Cranial kinesis in a hyacinth macaw, the largest flying parrot WitmerLab 2026-09-23 | Cranial kinesis in a hyacinth macaw, the largest flying parrot
Prenocephale - pachycephalosaur skull (ZPAL MgD-I/104) WitmerLab 2022-09-16 | Prenocephale - pachycephalosaur dinosaur skull - holotype (ZPAL MgD-I/104)This video was filmed on March 1998 in the collections of the Paleontological Institute in Warsaw, Poland. The film is jumpy because it's handheld and predates cameras with image stabilization technology.
T. rex holotype & best skull - Barnum Browns & Charles Darwins Birthday WitmerLab 2022-02-12 | Happy Birthday to Barnum Brown (1873–1963) who discovered not only the holotype of T. rex (the bones in front; CM 9380), but also maybe still the best, most complete skull (in back; AMNH 5027)🦖Also Happy Birthday to Charles Darwin (1812–1882) whose work on evolution by natural selection allowed us to make sense of it all! #DarwinDay
Random Act of Anatomy - T. rex segment for OU Alumni Academy 2021-04-14 WitmerLab 2021-10-05 | Happy Birthday, T. rex! Releasing this video on the 116th anniversary of the naming of the holotype of Tyrannosaurus rex (1905). This video is an excerpt from a presentation that Witmer gave to the inaugural class of the Ohio University Alumni Academy, which was a virtual session run from WitmerLab on April 14th, 2021. This is release is with permission of the Ohio University Alumni Association and OU Advancement.
Random Act of Anatomy - tour of in-progress skeletal specimens WitmerLab 2021-07-03 | #RandomActofAnatomy As we dissect and study specimens, we wind up making a LOT of skeletons. Here's a quick tour of what happens to be in progress right now...a couple dozen skeletons or so. As always, these specimens are what we call "salvage specimens"— that is, carcasses that have been donated to us for research from wildlife rehab facilities and governmental agencies.
Allosaurus head & neck feeding animation – early draft WitmerLab 2021-05-17 | "Bit of fun" was Ryan Ridgely's filename for this early draft of an animation of the feeding apparatus of the theropod dinosaur Allosaurus. The final version of the animation is here: youtu.be/tdezagMXE2w. The scientific article, led by Eric Snively, was published in 2013. Check out our page for more: https://people.ohio.edu/witmerl/Allosaurus_mechanics.htm. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Daniel Dunfee - #OUVirtualExpo - Skull changes in the dinosaur Dryosaurus WitmerLab 2021-04-08 | This video is Daniel Dunfee's entry in the 2021 #OUVirtualExpo. Daniel Dunfee is a junior undergraduate in the Ohio University Honors Tutorial College (Department of Geological Sciences). Daniel is doing his senior honors thesis in @WitmerLab on specimens of the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation dinosaur Dryosaurus, collected from the Carnegie Quarry at Dinosaur National Monument, Utah, and currently housed in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Daniel is studying skull ontogeny (growth) in three skulls of Dryosaurus based on analysis of CT-scan data.
Random Act of Anatomy - ostrich cranial kinesis & eyeball size WitmerLab 2021-03-28 | #RandomActofAnatomy I was finishing up a skeletal preparation of an ostrich skull and thought the kinetic apparatus was worth sharing. Also, ostriches have ridiculously large orbits & eyeballs! Are ostrich eyes really bigger than elephant eyes? Yes, they are!
Random Act of Anatomy - tour of in-progress bird & lizard skeletons WitmerLab 2021-02-10 | #RandomActofAnatomy As we dissect and study specimens in our collection, we make a LOT of skeletons. Here is quick tour of what specimens happen to be in progress recently. As always, these carcasses were donated to us for research from wildlife rehab facilities & pet owners.
Random Act of Anatomy - Same bone? Alligator femur vs. human clavicle WitmerLab 2021-02-04 | Evolutionary convergence can result in independent evolution of similar traits due to similar functions. But sometimes superficial similarity just...happens. There's no reason an alligator should look like a human clavicle, but I bet I could put a gator thighbone on a gross anatomy practical exam & no one would bat an eye.
