in human remains research
• Contributor, Manchester Museum exhibitions
  Including Humans in Ancient Britain: Rediscovering Neanderthals and Gift for the Gods: Animal Mummies Revealed.

Developmental anatomy and quantitative imaging

O'Mahoney, T.G., Lowe, T., Chamberlain, A.T. and Sellers, W.I. (2023) 'Endostructural and periosteal growth of the human humerus'. The Anatomical Record, 306(1), pp. 60-78.

O'Mahoney, T.G. and Kumar, J.V. (2025) FetalBoneData: an R data package collating raw measurements of fetal bones across different gestational stages.

Evolutionary anatomy and virtual reconstruction

Bates, K.T., McCormack, S., Donald, E., Coatham, S., Brassey, C.A., Charles, J., O'Mahoney, T., van Bijlert, P.A. and Sellers, W.I. (2025) 'Running performance in Australopithecus afarensis'. Current Biology, 35(1), pp. 224-230.e4.

Brassey, C.A., O'Mahoney, T.G., Chamberlain, A.T. and Sellers, W.I. (2018) 'A volumetric technique for fossil body mass estimation applied to Australopithecus afarensis'. Journal of Human Evolution, 115, pp. 47-64.

Brassey, C.A., Kitchener, A.C., O'Mahoney, T. and Sellers, W.I. (2016) 'Convex-hull mass estimates of the dodo (Raphus cucullatus): application of a CT-based mass estimation technique'. PeerJ, 4, e1432.

Computational and imaging methods

O'Mahoney, T., McKnight, L., Lowe, T., Mednikova, M. and Dunn, J.C. (2020) 'A machine learning based approach to the segmentation of microCT data in archaeological and evolutionary sciences'.

Muir, J., Herbst, C.T., Hawes, J.E., O'Mahoney, T., Dunn, J.C. et al. (2025) 'Nonlinear phenomena in mammalian vocal communication: an introduction and scoping review'. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

Co-organiser, Anatomical Society of Great Britain Winter Meeting 2025, ARU.

Co-organiser, Primate Society of Great Britain Summer meeting 2023, ARU. 

Thomas regularly presents his work at national and international conferences, with a strong track record at Anatomical Society meetings.

The Conversation:

• https://theconversation.com/we-modelled-how-early-human-ancestors-ran-and-found-they-were-surprisingly-slow-248964
• https://www.aru.ac.uk/news/our-early-human-ancestors-were-surprisingly-slow