Artificial Intelligence: 3D Imaging Model Helps Scientists Dissect Fossils Without Using a Scalpel and Tangible Tools

Researchers study a bite force of a crocodile with the aid of 3D models of muscle architecture using artificial intelligence (AI). The usage of technology helped them avoid the use of a scalpel and other medical tools. They thought this technique would help them fully understand the ancient fossils.

3D Models in Anatomical Study of a Crocodile

Casey Holliday and his team aim to determine how muscles are positioned in crocodile heads to strengthen their bite with the aid of the 3D models of muscle architecture. This technique eliminates the analog, where scientists use a scalpel to investigate.

One of Holliday's former pupils, Kaleb Sellers, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, assists the project's direction.

According to Holliday, the unique thing about crocodile heads is that they are flat, Science Daily reported. He said that most animals that have evolved to bite hard have tall skulls because all their jaw muscles are oriented vertically.

The examples he cited include hyenas, lions, T. rexes and even humans. He added that they are designed that way, so they put a big vertical bite force into whatever they're eating. However, in the case of a crocodile, the muscles are oriented more horizontally.

Sellers said that jaw muscles have long been studied in mammals. It assumes that relatively simple descriptors of muscle anatomy can give someone a great idea about skull function. He added that the study shows the complexity of the jaw muscle anatomy in a reptile group.

Several years ago, Holliday's lab started testing with 3D imaging. A paper in Integrative Organismal Biology from 2019 revealed the construction of a 3D model of the skeletal muscles in a European starling, which was one of their early discoveries.

(Photo : Thomas Meier/Pixabay)
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Anatomical Research in the Digital World

When he joined the "Sue the T. rex" project, he learned about the advantages of employing digital images to study anatomy in the late 1990s. It is still one of the largest and best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found.

The information from the project is available at the Field Museum.

Holliday recalls when the T. rex's giant skull was transported to Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California. It was brought there to be scanned in one of the aerospace company's massive CAT scanners, customarily used to scan jet engines on commercial airplanes.

It was the only CAT scanner in the world big enough to fit a T. rex skull. It also had the power needed to push X-rays through rocks. Coming out of college, he had looked at becoming a radiology technician. Through the "Sue the T.rex" project, he learned how to CAT scanned fossils.

According to Holliday, they planned to take their 3D anatomical models further by studying the evolution of human hands from the evolutionary ancestors. The project is still in its early stages and has received a grant from the Leakey Foundation.

Emily Lessner, a recent graduate of MU who discovered her love for long-dead animals while working in Holliday's lab, spoke about the digitization process. According to her, the digitization process is not only valuable to the lab and study. It also enables them to share their work with other researchers to speed up scientific advancement and as educational and conservation tools.