Random Act of Anatomy – WitmerLabs tyrannosaur nook WitmerLab 2020-12-12 | WitmerLab has been accumulating tyrannosaur cast specimens for almost 30 years, and we recently gathered the specimens into one space in the lab—our "tyrannosaur nook"—to make it easier to talk about them for a recent in-lab Ohio University Science Café (youtu.be/ewNscJpfa-Y). In this Random Act of Anatomy we give a brief guided tour of our tyrannosaur nook before we took it down to return the lab to its normal configuration.
Random Act of Anatomy - alligator skeleton with tail pathology WitmerLab 2020-10-26 | Random Act of Anatomy video wherein Larry Witmer shows the complete skeleton of an American alligator (OUVC 11684) with a tail pathology, presumably a healed wound after another alligator had bitten off the distal end of the tail. The stump of the tail has a mass of collagenous tissue connected to the remaining last tail vertebra. Witmer compares this alligator's situation with the situation of true tail regeneration in a lizard (green iguana).
Random Act of Anatomy - WitmerLab tour - Science Café - 2020-10-05 WitmerLab 2020-10-14 | Join Prof. Lawrence Witmer and his research students to celebrate National Fossil Day for "Random Acts of Anatomy, A Live Guided Tour of Witmer Lab." This video was originally a livestream broadcast as part of Ohio University’s Science Café series. Feel free to post any questions in the comments section and Witmer will try to answer the, as soon as possible.For further information…1. Read the Ohio University announcement about the National Geographic Magazine article: bit.ly/3ngKrUx. Read the Nat Geo article: nationalgeographic.com/family/reimagining-dinosaurs 2. Visit the National Fossil Day (NFD) webpage on the U.S. National Park Service’s site: nps.gov/subjects/fossilday/index.htm. Learn about and download the NFD “Prehistoric Life Coloring Book”: nps.gov/subjects/fossils/coloring-book.htm. 3. Check out WitmerLab online: • WitmerLab: http://www.WitmerLab.com • YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/witmerlab • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/witmerlab • Sketchfab: sketchfab.com/witmerlab • Instagram (@WitmerLab): instagram.com/witmerlab • Twitter (@WitmerLab): twitter.com/WitmerLab 4. Web video series• Random Acts of Anatomy: http://bit.ly/2ylQcsX• Dissecting with Emily (with Emily Caggiano): http://bit.ly/2f0AUkE 5. Dig into published research articles mentioned during the livestream.• Reconstructing soft-tissues and behavior in fossils (Witmer 1995): bit.ly/3nfw0ju• Skull structure in Majungasaurus (Sampson & Witmer 2007): http://bit.ly/2t96lAT • Skin textures in dinosaurs (Hieronymus et al. 2009): http://bit.ly/2xp60Zt• Rhino horn growth & form (Hieronymus et al. 2006): http://bit.ly/2fhEsx4• Stegoceras nasal airflow (Bourke et al. 2014): http://bit.ly/2JI6RLn • Allosaurus head & neck function (Snively et al. 2013): http://bit.ly/2Ui4rHd• T. rex brain & sensory behavior (Witmer & Ridgely 2009): http://bit.ly/2BoKIfx• Air sinuses in T. rex & other dinosaurs (Witmer & Ridgely 2008): http://bit.ly/2JLIC14 • Brain-cooling in T. rex & other dinosaurs (Porter & Witmer 2019): http://bit.ly/2p5ybwB• Jaw muscles & blood vessels in T. rex (Holliday et al. 2019): http://bit.ly/2k1Hw6p • Skull mechanics & kinesis in T. rex (Cost et al. 2019): bit.ly/2SsXBj7 • Juvenile tyrannosaur Tarbosaurus skull (Tsuihiji et al. 2011): http://bit.ly/2xDNShQ• Brain structure in sauropods & other dinosaurs (Witmer et al. 2008): http://bit.ly/2x2EfUU• Brain & crest in lambeosaur Hypacrosaurus (Evans et al. 2009): bit.ly/3kh7fRG• Brains & endocasts in birds (Early et al. 2020a, b): bit.ly/3it6sNc, bit.ly/32pnZA1• Physiology of nasal airflow in ankylosaurs (Bourke et al. 2018): http://bit.ly/2EwOzMO 6. Support for WitmerLab research provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the OU Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the Chang Ying-Chien Professorship of Paleontology.7. For help with this livestream, we thank Ohio University Communications and Marketing, the OU Chapter of Sigma Xi, the OU Office of the Vice President of Research & Creative Activity, the OU Research Division, the OU College of Arts and Sciences, the OU Honors Tutorial College, and the OU Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.8. Check out upcoming (and archived) Ohio University Science Cafés: https://www.ohio.edu/sciencecafe
