WitmerLab
@WitmerLab
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21st-century approaches to fleshing out the past! Mission: to use the structure of past & present animals to interpret evolutionary history...and to share it!
Athens, OH
Joined March 2014
Finished skeletonizing this hyacinth macaw today & made this cranial kinesis vid. Full vid on the WitmerLab FB.
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Former lab member Peter Rhynard @goopaleo did a great job presenting his undergrad honors thesis research on the skull of the Allosaurus specimen known as Big Al (MOR 693) at the #2025SVP meeting! Thanks to @SeishiroTada for the photos since I was unable to attend myself!
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Yes, @offshoreoddity, loons are so weird and I love them, too! Here's a look inside one of ours. If anyone wants to dig into their anatomy, you can poke around here: https://t.co/FALVQrWHAf. Or even download the data & have your own loony adventure! https://t.co/PapUaPWoKy
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We'll close out this #FossilFriday with the obvious choice of Nanotyrannus. I couldn't share this CT scanning session at the time (June 2023) but can now. @JGN_Paleo brought the holotype Cleveland skull he had on loan & @goCMNH VP curator Caitlin Colleary & I joined in the fun!
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.@SBundell at @Nature, knowing that I had written the News & Views commentary on the Zanno & Napoli article on Nanotyrannus, contacted me earlier this week to film a quick video that provides background. Shamini did a great job with it. I need a haircut. https://t.co/XeY874Jfle
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Here here
Today's bombshell in @Nature by Lindsay Zanno & James Napoli ( https://t.co/D4kdZN69dC) shows that putative juvvy T. rex fossils actually are Nanotyrannus. I reviewed the manuscript, so Nature invited me to write the News & Views commentary. Free link: https://t.co/cRDXEpOn3u 🦖
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An excellent commentary on the article by @WitmerLab. Strongly recommend folks give it a read, especially those taking their first steps in the field.
Today's bombshell in @Nature by Lindsay Zanno & James Napoli ( https://t.co/D4kdZN69dC) shows that putative juvvy T. rex fossils actually are Nanotyrannus. I reviewed the manuscript, so Nature invited me to write the News & Views commentary. Free link: https://t.co/cRDXEpOn3u 🦖
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Today's bombshell in @Nature by Lindsay Zanno & James Napoli ( https://t.co/D4kdZN69dC) shows that putative juvvy T. rex fossils actually are Nanotyrannus. I reviewed the manuscript, so Nature invited me to write the News & Views commentary. Free link: https://t.co/cRDXEpOn3u 🦖
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It's #NationalFossilDay here in the USA, so here's a photo of our T. rex brain endocast based on a US national fossil—AMNH 5117. The surprise was to see it on exhibit in Japan at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum @FukuiDinosaurs. Print one of your own! https://t.co/lbuBVoPJxH
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If you haven't read—or re-read in a while—Bakker's 1986 classic The Dinosaur Heresies, it's well worth doing. I read it in '86 & again on my recent trip to Japan. Got a pb copy for $10 for the long trip (1st photo) rather than take my signed 1st ed (with Gurche-signed cover)! 🦖
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Excited to see this new #OA article out on turtle head vasculature, led by @SeishiroTada (part of his PhD diss)! So much fun injection, dissection, sawing, & µCT of turtles & lizards in the lab with Sei and DJ Morgan—leading to this really nice article! https://t.co/sDEg26CbwF 🐢
We have a new paper out! Turtle ancestors evolved a shell—but what else? We found that an unique rostral vasculature was also obtained gradually along the lineage, and that an earliest turtle Proganochelys likely retained a mostly ancestral state!🐢 https://t.co/aTZWkAzrMi
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We have a new paper out! Turtle ancestors evolved a shell—but what else? We found that an unique rostral vasculature was also obtained gradually along the lineage, and that an earliest turtle Proganochelys likely retained a mostly ancestral state!🐢 https://t.co/aTZWkAzrMi
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Happy Birthday, T. rex! 🎉🎂 120 years ago today (1905), fossils collected in Montana were given the name Tyrannosaurus rex. Here’s the "sitting" mount of the T. rex known as Bucky (TCM 2001.90.1) at the National Museum of Nature & Science which I visited last week in Tokyo. 🦖
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#FossilFriday Good times last week at the National Museum of Nature & Science in Tokyo with @SeishiroTada & Takanobu Tsuihiji and the "sitting" mount of the T. rex known as Bucky (TCM 2001.90.1). 🦖
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After spending so much time with smallest/youngest specimen of Tarbosaurus, I'm thrilled finally to be face to face with among the largest known Tarbosaurus specimens (MPC-D 107/2) at the stunning Fukui Prefecture Dinosaur Museum @FukuiDinosaurs.
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Excited to be in Fukui, Japan, for the @6thisad2025 #ISAD2025 which starts today. Fukui is a dinosaur town (my kind of town!), with life-size robotic dinosaurs around town! 🦖
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Having a great time in the dinosaur collections of the National Museum of Nature & Science in Tsukuba, Japan, just outside Tokyo. Many wonderful fossils like this beautiful skull of Thescelosaurus NSM PV 24661.
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Excited to be in Japan for @6thisad2025 #ISAD2025 in Fukui later this week. In Tokyo now for research. Was delighted last night for a surprise reunion with these folks who trained in WitmerLab: @SeishiroTada, Meg Wakui, Hirochika Ueda, & Takanobu Tsuihiji!
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Shaken to hear Mark Norell passed—good friend, trusted colleague, giant in our field. Coincidentally I got the news as I was working on my talk for the Intl. Symp. on Asian Dinosaurs in Fukui. Here's my slide on Mark’s impact on Asian dinosaur science. It hurt to add 1957–2025.😢
Feeling the incalculable loss of Mark Norell (1957-2025): wonderful scientist and cherished friend. His influence will continue through his many mentees and the science he did and inspired.
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Here's the shot from that 1995 photoshoot they used in the article. My research lab wasn't ready yet, so the photog came to my house & I pulled my T. rex skull out of the garage & set it up on the lawn! 30 years later, I'm still teaching anatomy & doing paleo research! 💀🦖 2/2
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