Thanks to techniques being developed in the Department of Biological Sciences, scientists may soon see extinct birds walking and moving like they did in prehistoric times.
Dominique Homberger, a University honors professor and Andrei Zinoviev, a Fulbright scholar who works in Homberger’s lab have developed a pioneering approach for creating computer models of animals based on CT scans and x-rays, allowing for complex 3-D models and animations that provide vastly more information than drawings or traditional physical objects.
Computer models are advantageous because researchers can animate the movements and actions of the subject, such as the flap of a bird’s wing, and are able to study the structures of animals in action as opposed to a static picture or plastic model. For this reason, computer models are being touted as the next step in a number of fields, including anatomy, physiology and morphology.
Zinoviev came to the University to study these techniques within the context of ancient species of birds. Using a combination of paleontology, medical imaging and computer modeling, Zinoviev is able to rebuild ancient animals bone by bone.
Using fossils of ancient birds, 3-D models of the bones are created and modified in Avizo, a computer program. Then, using the anatomy of modern descendents of the species as a reference, muscle attachment points are mapped on to the bones. The bones are then put together and muscles are “attached” before the model is animated in Maya, an animation software. The bones and movements are structured using functional x-ray “maps” of those descendents, almost like a blueprint for the anatomy of the ancient bird. The computer-modeled bones are then superimposed over the x-ray.
“I can look at the surface of the bones and, by just comparing to the modern species, I can understand, or at least I can predict what kind of muscle was attaching here.” Zinoviev said. “And then I can assess how it moved, what kind of locomotion it was utilizing during its life.”
Zinoviev used this technique when analyzing Hesperornis regalis, an ancient diving bird. By comparing similarities and differences between modern loons and Hesperornis, Zinoviev concluded that Hesperornis was the “most powerful and specialized avian foot-propelled diver ever-known.”
Zinoviev originally became interested in ancient species as a child.
“I was interested, of course, as many children [are], in dinosaurs,” Zinoviev said. “What I was trying to do in life was study dinosaurs.”
While in school, Zinoviev met with faculty at the Paleontological Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Thanks to influence from his father, an ornithologist, Zinoviev specialized in ancient birds as a compromise between his father’s connections and his own passions.
“[The faculty] told me ‘You cannot study the past life until you know the structure,” Zinoviev said. “You have to know how the bones are being developed, and they are developed together with muscles and with everything else.”
Zinoviev spent years studying modern birds and their functional morphology, which led to a master’s thesis, doctoral dissertation and eventually the publishing of his book.
Zinoviev currently heads the zoology department at Tver State University in Tver, Russia.
Zinoviev decided to study at the University thanks to Homberger. Zinoviev met Homberger while presenting his post-doctoral research around the world. After learning about the innovative techniques being developed and applied in Homberger’s lab, the University was an obvious choice for Zinoviev.
Zinoviev will remain at the University until the end of February to learn the techniques, programs and methods Homberger developed, and then plans to bring his knowledge back to Russia.
Professor Homberger and Jinghua Ge teach a class in 3-D imaging and animation, HNRS 3035, that shows students the same cutting-edge process being used in Homberger’s lab.