Profile

With collaborators, Stevens is engaged in helping forge an interdisciplinary link with the field of vertebrate paleontology. Paleontology benefits from the application of digital technology in the visualization of extinct animals, using what is known about extant analogues to extrapolate to animals that are known only by their fossils.

 

Initiated in 1994, the DinoMorph. project in Stevens' laboratory is developing a means to create scientifically useful yet simplified digital models of dinosaur skeletons. Dinosaurs are traditionally reconstructed either by physically mounting specimens, or by artists creating two-dimensional artwork, both of which have limited scientific value (e.g., for studying posture, joint range of motion, movement, behavior). Digital models, carefully based on original 3D source material and constrained by current biomechanical knowledge, are helping lay the groundwork for reinterpreting dinosaur biology.