WitmerLab at Ohio University

#FossilFriday I was surprised this week to find that a new dinosaur species bears my name—kindasorta. A specimen of the Mongolian ankylosaurian dinosaur Pinacosaurus that was described in 2003 by Rob Hill, me (Witmer), and the late great Mark Norell was made the holotype of a new species—Pinacosaurus hilwitnorum—in an article this week in Historical Biology by Paul Penkalski. By combining the first three letters of each author's name, he honored our 2003 collaboration (/10.1080/08912963.2026.2633178. @amniote @amnh @historicalbiology @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #pinacosaurus #ankylosaur #mongolia

Tarbosaurus! 🦖 Having a great visit here with Justyna Słowiak of the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw (Instytut Paleobiologii PAN). 1. Lately she's been honing her segmentation skills on a Tarbosaurus braincase (ZPAL MgD-I/4), with some guidance from our resident CT guru Ryan Ridgely. We're already collaborating on brain endocast ontogeny in Tarbosaurus but lots of other new projects are now brewing! 2. The second photo shows Justyna with the full skeleton of the same adult Tarbosaurus specimen (ZPAL MgD-I/4) in the exhibit space at the Museum of Evolution in Warsaw. It's exciting how Justyna and her colleagues in Warsaw are using new techniques like CT scanning to restudy these famous Gobi specimens discovered in the 1960s. @dafoxxa @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #Tarbosaurus #tyrannosaur #Ctscan #3dvisualization

Excited to welcome to WitmerLab Justyna Słowiak of the Institute of Paleobiology at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw for a couple weeks. We're collaborating on aspects of skull evolution of the Mongolian tyrannosaurid Tarbosaurus. Stay tuned for more from Dr. Słowiak—and from our collaboration! 🦖 @dafoxxa @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #Tarbosaurus #tyrannosaur #Trex #dinosaurskull

Had a great time this week at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, culminating in the CurrieFest symposium yesterday, celebrating Phil Currie's 50 years in Alberta and honoring his contributions to paleontology and his profound influence on so many people, myself included!! It was a special day—and a total surprise for Phil! Otherwise, I was in the collections and had a full day on my own in the exhibits! The photos show an amazing complete skeleton of the tyrannosaurid Gorgosaurus (TMP 1999.33.1 ) in the collections of the Tyrrell Museum. This specimen is notable for a number of reasons, especially for having a complete gastral basket (that is, belly ribs called gastralia). Also, having a full day in the exhibits on Monday when the Tyrrell Museum is closed to the public allowed me to climb into several exhibits to study original fossil specimens and also take some great photos of the wonderful exhibits without museum patrons in the way. @royaltyrrell @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #museum #Gorgosaurus #museumcollections

It was great to meet up with Jared Voris today at the Royal Tyrrell Museum and study some beautiful juvenile specimens of the tyrannosaurid Gorgosaurus (this one is TMP 2016.014.0001). I'm happy to have played a role in two awesome articles led by Jared: /10.1080/02724634.2021.2041651 & /10.1002/cne.70056. 🦖 @jared_voris @royaltyrrell @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences @darlaz_dinosaurs @svp_vertpaleo #tyrannosaur #gorgosaurus #museumcollections #dinosaurskull

Congratulations to Ohio University graduating senior Grace Vance who defended her honors thesis on cranial vascular adaptations for deep diving in seals this week and submitted it today! We'll send it off for publication soon. She's won all kinds of awards here at OHIO. Grace is a truly impressive person with a very bright future! She's got a summer internship at Friday Harbors Labs in Washington State and then heads off to Purdue to start her PhD this fall! 1. Grace holds her complete and submitted senior honors thesis on cranial vascular adaptations for deep diving in seals. In front of her on a table is the skull of an adult male hooded seal. 2. Grace presented her senior honors thesis research earlier this week 3. Grace presented her seal research poster to Dr. Kenneth C. and Gayle A. Reed at today's Research Fair for our Ohio Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Studies (OCEES). Dr. Reed is a generous donor to our OCEES student programs, funding multiple fellowships. 4. Grace holds her honors thesis. Standing next to her is Witmer, Grace's proud research mentor. @grace.vance13 @graceful.bio @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences @bobcatsdiscover @ohiohonors @ohiotribeta @fridayharborlabs @purduebio #undergradresearch #phdlife #honorsthesis #seals #hoodedseal

Amazing photo credit: @witmerlab 📸 Thank you for an awesome day Dr. Witmer 🦕 #pinkysdinosauradventure #dinosaurs #fossils #ohiouniversity #bobcats 🐾

