Lawrence M. Witmer (born October 10, 1959, at

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

) is an American

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

paleobiologist Paleobiology (or palaeobiology) is an interdisciplinary field that combines the methods and findings found in both the earth sciences and the life sciences. An investigator in this field is known as a paleobiologist. Paleobiology is closely rel ...

. He is a Professor of

Anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and a Chang Ying-Chien Professor of Paleontology at the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the

Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine The Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OU-HCOM) is the medical school of Ohio University, the largest medical school in Ohio, and the only osteopathic medical school in the state. Heritage is ranked in the Top 50 U.S. medical schools for p ...

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

. Witmer is considered to be one of the world's foremost experts on soft-tissue anatomy of the

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

in extinct animals such as

dinosaurs Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

and

pterosaur Pterosaurs are an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order Pterosauria. They existed during most of the Mesozoic: from the Late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous (228 million to 66 million years ago). Pterosaurs are the earli ...

s. One of Witmer's largest contributions to

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

paleontology was the creation of the Extant Phylogenetic Bracket approach to ancestral character state reconstruction.Witmer, L.M. 1995.The Extant Phylogenetic Bracket and the Importance of Reconstructing Soft Tissues in Fossils. in Thomason, J.J. (ed). Functional Morphology in Vertebrate Paleontology. New York. Cambridge University Press. pp: 19–33. This methodology incorporates extensive

comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in t ...

using physical and digital

dissection Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of ...

s of extant (not extinct) animals. He appeared in TV shows such as the Triumph of the Beasts featurette for ''

Walking with Beasts ''Walking with Beasts'', marketed as ''Walking with Prehistoric Beasts'' in North America, is a 2001 six-part nature documentary television miniseries created by Impossible Pictures and produced by the BBC Science Unit, the Discovery Channel, Pr ...

'', ''

Jurassic Fight Club ''Jurassic Fight Club'' (titled ''Dinosaur Secrets'' in Australia and the United Kingdom) is a paleontology-based television miniseries on the History Channel which premiered in the United States in July 2008. ''Jurassic Fight Club'' was hosted ...

'' (History Channel, 2008), ''

Clash of the Dinosaurs ''Clash of the Dinosaurs'' is a four-part television mini-series produced by Dangerous LTD for Discovery Channel. The show premiered on December 6, 2009, with the first two episodes scheduled back-to-back. ''Clash of the Dinosaurs'' was negative ...

'' (Discovery Channel, 2009), and ''Bizarre Dinosaurs'' (National Geographic Channel, 2009), among others. Book
The Search for the Origin of Birds
(1995)

References

American paleontologists Living people 1959 births Ohio University faculty {{paleontologist-stub