Random Act of Anatomy - turkey brain endocast WitmerLab 2020-05-26 | Our WitmerLab team has a project going on intraspecific variation in turkey brain endocasts based on scanning at the OUµCT. We 3D printed one of the endocasts both life size and enlarged for the Ohio University Student Research Expo, but we didn't get to use them since the Expo was converted to #OUVirtualExpo during the coronavirus quarantine. So, here's a Random Act of Anatomy exploring the different parts of the brains of birds that can be seen on endocasts and what they mean for us as paleontologists interested in extinct dinosaurs. OU undergraduate Anna Brant segmented the turkey brain endocast, and the larger project involves Donald Cerio, Catherine Early, Anna Brant, Lydia Giesige, Ryan Ridgely, and Lawrence Witmer.
Random Act of Anatomy - cranial kinesis in a pelican WitmerLab 2020-05-10 | In this Random Act of Anatomy video, made while waiting for the freezer repair person at Ohio University during the Coronavirus quarantine, we examine the cranial kinesis apparatus of a brown pelican. This specimen (OUVC 11675) had originally been dissected by Hirochika Ueda from the University of Tokyo.
Sauropod dinosaur Nigersaurus – brain, inner ear, & head posture WitmerLab 2020-04-17 | Animation of the skull, brain endocast, and inner ear of the rebbachisaurid diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur Nigersaurus taqueti (MNN GAD512), showing the inferred "alert posture" of an almost vertical skull based on the orientation of the lateral semicircular canal. This video was originally generated in connection with the 2007 publication of a PLOS ONE article by Sereno et al. (bit.ly/3aibEP5). Ryan Ridgely rebuilt the video based on Maya visualization in 2020 for the "Under the Skin" exhibit at the Bruce Museum: undertheskinexhibition.com/.
MicroCT scanning a turkey skull on the OUµCT WitmerLab 2020-04-17 | The OUµCT scanner has been the source for all of our turkey imaging data. Here's a scanner's-eye view of Ohio University undergrads Anna Brant and Lydia Giesige scanning a turkey skull. Turn the sound up to hear the quintessential Hollywood sound of what a high-tech CT scanner should sound like...which is what the scanner always sounds like.
Virtual T. rex tour. WitmerLab 2020-03-13 | We're all trying to travel less because of coronavirus. So here's a virtual T. rex tour to Seattle, WA (Burke Museum, UWBM 99000), Rapid City, SD (Black Hills Institute, BHI 3033), and NYC (AMNH 5027)...all without leaving Ohio.
Random Act of Anatomy - Superb Owl Sunday WitmerLab 2020-02-02 | For many of us Super Bowl Sunday is Superb Owl Sunday—a day to celebrate and revel in the magnificence of owls! Here's a tour of a few of the owl specimens in WitmerLab's part of the Ohio University University Collection (OUVC). Note: all these specimens were natural casualties donated to us for research and education by various wildlife rehabilitation facilities.
Random Act of Anatomy - 25 bird skeletons, plus an alligator WitmerLab 2020-01-12 | For this Random Act of Anatomy, we take a quick tour of 25 bird specimens that just completed the process of skeletonization, along with a pretty interesting alligator skeletal preparation. These are awaiting accessioning into the Ohio University Vertebrate Collection (OUVC) and numbering. Several of these specimens are new species for us and some have interesting stories to tell.
