Tuatara Skull Anatomy

3D Model

Skull of a Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus, with bones colored and labelled to demonstrate skull anatomy.

Digital dissection and scene by Jaimi Gray (oVert team). 3D model produced from a CT scan of a Texas Natural History Collections specimen (UF herp 11978). Segmentation and mesh files generated using VGStudio Max 3.4. Meshes further edited and animation produced in Blender (version 2.80.75). Skull anatomy labelled by Jaimi Gray using Evans, Susan E. “The skull of lizards and tuatara.” Biology of the Reptilia 20 (2008): 1-347.

Specimen is an older individual, as indicated by: - worn down teeth - broken and healed right dentary - fusion of the quadrate and quadratojugal

Modelling funded by the oVert TCN project at the University of Florida (NSF DBI-1701714) https://tinyurl.com/oVertwiki.

CT data available on Morphosource: https://www.morphosource.org/concern/biological_specimens/0000S3383