Who are we?
We’re a collection of scientists at Ohio University using 21st century approaches to “flesh out” the past. Our mission is to use the structure of extinct and modern-day animals to interpret evolutionary history…and to share that history with the broader community.
What do we do?
We ultimately want to know how animals work. If those animals happen to be extinct, like, say, T. rex, then we need to do some serious detective work to extract every clue we can from those dusty old fossil bones. We use some pretty ol’ skool, low-tech techniques like dissection of the modern-day relatives of the extinct guys, but we also use the latest in high-tech imaging and 3D visualization to digitally reanimate those old bones with the soft tissues that time has stripped away.
Why blog about it?
We do some pretty hardcore science that’s published in articles in technical journals…lots of jargon and slavish adherence to the norms of professional scientific discourse. But we also recognize the power of the past…of paleontology…of dinosaurs!…to ignite interest in science among people of all walks of life and of all ages. And so we try to reach out beyond the dry pages of those technical articles to engage not only the public but other scholars with our science. And that’s what this blog is all about: reaching out to everyone…to professionals, amateurs, enthusiasts, kids…anyone who might care.
So, stay tuned for what’s to come. We won’t be blogging all the time, so you might want to become a fan of the WitmerLab Facebook page where we’ll alert folks to new posts.
– Larry Witmer
Looking forward to the blogposts!
Welcome to the paleo blogosphere! I’m looking forward to what’s going to be posted here.
Larry et al.., welcome to the world of blogging. (I can’t bring myself to write “blogosphere”.) It’s great to see this blog, and an honour to see SV-POW! listed on the sidebar. The work you guys do definitely deserves an audience outside of specialists. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
i too look forward to hear about stuff going on at UoO (or do you guys shorten uni of ohio differently?)
thank you for also including me in your blogroll! i’ve added you guys to my new and improved one which i’ll be putting back up in a couple weeks (it needed a serious overhaul after 3 years). though just one tiny thing, not that i’m ungrateful mind you, but it is traumador the tyrannosaur not the dinosaur… thanks!
Waiting for the upcoming posts…!
Leo
Larry,
Thanks for adding Chineana to your blogroll. I did not perceive any slight by its non-inclusion and didn’t mean for you to think that I did with my recent post. Jeff Martz and I have a friendly rivalry at times regarding our blogs.
Looking forward to your posts.
Welcome to the blog world! Looking forward to your post. Thanks for the inclusion on your blogroll!