Dinosaur brain cooling strategies - Theropod ventilation of vascularized air sinus WitmerLab 2019-10-16 | Recent research by Porter & Witmer (2019: http://bit.ly/2AWXMKS) has shown that different dinosaur groups had different thermal physiological strategies to help moderate brain temperatures in the face of high heat loads. The predatory theropod dinosaurs, such as T. rex, Allosaurus, and Majungasaurus evolved a brain-cooling strategy involving a highly vascular air sinus in the snout through which air was pumped by movements of the jaws. This video was generated by Ryan Ridgely in WitmerLab and shows the bellows-pump-like action of the jaws to move air in and out of the air sinus. Blood surrounding the sinus would have been cooled and directed to the brain to help moderate temperatures. See WitmerLab Project Page with more information: http://bit.ly/2p5ybwB.
Random Act of Anatomy - dozens of bird skeletons WitmerLab 2019-08-24 | For this Random Act of Anatomy, we take a quick tour of some bird specimens that just completed the process of skeletonization and are awaiting accessioning into the Ohio University Vertebrate Collection (OUVC) and numbering.
Andean condor skull & brain endocast (USNM 346633) WitmerLab 2019-06-20 | The skull of an Andean condor (Vultur gryphus, USNM 346633) was CT scanned on the Ohio University MicroCT scanner (OUµCT) as part of the NSF-funded doctoral research of WitmerLab student JP Nassif. The skull, brain endocast, and other structures were segmented in Amira by visiting University of Tokyo student Seishiro Tada, who made this video using Maya and Adobe Premiere. The microCT scan data, a skull STL, and a brain endocast STL can be downloaded on MorphoSource (http://bit.ly/2WWoLhW). This work was done in partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Division of Birds and was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Allosaurus brain endocast – UMNH VP 6435 (= UUVP 294) WitmerLab 2019-05-22 | The remarkable brain endocast of Allosaurus in the Natural History Museum of Utah. Video recorded by Larry Witmer 5 January 2011,
Red-legged seriema prey-thrashing behavior WitmerLab 2019-05-05 | Shot this video on May 1 2019 during our visit to the Columbus Zoo (http://bit.ly/2E1rLTV). Kevin, the red-legged seriema displays the natural downward thrashing behavior they use in the wild to subdue prey...similar to the sagittal striking behavior we inferred for their extinct "terror bird" cousins: http://bit.ly/2ViMhK8. It's probably fair to regard use of a killing stone as an anvil against which prey are repeatedly thrashed as tool use. Could terror birds also have been tool users?
Polar bear skeleton assembly time-lapse at the Kennedy Museum of Art (Ohio University) WitmerLab 2019-04-18 | Here's a time-lapse video of our WitmerLab team installing the polar bear skeleton (OUVC 9566) in the Ohio University Kennedy Museum of Art as part of one of the exhibit projects designed by the OU Museum Studies Class. The skeleton had been selected by the Museum Studies students, and our team had a fun time studying, repairing, and assembling it in spare moments last semester. Our installation team included the OU students who spent so much time last semester on the skeleton, such as JP Nassif, Lydia Giesige, Emily Caggiano, and Joshua Krech. Special thanks to Museum Studies student Vicky Kent for her leadership and her interest in this skeleton that allowed us all to get to know this wonderful old female polar bear so well! She's in a museum now!
Random Act of Anatomy - Woodpecker hyolingual (tongue) apparatus WitmerLab 2019-04-03 | Woodpeckers are famous for their highly protrusible tongues that can probe deeply into holes in trees for grubs. Here's the hyolingual apparatus of a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus; OUVC 11522), a natural casualty that was provided to us for research from one of our wildlife rehab facility partners. As in most woodpeckers, the apparatus has such long hyoid bones that they wrap around the back of the skull and onto the top, reaching the right nostril in many species (but not quite in this one). Amazing! I was fiddling with this one for so long (it's just so cool!) before deciding to make the video that I kind of wore out the mechanism...oops!
