Prof Darrell Evans, BSMS

Brighton and Sussex Medical School's head of anatomy, Professor Darrell Evans, has been recruited as one of the experts for Channel 4's award winning TV series 'Inside Nature's Giants'.

Darrell has been brought into the team to provide his expertise on human anatomy for the new website that accompanies the series.

Darrell's main research is directed at understanding the way tissues such as muscle, tendon and cartilage develop in the human body.

By examining the way cells come together to make these tissues, he hopes to find out if it's possible to recreate those processes when tissues become injured or diseased.

Some of the peculiarities of the animal world are helping with this research and his team is currently looking at why the tendons of some animals naturally turn into bone, a phenomenon seen only in a diseased state in humans.

The Channel 4 website has been created to delve deeper into the anatomy of some of the world's most remarkable creatures - including giraffes, crocodiles, whales and tigers - and to show some of the spectacular similarities to and differences from our own bodies.

It provides an opportunity for a wide audience, particularly youngsters, to get under the skin of the animal kingdom.

Darrell said: "It has been a wonderful learning experience to compare our anatomy with these fantastic animals and to see how evolution has led to some amazing adaptations."

Watch Darrell explaining how our anatomy compares to the anatomy of nature's giants.