New crocodilian page on digimorph

[mkirkaldy@aol.com]

Posted for Jon Wagner.

Mary
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I set up the following page on digimorph.org as a favor to the folks 
who work there, and to try and raise the bar for supplementary text on 
that website. It is intended to serve as an online outline and 
collection of illustrations for a lecture on the finer points of the 
anatomy of the crocodilian skull, for users who are already familiar 
with the basic bones and structures of a reptile skull.

http://www.digimorph.org/specimens/Crocodylus_moreletii/

For those of you who don't know the site, digimorph.com is an 
NSF-sponsored digital library of CT scans of objects, mostly vertebrate 
skeletons (there is one pineapple!). Scans can be viewed in a number of 
ways, including 2D slices, and quicktime movies of 3D reconstructions. 
Many of the latter are cut-aways, allowing detailed exploration of the 
internal structure of the object. For professionals, this technology is 
especially useful, because it allows non-destructive evaluation of the 
internal structure of rare or sensitive species, and can be used on 
whole preserved specimens to avoid the distortion associated with dried 
skeletal material. Scans are expensive ($500-1500 is typical), and 
nearly all of the funds used are public, so everyone is invited to make 
the most possible use of this resource. Within the strictures of 
copyright laws and proper scientific ethics with regard to the 
treatment of others' data, of course.

The website has a number of other crocodilian scans, although not all 
of them are up to the standard of detail and rendering of the example 
at the link given above. It also has fossil dinosaurs, birds, turtles, 
lizards, snakes, a couple tuataras, and some other, much less 
interesting animals as well.

I hope you enjoy this,

Jon Wagner
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