3D printed krazy-straw nasal cavity in ankylosaur Euoplocephalus WitmerLab 2019-02-07 | A new Random Act of Anatomy! Last night (2019-02-06), I gave a Science Cafe here on the Ohio University campus and brought along a 3D-printed version of the convoluted "krazy-straw" nasal cavity of the ankylosaur Euoplocephalus. This Random Act of Anatomy showcases the 3D print, complete with a neon electroluminescent wire running through it! We'll have the 3D print available for download on Sketchfab tomorrow. We published on the physiological function (heat exchange and selective brain cooling) of this elongate, twisty-turny nasal passage in December 2018 in an open-access article in PLOS ONE (http://bit.ly/2EwOzMO) led by Jason Bourke with Ruger Porter and myself as coauthors. Research supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
Rigging test for Allosaurus skull & neck WitmerLab 2019-01-24 | Looking through old files as I prepare for my Feb 6th Science Cafe here at Ohio University, I stumbled across this Allosaurus "rigging test" by Ryan Ridgely. It's an early rough draft of a Maya animation of Big Al (MOR 693) that we used for our 2013 article in Palaeontologia Electronica led by Eric Snively: http://bit.ly/2Ui4rHd. Ya never know what you might find stored away in the digital attic.
Convoluted nasal passages in armored dinosaurs function as efficient heat exchangers WitmerLab 2018-12-19 | This animation is associated with an article published in PLOS ONE on 19 December 2018 (http://bit.ly/2rzFudE) by Jason Bourke, Ruger Porter, and Lawrence Witmer. Nasal airflow was modeled using Computational Fluid Dynamics analyses for two Late Cretaceous ankylosaurian dinosaurs, Panoplosaurus and Euoplocephalus. The video demonstrates how the highly convoluted nasal cavity in both species warms the inhaled air on its way to the lung and then cools the exhaled air, resulting in a highly efficient system of air conditioning that conserves both heat and water. For more in this project, visit the WitmerLab project page: http://bit.ly/2EwOzMO.
T. rex, crow, & human brain endocasts - Hong Kong Science Museum Exhibit WitmerLab 2018-06-16 | Poking through some folders on my computer, I recently rediscovered this video that we did for a 2015 exhibit called “T-Rex Revealed – The Augmented + Virtual Reality Experience” for the Hong Kong Science Museum in partnership with National Geographic and Michael Pittman. I just got permission to share it, so here it is. As always, thanks to Ryan Ridgely for his talented work on the project. The narrative of the video was made to be specific to the exhibit and serve its narrative. Basically, it compares the brain endocast and sensory systems of T. rex to those of a crow (probably the smartest living dinosaur) and of course to people (because it's always all about us)! The fun challenge for Ryan and me (working with the Hong Kong team) was to convey the science across the dramatic differences in scale between these three very different species.
Random Act of Anatomy - bird & dinosaur brains WitmerLab 2017-10-15 | This Random Act of Anatomy was inspired by our recent work on New Caledonian crows (http://bit.ly/2gGk0ac) which are famous—along with parrots like African grey parrots—for cognitive abilities that are matched among mammals only among higher primates or even great apes! How these birds could be so intelligent with brains that are so small in absolute terms has been a mystery. Last year, an article appeared in PNAS (http://bit.ly/2zbGrLk) that showed that bird brains, unlike those of mammals, are jammed with loads of small, densely packed neurons, perhaps providing the key to unlocking the mystery of avian cognition. This video explores to what extent, if any, these new findings can shed light on extinct dinosaurs. What we need is equivalent information on the neuronal structure of the brains of modern-day crocs and other reptiles. In the meantime, we probably ought to dial back the "dumb dinosaur" rhetoric.
