Friday, October 03, 2008

Pachyrhinosaurus Endocast PDF from Larry Witmer

I’m sure that Larry Witmer will not mind if I repost part of his recent e-mail to the Vert Paleo List Server:

"In association with the publication of the NRC Canada monograph on the new species of Pachyrhinosaurus, P. lakustai (announced last night), I've put up a website providing a range of supplementary information pertaining to the braincase, cranial endocast, and inner ear.

The website provides (1) a link to the NRC page that announces and provides purchasing information for the monograph, (2) an authorized PDF of the Witmer & Ridgely paper, (3) a PDF of higher-resolution versions of the figures, (4) a single "super-PDF" file comprising items 2 & 3 plus a 3D PDF (more on 3D PDFs below), (5) a link to a Movies page with QuickTime animations and CT-slice movies, and (6) a link to a 3D PDF.

3D PDFs provide a means of letting anyone with Adobe Acrobat (including the free Reader) interactively manipulate the 3D models generated by our high-powered (and pricey) software. For example, they allow you to spin and resize things, make braincases transparent, turn on and off individual anatomical parts, etc. We provide 3D PDFs in three files sizes for users with varying interests, computer horsepower, and connection speeds."