Catherine M. Early, PhD
Barbara Brown Chair of Ornithology, Science Museum of Minnesota
Research Interests
I am interested in the cranial anatomy of extinct and extant vertebrates and how it reflects their behavior and ecology. For my dissertation, I studied the correlations between neuroanatomy and function in birds. I employed medical imaging and virtual reconstruction of endocranial soft tissues in extant birds to generate a diverse evolutionary sample of brain endocasts, or representations of the space in the skull where the brain was located in life. I studied the relationships between brain structures and the endocast structures that overlie them, as well as factors that influence brain endocast shape in birds. My past projects have addressed questions of anatomical specializations for behavior and ecology. More information on my past and ongoing projects can be found below.
photo by Edwin Cadena
A slice of CT scan data in sagittal plane of a turkey head stained with Lugol's iodine. The brain is outlined in yellow, and the segmented model of the brain endocast sits in the upper right corner.
The brain of a chicken sits in front of the sagittally sectioned skull of another chicken.
NSF Graduate Research Internship at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
I spent the summer of 2017 working on one of the chapters of my dissertation with Dr. Helen James, the Curator-in-Charge of the National Museum of Natural History's Division of Birds. Under her supervision, I examined the tips of the bills of many different species of birds for tiny holes, called foramina, that contain touch sensors, or mechanoreceptors that are innervated by the trigeminal nerve. The bill tips of birds with high concentrations of mechanoreceptors in this area are very sensitive to touch, and this sensitivity allows them to locate or manipulate food items. My project aims to determine which osteological correlates of the trigeminal system correlate with specialized feeding behaviors that rely on touch sensitivity.
photo by Brian Schmidt
Implications of Avian Brain Endocast Morphology on Anatomy and Behavior
A brain endocast is the space in the skull in which the brain sat, and in birds, it is a relatively faithful representation of the external shape of the brain. My dissertation research aimed to understand what this external shape can tell us about internal neuroanatomy and behavior of extinct birds. To do so, I CT scanned the skulls of extinct and extant birds and made digital models of their brain endocasts. I have presented posters on this research at Annual Meetings of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 2015, 2016, and 2018 and at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in 2017.
photo by WitmerLab
The Austin Working Group: Advancing Contrast-Enhanced Imaging in the Biological Sciences
In March 2015, a group of ~20 researchers using various contrast-enhancing media to better visualize anatomical structures met at the University of Texas at Austin to discuss our collective experiences with and uses for this anatomical technique. Together, we published a review of best practices in the Journal of Anatomy in 2016, and members of this group have participated in symposia and workshops at the meetings of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology and the International Society of Vertebrate Morphology. To learn more about diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced computed tomography (diceCT), visit the website.
Gignac et al. 2016
The Visible Interactive Moa
My first WitmerLab research project was the reconstruction of the endocranial soft tissues of a species of moa, Dinornis robustus. Moa were a group of giant, flightless birds related to today's ostrich and emu. This reconstruction of the cranial anatomy of a specimen of D. robustus is the most complete to date, and reveals some interesting neuroanatomical traits in this species. I presented posters on the results of this study at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Berlin, Germany in November 2014 and at the 11th International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology in Washington, D. C. in July 2016. I also made movies and 3D PDFs of the reconstructed anatomy to serve as open-access resources for researchers and educators. They can be downloaded from the WitmerLab's Visible Interactive Moa webpage.
photo by WitmerLab
A Deeper Look into the Avian Brain: Using Modern Imaging to Unlock Ancient Endocasts
In May 2014, I was one of less than 40 researchers invited to participate in this fully-funded Catalysis Meeting at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, NC. This small meeting allowed the current workers in the field of avian brain evolution to discuss the issues facing our field and work together to come up with ways to address these issues with neontological and paleontological techniques. I performed data collection tasks for a collaborative database before and after the meeting and contributed to discussions and breakout sessions during the meeting.
photo by WitmerLab