T. rex TV documentary shoot - 2017-07-29 - OhioHealth OBleness Hospital WitmerLab 2017-07-30 | A TV documentary shoot on 29 July 2017 started out at OhIoHealth O'Bleness Hospital, CT scanning a cast of the Cleveland tyrannosaur skull (CMNH 7541). The documentary—slated to air in the UK on BBC2 around Christmas (and elsewhere in 2018)—is devoted to T. rex, and the Cleveland skull was the only one we had that would fit through the scanner. We scanned the original fossil skull here a number of years ago, so this "recreation" is legit. This clip shows my CT partner Heather Skinner Rockhold raising the scanner's table until the skull was in frame and then advancing it forward through the gantry. Midway through the vid, I pan down to the monitor, showing what the camera is seeing. Thanks, Heather...and thanks O'Bleness!
Random Act of Anatomy - ostrich & Gallimimus feet. WitmerLab 2017-07-12 | This Random Act of Anatomy is a quick follow-up to the ostrich foot video from a couple days ago (youtube.com/watch?v=02KFY8CHlKo). A viewer from Philadelphia named Bryan Clark commented on that video, suggesting that the third toe of the ostrich looked a lot like the third toe of the oviraptorosaur Anzu. I don't have Anzu but I do have Gallimimus, and Bryan's right...ostrich and Gallimimus toes—and presumably Anzu, too—are dead ringers for each other. In fact, this basic structure of the toes is highly conserved evolutionarily, probably because the functional requirements of a cursorial foot imposes major constraints on its form.
Random Act of Anatomy - ostrich feet WitmerLab 2017-07-09 | Here’s a Random Act of Anatomy resulting from a recent TV documentary shoot that got me thinking more about dinosaur feet than I often do. That segment of the documentary was more about tyrannosaur feet and what fossilized trackways can tell us about behavior. Still, I dug out some modern-day ostrich feet because, as always, I like to ground my inferences in animals living today. They did film a segment of me with these ostrich feet and T. rex for the documentary, but this video talks about different things, focusing on the crazy feet of ostrich…how they’re built for speed and maybe even convergent with horses, of all things. Please note that the ostrich parts used in this video came to us, as always, as “salvage specimens” from animals that were legally and ethically euthanized elsewhere. Ostrich are the largest living dinosaur, and it’s a privilege to be able to obtain specimens for scientific study.
Random Act of Anatomy - ratite & carinate birds - ships that pass in the night WitmerLab 2017-07-02 | How do groups of animals get their names? Birds have often been divided into carinates and ratites. Carinate birds have a keeled sternum (breastbone) to accommodate their large flight muscles, whereas ratites are large flightless birds, like ostrich, emus, and kiwi. Carinatae and Ratitae have even been formal taxonomic names, though not so much recently. "Carinate" explicitly refers to the "carina" which is Latin for "keel," as in the keeled hull of a boat. What about "ratite"...what's its etymology? It turns out that "ratite" is Latin for "raft," a flat-bottomed boat lacking a keel. So, birds and boats somehow got linked and were named by comparison to nautical vessels. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when old taxonomic or anatomical terms seem archaic or simplistic (e.g., the coiled hearing organ of your inner ear is called the “cochlea,” which is Latin for “snail’s shell”), because they were named in simpler times…Blasius Merrem coined Carinatae and Ratitae in 1813, and “cochlea” extends back to at least the late 1600s.
Two cormorants - spiceCT - OUµCT scan slices WitmerLab 2017-06-04 | If you like diceCT, you might want to try spiceCT! spiceCT – Selectively Perfusable Iodine-based Contrast-Enhanced CT. This is a new technique similar to diceCT in that it uses Lugol's iodine (I2KI) to enhance soft-tissue contrast in microCT, but it opts for perfusion rather than diffusion by directly delivering triiodide molecules to the tissues via vascular injection (i.e., perfusion). Specimens can be CT-scanned immediately, producing same-day results in a few hours rather than waiting days, weeks, or months for diffusion to take place, as in diceCT. Specimens do not require prior fixation in formalin and alcohol. These two cormorants (OUVC 10982 and OUVC 10985) were simply thawed, injected by Ruger Porter, PhD (assisted by Emily Caggiano), and then scanned immediately at the OUµCT, allowing data to be examined within four hours. The brain is not stained, because iodine does not pass the blood-brain barrier, although our team is working on protocols to defeat the BBB. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab)
T. rex SUE skull (FMNH PR 2081) - time lapse of WitmerLab work WitmerLab 2017-04-30 | Time-lapse video of Emily Caggiano, Ruger Porter, and I studying the original fossil skull of the Tyrannosaurus rex specimen (FMNH PR 2081) known as Sue this past Wednesday at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Ruger was filming and photographing features related to his ongoing work on vascular anatomy and physiology, while Emily and I worked as a team to study and record subtle surface features produced by a variety of soft-tissue systems. Emily is recovering from a wrist injury so I handled the photography this time while she optimized lighting. Thanks to the Field Museum for providing access! For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (http://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htm).
