Description

Skull of a young alligator (Alligator mississippiensis, OUVC 10389) with annotations of some of the blood vessels. It was legally provided to us by the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge for research and education. We scanned the head region on the OUµCT scanner at a resolution of 90µm (0.090 mm). Scan data were imported into workstations running Avizo and digitally extracted the bones and soft tissues. This specimen was used by David Dufeau during his dissertation research and then was used by Ruger Porter during his dissertation research on dinosaur blood vessels and their role in thermal physiology. This specimen was part of the sample included in the PLOS ONE article by Dufeau and Witmer (http://bit.ly/2dWhTNZ) and a Journal of Anatomy article by Porter, Sedlmayr, & Witmer (http://bit.ly/2e0WqVg). The original CT scan data can be downloaded on Dryad (http://bit.ly/2ebdnZS), along with a 3D PDF that provides comparable content to what’s here but allows more control. The model can be downloaded here as an FBX.