#FossilFriday From the depths of the pandemic to a wonderful #OA article out this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology — https://bit.ly/48oGPZG — congratulations to Marissa Livius, Jordan Mallon, and the whole team! It's been a blast to dig back into ankylosaurs to sort out the Panoplosaurus-Edmontonia mess. CT scan data wound up being critical to tease apart the nuances among the various specimens referred to these genera. Marissa did a spectacular job with the quite difficult CT data for the main specimen: the holotype skull of Panoplosaurus mirus (CMN 2759). I was able to contribute to the project information based on scans we did of three other specimens referred to these genera (as well as more distantly related ankylosaurs). I'm grateful to have been able to work with Marissa, Jordan, Michael Ryan, and Hillary Maddin! 1. First page of the Livius et al. (2026) article in JVP. Superimposed on the page is a Zoom screen capture of Marissa' master's proposal defense from May 2021 with Jordan , me (Witmer), Hillary, Michael, and Marissa. 2. Photograph of a cast of the holotype skull of Panoplosaurus mirus in the foreground, with some other ankylosaurs lurking in the background (Gastonia, Ankylosaurus, Pawpawsaurus). 3. CT-scan-based volume renders of the P. mirus holotype skull (top), a referred specimen of P. mirus ROM 1215 (middle), and a referred skull of Edmontonia rugosidens AMNH 5381 along with a slice through the snout (bottom). 4. Photos from a May 2025 post (while finalizing details for the manuscript) focusing on the E. rugosidens holotype (USNM 11868). At top right, I'm studying our archaic x-ray film-based versions of the 1998 CT scans. The middle photo shows lateral views of the skull, and the bottom photo shows stereoscopic photos of the ventral surface of the skull. @marissalivius panel.ontologist @hcmaddin @museumofnature @smithsoniannmnh @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #ankylosaur #Panoplosaurus #Edmontonia #ctscan

Excited to report that Ohio University Scripps School of Journalism student Eric Boll published his master's thesis research (which I helped supervise) on aspects of news coverage of paleontology in the 1990s in Historical Biology: https://bit.ly/41VMS4e. It even elicited an editorial: https://bit.ly/4spzQH9! Both are free to read for the next six months. 🦖 Eric's quantitative study focused on three major news sources (USA Today, The Associated Press, and The New York Times), developing a codebook including 16 paleo topics and eight metaphors or tropes and exploring themes such as 'agenda-setting topics' (like maybe Jurassic Park), the importance of tropes and 'mascot species' (like the T. rex in the photo), the role of 'visible scientists' (mostly white dudes portrayed as Indiana Jones types in the '90s), and other interesting topics focused on a decade where paleo was going in many exciting new directions just as the internet was starting to take off. He presented this research at the 2024 SVP meeting and hopes to present a new project at the 2026 SVP meeting in Cleveland. @ericboll_ @ohio.university @scripps_jschool @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences @bobcatsdiscover @historicalbiology @nytimes @usatoday @apnews #journalism #1990s #JurassicPark #journalismresearch #trex

Today is the Ohio University Student Research & Creativity Expo! For the third year in a row OHIO Honors student Grace Vance took first place for her poster on her senior thesis research on vascular adaptations for deep diving in seals! Well done, Grace! 🦭🏆 @ohio.university @ohiohonors @ohiostudentexpo @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences @bobcatsdiscover @grace.vance13 @graceful.bio #ohiostudentexpo #postersession #undergradresearch #seal

#HappyEaster🐰 from your friends at WitmerLab! A crunchy take on that traditional favorite this #Easter — now with added calcium! @ohio.university @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences #rabbit #easterbunny

A quiet #FossilFriday in the lab, just me and the gang. Here's the Camarasaurus "station" that Ohio University freshman undergrad Klazina McKeigan set up to learn dinosaur skulls. Our cast of the monstrously huge skull of the Gunma Museum Camarasaurus (GMNH-PV 101) sits on a turntable so it can be easily spun around. Surrounding the big articulated skull are the disarticulated bones of the same specimen (when possible, I like to get both articulated and disarticulated versions of the same specimens to enhance learning and study). Klazina set up the individual bones roughly in position for comparison. Also, nearby at left is the skull of the Carnegie Museum specimen of a juvenile Camarasaurus (CM 11338). A bunch of theropods skulls also share the table space. 🦕 @ohio.university @casohio @ouhcom @ohiobiosciences @bobcatsdiscover @klazina_mckeigan @carnegiemnh #camarasaurus #dinosaurskull