T. rex SUE rolling out of its museum case - POV shot from inside mouth WitmerLab 2017-04-29 | Here's a "dinner's eye view" of SUE the T. rex rolling out of its case! When WitmerLab members visited the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago to study the original fossil skull of the Tyrannosaurus rex specimen (FMNH PR 2081) known as SUE, the Field Museum graciously opened the case...and rolled out the skull. Witmer placed a GoPro camera within the mouth to record the proceedings.
AAA - WitmerLab - I Am Anatomy! WitmerLab 2017-04-29 | The American Association of Anatomists (AAA) is starting a campaign to shine a light on the many activities that fall under "anatomy." They asked us to generate a one-minute "I Am Anatomy" video in advance of the campaign as an example. As always, thanks to WitmerLab folks (Don Cerio, Catherine Early, Jann Nassif, Emily Caggiano, Liz Scott, and Ruger Porter) for being up for anything!
Random Act of Anatomy - moa skull - Dinornis robustus WitmerLab 2017-04-17 | http://bit.ly/1L7AZ0P Our WitmerLab team has been working for some time on the skull of Dinornis robustus, the extinct South Island giant moa from New Zealand. We've had this specimen (FMNH PA 35) on loan from from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, and it's being returned soon, so here's a quick farewell video, comparing it to the skulls of living ratites and showing off the transparent 3D print of the restored skull printed at OU's Innovation Center. We've got a manuscript nearing completion on this beast...an all WitmerLab affair with Catherine Early, Don Cerio, Ruger Porter, Ryan Ridgely, and Witmer. In the meantime, check out the Visible Interactive Moa website: http://bit.ly/1L7AZ0P. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (http://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htmhttp://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htm).
Random Act of Anatomy - Triceratops braincase & endocast WitmerLab 2017-03-07 | A quick Triceratops-themed Random Act of Anatomy before we hit the road! WitmerLab is off on a spring break trip to Bozeman, Montana, and the Museum of the Rockies. We're going to study all kinds of dinosaurs, but we're also going to return the braincase specimen of a Triceratops (MOR 1194) that we had on loan for CT scanning. This video compares the fossil braincase and its 3D-printed endocast to our cast of another Triceratops specimen (MOR 699).
Dissecting with Emily - T. rex - an obscure bone & the Jurassic Park logo WitmerLab 2017-02-12 | So, how does an obscure palatal bone relate to Jurassic Park? This episode of "Dissecting with Emily" continues our series of episodes on the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex (CM 9380). In this episode, Ohio University Honors Tutorial College sophomore Emily Caggiano focuses on the isolated right ectopterygoid, an unassuming bone in the palate. It turns out that the same bone in another famous T. rex skull in NYC (AMNH 5027) floated out of position after death and came to lie in the wrong place. But this skull was so famous and so iconic that it was used as the model for the Jurassic Park logo...and this "error" in the skull—this out-of-place right ectopterygoid—was, as Emily puts it, "immortalized into the logo of the franchise!" Check out the whole Dissecting with Emily series with this playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0K9wSdRtLIat051zcg3i_nhokGCA6Pr. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (http://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htmhttp://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htm).
