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!
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ALT 2026 Darwin speaker Doug Futuyma poses with Darwin and Witmer.
ALT 2026 OCEES (Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies) Darwin speaker Doug Futuyma gave a great Darwin lecture on "Controversies in Evolutionary Biology."
ALT My copies of Doug Futuyma "Evolutionary Biology" text and his excellent 2021 book "How Birds Evolve." I bought the copy (a first edition, 1979) of the Evolutionary Biology book in 1979 for my undergrad Evolutionary Biology class.
ALT Doug Futuyma graciously signed my copies of his 1979 (1st edition) "Evolutionary Biology" text and his excellent 2021 book "How Birds Evolve." The Evolutionary Biology text went through multiple editions and was the national market leader. Generations of evolutionary biology scholars learned the foundations of their science from this book.
ALT Chatting in the main lab with Ohio University students in the Museum Studies program and the Museum Fundamentals course. Photos by Lisa Quinn & Mateo Galvano.
ALT In the vertebrate preparation lab with Ohio University students in the Museum Studies program and the Museum Fundamentals course. Photos by Lisa Quinn & Mateo Galvano.
ALT Klazina McKeigan, a sophomore in Biological Sciences, is in the highly competitive Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine Early Assurance Program, meaning that she's already been accepted to our medical school (where I'm also faculty)! Here, Klazina is working with the one-sixth scale 3D printed of the T. rex known as Stan (NHMAD 2020.00001).
ALT Klazina holds the assembled T. rex skull in one hand as she positions the isolated bones in a sandbox with the other.
ALT The palatal skeleton is a challenge for just about all of us, but this disarticulated set, along with a sandbox, allows Klazina to really see how the bones fit together.
ALT Here's the full set of the one-sixth scale 3D prints of the articulated and disarticulated skull bones of the T. rex known as Stan (NHMAD 2020.00001) produced by the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research. It's tremendously useful as a mean of learning how T. rex skulls are put together!
ALT Had a packed house the other night for a lab tour for the @OhioU Geology Club. Over 2 hours of great questions & lotsa laughs! Thanks to Evan Doles & Abbie Fausnaugh for the photos! This photo shows Witmer holding up a 3D print of a T. rex braincase (AMNH 5117), surrounded by OU Geology Club members.
ALT Had a packed house the other night for a lab tour for the @OhioU Geology Club. Over 2 hours of great questions & lotsa laughs! Thanks to Evan Doles & Abbie Fausnaugh for the photos! This photo shows Witmer holding up a large photo of the T. rex holotype (CM 9380) skeleton snapped in the exhibits at the Carnegie Museum, as members of OU Geology Club members look on. At the time we were discussing what it means to be a "holotype specimen." Tyrannosaur skull casts dominate the foreground.
ALT Had a packed house the other night for a lab tour for the @OhioU Geology Club. Over 2 hours of great questions & lotsa laughs! Thanks to Evan Doles & Abbie Fausnaugh for the photos! This photo shows Witmer giving an introduction about research in our lab to members of OU Geology Club.
ALT Had a packed house the other night for a lab tour for the @OhioU Geology Club. Over 2 hours of great questions & lotsa laughs! Thanks to Evan Doles & Abbie Fausnaugh for the photos! This photo shows us in our prep lab where we do lots of dissections of carcasses of modern-day animals that have been donated to us for research. Witmer stand next to tables on which are laid out large skeletons of an alligator and a crocodile, as well as a set of anhinga wings.
ALT Ohio University undergrad researcher Garnet Kish stands next to a table gently holding the head and neck of a lovely anhinga carcass donated to us from the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station in Miami. Next to the table hangs a skeleton of a previously prepared anhinga skeleton that Witmer assembled.
ALT The exhibit of dinosaur skull casts that I set up at the local Athens Public Library for their summer program...just before I broke it down and returned it to WitmerLab.
ALT The empty display cabinet at the Athens Public Library after I removed and packed all the skull casts for return to WitmerLab.
ALT Replica (3D print) of a T. rex braincase (AMNH 5117) on the CT scanner at OhioHealth O'Bleness Hospital in Athens, Ohio. Witmer and CT tech Angie McDonald are visible in the control room in the background. Photo by NHK director Yusuke Matsufune, with permission.
ALT NHK cameraman Taka and director Yusuke Matsufune plan the shot of the camera riding on the CT table as the T. rex braincase goes through the scanner. OhioHealth O'Bleness Hospital CT Tech Angie McDonald operates the scanner.
ALT The replica T. rex braincase on the CT scanner table at OhioHealth O'Bleness Hospital. The replica was 3D printed using the scan data of AMNH 5117 that we collected at O'Bleness in 2006 and published in 2009: https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.20983.
ALT Witmer (left) with NHK coordinator/translator Reina Endo (center) and documentary director Yusuke Matsufune (right) along with the replica braincase of T. rex (AMNH 5117). NHK lighting and sound technician Nori is in the background.
ALT Witmer studying a replica (3D print) of a T. rex braincase (AMNH 5117) through the jaws of T. rex (AMNH 5027) in WitmerLab at Ohio University. They filmed a panning B-roll sequence of this basic shot. Photo by NHK director Yusuke Matsufune, with permission.
ALT NHK cameraman Taka films a B-roll panning sequence of a number (but not all!) of the tyrannosaur skulls we have in WitmerLab.
