The Visible Interactive Rhino – part of the Visible Interactive Anatomy series at WitmerLab at Ohio University Project ID: 00000C677 Public

9 Media · 1 Specimen · Managed by: Lawrence Witmer

The Visible Interactive Rhino. These open access resources—both here on MorphoSource and on the Ohio University site—present our work on the 3D anatomical structure of the head and skull of white rhinoceros, Ceratotherium simum. These resources are outgrowths of our work with the Kariega Game Reserve in South Africa. In March 2012, following the brutal attack of three rhinos by poachers seeking horn, Dr. William Fowlds, the wildlife veterinarian treating the rhinos, contacted WitmerLab for insight into the anatomical structure of the horn, skull, and nasal cavity of rhinos. The poachers had used machetes to hack off the horns, leaving deep wounds in the face and exposing the delicate mucous membranes of the paranasal air sinuses and nasal cavity. WitmerLab provided Dr. Fowlds with the anatomical information he requested, as well as generated imagery that could be used in a more public context to help highlight the extent of the injuries inflicted on rhinos by the poachers. This web site seeks to share some of that imagery, as well as to provide basic anatomical information that can serve as STEM educational aids for K–12 and undergraduate students, as well as for researchers. Our primary specimen is the head of a 41-year-old male white rhino (named Kehtla) which was provided to WitmerLab by the Phoenix Zoo in 2002. This specimen (OUVC 9754) contributed to a published study on rhino horn published by WitmerLab in 2006, the same study that drew the attention of Dr. Fowlds. Kehtla's head was first CT scanned with the help of Heather Rockhold, RT(CT), at O'Bleness Memorial Hospital in 2008 and then again in March 2012 so as to get better data to help the Kariega rhinos. Chief WitmerLab Research Associate Ryan Ridgely assembled the several sets of CT scan data into a single 3D volume which is the basis for the work here. More content will be added in the future. Funded by the National Science Foundation.