Scientists at the University of Bristol and the University of London have successfully reconstructed the skull of a Whatcheeria deltae, a prehistoric amphibian that lived about 340 million years ago. The skull of the animal, which was among the earliest to develop limbs and fingers, was discovered at the bottom of a swamp in Iowa, United States, in 1995. When palaeontologists found the fossil of the ancient tetrapod, its skull was crushed to become flat, probably because of being buried in the mud. However, scientists did not stop trying to restore the bones into the structure of the amphibian’s skull, and eventually, they achieved a digital reconstruction with the help of computer models. For the reconstruction, scientists first passed the fossil under a CT scanner to make digital copies of the discovered structure. Then a computer software separated the bones from the rock that was wrapped around them. Once the digital models of all the bones in the fossil were ready, scientists used them to reconstruct a 3D model of the amphibian’s skull to appear in a way as if the tetrapod was alive. According to the scientists, the reconstruction reveals important characteristics about the prehistoric animal’s life. They found that the animal was different compared to most early tetrapods.
“Most early tetrapods had very flat heads which might hint that Whatcheeria was feeding in a slightly different way to its relatives,” said James Rawson, the lead author of the study, in a statement. The study was published on July 22 in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Investigating further into how the amphibian could be different from most of the early four-limbed animals, scientists look at the sutures connecting the skull bones. Studying the sutures helped scientists estimate what forces acted on the skull, and how the animal responded to them. It also revealed how the skull applied compression, handled tension and twisting. According to the scientists, reconstruction of the skull, with the large fangs, shows that the animal could probably exert a powerful bite.
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