ALT A behind-the-scenes photo of the interview in WitmerLab, in this case talking about the brain and behavioral capabilities of T. rex. On the screen is the brain endocast of SUE the T. rex (FMNH PR 2081) which we published in 2009 (https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.20983). On the table in front of me are new 3D prints of the brain endocast of SUE and a large Triceratops (MOR 1194). Photo by NHK director Yusuke Matsufune, with permission.
ALT Another behind-the-scenes photo of the interview in WitmerLab, in this case talking about the brain and behavioral capabilities of Triceratops. On the screen is the brain endocast of a large Triceratops (MOR 1194), and on the table is a 3D print of the same brain endocast. Photo by NHK director Yusuke Matsufune, with permission.
ALT Two empty cans of Jackie O's "Dinosaurs on TV" hard seltzer with a T. rex brain endocast. A Triceratops endocast and various tyrannosaur parts are in the background.
ALT The cast of the full skeleton of Brachiosaurus mounted outside the northwest terrace of the Field Museum in Chicago, silhouetted by the sun. I took this photo in 2011. In 2022, the cast was dismantled and recycled due to weathering damage, which is sad.
ALT Witmer in 2017 with the holotype femur (FMNH P 25107) of Brachiosaurus altithorax in the collections of Field Museum of Natural History.
ALT A page from the 1903 article in which Elmer Riggs names and figures the holotype skeleton of Brachiosaurus altithorax.
ALT Witmer in 2023 with the mounted Brachiosaurus skeleton at the United Airlines Terminal at O'Hare International Airport (Terminal 1, Concourse B). On that day in May 2023, the skeleton thankfully wasn't dressed up in a sports jersey or corporate garb which I think diminishes and cheapens the impact of the amazing skeleton.
ALT Figure 1 from Degrange et al. 2026 (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.252544) showing the brain endocast of the stem-anseriform Conflicto as well as the endocast within the transparent fossil skull and a life restoration by H.S. Druetta.
ALT Figure 2 from Degrange et al. 2026 (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.252544) showing the brain endocast of the stem-anseriform Conflicto in phylogenetic context with other Galloanseres.
ALT Larry Witmer (left) and Dino Degrange (right) in 2015 during one of Dino's visits to WitmerLab at Ohio University.
ALT The WitmerLab team that worked the "Unearthing a Story" event at the Athens Public Library. In front is Ohio University undergrad Casey Funk and standing (from left) former master's grad student Daniel Dunfee, former PhD student Ruger Porter, and Larry Witmer.
ALT Two boys explore the cast skull of Dromaeosaurus. We encourage the public to (gently) touch the specimens, and we're on hand to not just engage and explain but also to monitor the activity but frankly the parents generally are more concerned than we are. We want them to explore...I have glue. Photo by Casey Funk.
ALT Undergrad Casey Funk speaks with a young library patron about Allosaurus. Casey is a senior in the Ohio University College of Arts & Sciences pre-health track studying biology and psychology.
ALT This is the first time we've taken our T. rex foot along and it was a big hit. Kids (and adults) liked to line their foot up next to T. rex's to get a visceral sense of the scale! Photo by Casey Funk.
ALT Witmer stands next to a tall display cabinet filled with dinosaur skull casts at the Athens Public Library, which he just set up in advance of his upcoming public dinosaur event at the library next Tuesday, June 16th: https://bit.ly/4xrOiSM.
ALT The display cabinet at the Athens Public Library filled with dinosaurs skull casts from the WitmerLab.
ALT Witmer stands next to a poster at the Athens Public Library declaring June's them of "Unearth a Story", which is the context for his dinosaur exhibit and his presentation of a public dinosaur event at the library next Tuesday, June 16th: https://bit.ly/4xrOiSM.
ALT Witmer stands next to a tall display cabinet filled with dinosaur skull casts at the Athens Public Library, which he just set up in advance of his upcoming public dinosaur event at the library next Tuesday, June 16th: https://bit.ly/4xrOiSM.
ALT The display cabinet at the Athens Public Library filled with dinosaurs skull casts from the WitmerLab.
ALT Witmer stands next to a poster at the Athens Public Library declaring June's them of "Unearth a Story", which is the context for his dinosaur exhibit and his presentation of a public dinosaur event at the library next Tuesday, June 16th: https://bit.ly/4xrOiSM.
ALT Members of the Deep Time Cognition grant team outside the Royal Society of Edinburgh. From left: Ryan Ridgely, Milly Mead, Mathias Osvath, Helena Osvath, Fraser Weston, George Poon, Kristina Kverková, Simon Grendeus, Thibault Boehly, Lona Lalić, Adam Manning, Larry Witmer, Thomas Rejsenhus Jensen, Steve Brusatte, Pavel Němec.
ALT The Deep Time Cognition grant team met in the lovely Kelvin Room at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
ALT Group photo of the Deep Time Cognition team at the shore of Wardie Bay at low tide to collect 335-million-year-old fossils (lots of fish and plants are known but we mostly found shark spiral coprolites). Here Steve Brusatte is giving us a run-down of the history and geology of the locality. The fact that the 300th anniversary of the birth of James Hutton, "the Father of Modern Geology," was the day we were there—and Hutton (and Darwin!) collected there—made it extra special!
ALT The four principal investigators (PIs) of the Deep Time Cognition grant paused at Wardie Shore for a photo. From left: Larry Witmer (Ohio University, USA), Mathias Osvath (project director, Lund University, Sweden), Steve Brusatte (University of Edinburgh, Scotland), and Pavel Němec (Charles University, Czechia).
