witmerlab.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Today marks the start of the #YearOfTheSnake according to Chinese astrology, so here are a few snakes that slithered into our work & our µCT for grad student projects.

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

Today is a U.S. national holiday to recognize the legacy of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's coincidentally also #PenguinAwarenessDay which we're happy to honor as we've often worked on these remarkable birds. Check out those excavations for the supraorbital salt glands! 🐧

submitted 36 days ago • 0 comments

I dunno about that silly croc from Borneo supposedly trying to lure humans with flailing jazz hands (bit.ly/4gYVGMC), but OHIO Honors student Grace Vance has been assembling the hands & feet of our alligator known as #ShoeGator. Its left hand is pretty messed up with broken & poorly healed bones. 🐊

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

For #MuseumSelfieDay, here's one in the marine mammal collections at the Carnegie Museum with a big ol' male Stellar sea lion skull. This was back on June 2024, when I was doing some collections reconnaissance for OHIO Honors undergrad Grace Vance while she was overseas. 📷: DJ Morgan

submitted 41 days ago • 1 comment

For #NationalBirdDay, we bring you this lovely emu skeleton (OUVC 10560). (Some assembly required) #BirdsAreDinosaurs

submitted 51 days ago • 1 comment

#FossilFriday In honor of the announcement today of a new Archaeopteryx specimen (fr.pensoft.net/article/1316...), here are a couple photos from 1998 when I had the privilege of studying the iconic and historic Berlin Archaeopteryx specimen (HMN 1880/81) discovered in the 1870s.

submitted 53 days ago • 2 comments

Happy New Year from your friends at WitmerLab! 🎉 As hope for 2025, here's the beautiful skeleton of a mōlī (Laysan albatross). May it bring us all the wisdom of Wisdom, the 74-year-old mōlī—the oldest known wild bird who still returns to Midway Atoll annually to nest & breed!

submitted 55 days ago • 0 comments

Here's our #TopNine #Top9 posts on Bluesky for 2024 based on engagement metrics. Good mix of fossils, modern-day specimens, publications, and 3D visualization...and somehow Pinky the cat always seems to make the cut. Looking forward to what 2025 brings!

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

#FossilFriday. This trilobite isn't supposed to be black, but it's covered in soot from a college house fire #OTD in 1979 that claimed virtually all my possessions. I pried it from the frozen ashes of my desk. The book came home w/ me for Xmas...so my library started over with this one book. 1/3

submitted 60 days ago • 1 comment

Happy Holidays to all! Here’s a little 🎄 gift for those who enjoy the anatomy of extant animals: a PDF of a really great atlas of avian anatomy (Ghetie 1976)— bit.ly/3rs3xrA. For the story behind this PDF, check this out: bit.ly/4gPt6Nr.

submitted 62 days ago • 6 comments

Why the elves hate dinosaurs. . . However or whatever you celebrate this season, if you celebrate at all, your friends at WitmerLab wish you the best! #HappyHolidinodays

submitted 63 days ago • 1 comment

I'm Jewish but would make an exception

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

Merry Crocmas and Season's Eatings from your friends at WitmerLab! 🐊🎄🎅

submitted 63 days ago • 1 comment

'Tis the season... 🎄🦖

submitted 65 days ago • 0 comments

Can I just say that this is about the coolest study that I've seen in ages. Just outstanding integrative science! #OA in Nature, too. Plus, the YouTube vid is exceptionally well done: www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuvU.... Sorry if I'm gushing, but it's all an early #Crocmas gift. 🐊🎄

submitted 75 days ago • 2 comments

Always excited to hear that Wisdom, the now 74-y.o. mōlī (Laysan albatross), has returned to Midway Atoll to nest! She's the oldest known wild bird & has a new mate—and a new egg...at 74! We've done a bunch of work on mōlī, based on carcasses donated to us by the USFWS in Hawaii. 🔗: bit.ly/3Zk1edb

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

Always excited to hear that Wisdom, the now 74-y.o. mōlī (Laysan albatross), has returned to Midway Atoll to nest! She's the oldest known wild bird & has a new mate—and a new egg...at 74! We've done a bunch of work on mōlī, based on carcasses donated to us by the USFWS in Hawaii. 🔗: bit.ly/3Zk1edb

submitted 82 days ago • 0 comments

One of the most fruitful projects that I've been involved with has been the Leverhulme-funded project led by @stevebrusatte.bsky.social & @drmarkyoung.bsky.social on marine thalattosuchian crocs. Always a great team! Here's the latest #OA article on Thalattosuchus itself—https://bit.ly/4f0RWZd

submitted 83 days ago • 0 comments

Our lab isn't exactly Santa's workshop, but the dermestids (& OHIO Honors undergrad Grace Vance & I) have been slowly preparing the alligator known as #ShoeGator (OUVC 9761, left). We saved the shoe (& his penis—preserved in the jar) & are now assembling some of the parts (e.g. paws). Fun project! 🐊

submitted 85 days ago • 1 comment

Dreaming of a career in paleontology? Elevation Science is now accepting applications for our 2025 Field Internship! ⛏️ Don’t miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime—apply by January 31, 2025! elevationscience.org/internships

submitted 87 days ago • 1 comment

#HappyThanksgiving from WitmerLab! You have your holiday traditions, and we have ours! Yes, we CT scanned our turkey on our best turkey platter. Science has never been so delicious! And like any good dinosaur biologist, I prepared and accessioned the skeleton—OUVC 10789. 🦃🦖

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments

Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at WitmerLab! Lots to be thankful for, but we'll single out the purity of the animals we study & of the scientific riddles they pose. The animals themselves have no politics, no nationality, no religion, no judgement, no baggage. And many of them are delicious! 🦃

submitted 90 days ago • 0 comments

I can officially announce that I am taking over as the editor-in-chief of Historical Biology in January 2025! I’m excited to take over the running of the journal, and refining its scope. One of the first steps is an overhaul of the editorial board. think.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recru...

submitted 90 days ago • 4 comments

People who know hummingbirds always say that the only reason we can still come out of our houses in some parts of the country is because hummingbirds are bite-sized. If they were even just three feet, they'd wipe us out. Imagine if they rivaled their kin. . .the T-rex.

submitted 92 days ago • 1 comment

gobsmacked

submitted 92 days ago • 1 comment

One of the smallest theropod dinosaurs is dwarfed by the tooth of one of the largest...

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

Blowing my mind is a great way to start a Monday morning!!

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

This reminded me of a CT scan I did of a hummingbird a while back—you can see where that tongue bone wraps around the back of the head.

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

Evolution is crazy and wonderful, that this is the kind of post I love to see. Thanks to the always awesome Witmerlab for mounting these two cousins together. :D

submitted 93 days ago • 0 comments