Scans acquired!

Mar 02, 2015

119

Scans acquired!Dear backers - 
Just wanted to give you all an update that some of the specimens have finally been CT-scanned by UTCT in Austin, a Hyporamphus fish and one semi-complete lower jaw of an individual of Semirostrum ceruttii. The cost was about double what I was supported through experiment.com - I just point this out to show how grateful I am for what I was able to get through crowd sourcing! 
The next steps will be to perform some simple analyses of stress on the jaw bones themselves, and from there move on to building a 3D model of the head/whole body of the animal for computational fluid dynamics experiments.

Once again thank you to my backers, and I will continue to keep you posted as the project progresses.
Best, 
Rachel
PS As an editor for Palaeontology [online] I would also like to point out our newest article by Dr. Ellen Currano : http://www.palaeontologyonline.com/articles/2015/life-palaeontologist-thoroughly-suitable-job-woman/

Jason P Schein like this.

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Cindy WuBacker

can you take a photo of the scan and share it with us? that'd be super cool, even if it is blurry!

Mar 02, 20150

Rachel RacicotResearcher

I'll try and do some quick and dirty 3D reconstructions (it's all digital CT scans) later on to post.

Mar 02, 20150

About This Project

Why the long face? Functional morphology of a unique fossil porpoise

Yale University

Fossil whale skulls offer unique insights into evolution and adaptation to life in water. Aspects of skull shape can supply critical data on the ecology, diversity, and disparity of ancient organisms. I will test hypotheses for the function of the bizarre lower jaws (never seen before in a mammal) of the extinct porpoise, Semirostrum ceruttii.