Dissecting with Emily - Tyrannosaurus rex holotype - Maxillary Mysteries WitmerLab 2017-02-05 | This episode of "Dissecting with Emily" continues our series of episodes on the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex (CM 9380). In this episode, Ohio University Honors Tutorial College sophomore Emily Caggiano focuses on some mysterious features on the surface of the maxillary bone (the main upper jaw bone). We thought some of these features might be due to injury and pathology (like we saw more clearly on the dentary bones: http://bit.ly/2k85PdK), but now we wonder if they might have to do with specializations of the skin, perhaps related to behavioral display. Check out the whole Dissecting with Emily series with this playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0K9wSdRtLIat051zcg3i_nhokGCA6Pr. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (http://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htmhttp://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htm).
Dissecting with Emily - Tyrannosaurus rex holotype pathology WitmerLab 2017-01-29 | This episode of "Dissecting with Emily" continues our series of episodes on the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex (CM 9380). Our last episode (http://bit.ly/2kgBSvm) provided an overview of the dentaries (tooth-bearing lower jaw bones). In this episode, Ohio University Honors Tutorial College sophomore Emily Caggiano focuses on the pathological features of the dentaries, showing evidence of their violent lives. Check out the whole Dissecting with Emily series with this playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0K9wSdRtLIat051zcg3i_nhokGCA6Pr. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (http://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htmhttp://www.ohio.edu/people/witmerl/lab.htm).
Dissecting with Emily - Tyrannosaurus rex holotype dentaries WitmerLab 2017-01-22 | This episode of "Dissecting with Emily" continues our series of episodes on the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex. In this episode, Ohio University Honors Tutorial College sophomore Emily Caggiano and I focus on the two dentaries (tooth-bearing lower jaw bones) of the holotype specimen of T. rex (CM 9380). Check out the whole Dissecting with Emily series with this playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp0K9wSdRtLIat051zcg3i_nhokGCA6Pr. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (https://www.ohio.edu/witmerlab).
Random Act of Anatomy - ostrich elastic ligaments in the neck WitmerLab 2017-01-12 | Virtually all birds have a series of elastic ligaments that connect their vertebrae. In the process of preparing the neck skeleton of an ostrich, Witmer found a particularly nice example of the dorsal interspinal elastic ligament that runs between the spinous process, and made this quick video. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (https://www.ohio.edu/witmerlab).
Tyrannosaurus rex holotype & a tour of WitmerLab tyrannosaurs WitmerLab 2016-12-16 | The eight known skull bones of the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex (CM 9380) are on loan to WitmerLab at Ohio University for CT scanning and analysis. This video provides a brief drive-by of the original holotype fossils as well as the tyrannosaur skull casts housed in the WitmerLab. For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (https://www.ohio.edu/witmerlab).
Tyrannosaurus rex holotype - CT scanning at OhioHealth OBleness Hospital WitmerLab 2016-12-04 | For those who would like a dinosaur's-eye view of CT-scanning a dinosaur... The eight known skull bones of the holotype (name-bearing) specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex (CM 9380) are on loan to WitmerLab at Ohio University for CT scanning and analysis. This video shows Witmer and Heather Rockhold, Radiology Manager at O'Bleness, scanning the right dentary of the T. rex holotype. You can hear Heather and me talking about positioning. We're trying to adjust the position of the fossil within the scan field of view (FOV) so as to minimize the FOV and maximize the information content. You can see the red laser light running along the jaw, showing the center of the FOV. We leave the room, and then the x-rays turn on and the table moves in and out of the scanner's doughnut-shaped gantry to generate a "scout" image that allows us to set up the scan. After the first round (and I've edited out many minutes here and there while Heather and I were in the control room analyzing the scan protocol), we come back in at about 1:40 to adjust the positioning a bit more, so that we can get a small enough FOV that we can use the "bowtie" filter that improves image quality further. We routinely do this repeatedly, moving the specimen just millimeters to optimize the results. Success! T. rex has a biiiig jaw but we were just able to get it to fit! For more content like this, check out our Facebook page (facebook.com/witmerlab) or our university page (https://www.ohio.edu/witmerlab).
