Gaia, would you be so kind to also post the blender file avatar? It's easier to assess animation capabilities directly in Blender.
Regarding animation capabilities, I would suggest to Linden devs considering the MPEG 4 FAPS from the MPEG-4 FBA (Face and Body Animation, [iSO14496]).
This standard is not perfect but it has been well documented and adopted by a number of industry players.
Here is the link to a fairly complete description of the standard: https://www.visagetechnologies.com/uploads/2012/08/MPEG-4FBAOverview.pdf