Holliday Bio

As an undergraduate at the University of Florida, it took me a while to really figure out what I wanted to do, although it was always biologically-based. Like any good undergrad education, much of the time was spent NOT dealing with class. I spent time burning grass samples in Animal Nutrition, extracting DNA from test-tubes, refereeing intramural sports, and working at vet clinics. A few courses really drew me into my current career including Biological Anthropology with Susan Anton, Vertebrate Macroevolution with Bruce MacFadden, and Vertebrate Paleontology with Dave Webb...from there on I was sold on vertebrate anatomy. I worked in the Vertebrate Paleontology range of the Florida Museum of Natural History as a curatorial assistant/preparator for a few years. There I became interested in cranial evolution and feeding function—who couldn't with dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, giant crocs and sloths, and terror birds looming in the halls.

From the FLMNH, I was hired as a fossil preparator by the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL during their "SUE-prep" years. However, I never actually worked in Chicago; instead, I worked in a small lab (actually a human aquarium) situated in Disney World, Orlando, FL. In that little lab, with Bruce Schumacher and Joanne Avery, at least half of the skeleton, including the limbs, neck, and tail, were prepared, and a number of elements were molded. Unfortunately, I didn't get to work on the skull, but I'm making up for that now. Once the tyrannosaur project was done on our end, I was lucky enough to prepare a number of specimens from other sites including both Triassic and Cretaceous Madagascar material and a small Red Deer River tyrannosaur. Disney loved the lab soooo much they bull-dozed it the day we moved out (Sorry folks!). I'll always have Bruce, Bill Simpson, John Flynn, and Matt Brown to thank for making those 30 months an incredibly memorable experience, not to mention the rest of the prep team.

Bruce Schumacher and I with a femur in National Geographic 1999


Articulating the ankle	Joanne Avery with the left leg	Various elements before shipping

The neck (right side) prior to its disarticulation . The neck took more than nine months to prepare and reassemble.	The neck after (the left side). Note reconstruction (white) and weathered (brown) bone	Palatal view of Bob Masek working on the skull in Chicago


The preparators.	The picture speaks for itself	The Chicago Tribune front page, May 18, 2000

Opening "Elmer" a juvenile tyrannosaur discovered in the 1920's in Alberta. Now on exhibit at the AMNH.	Matt Brown holding Elmer's left leg together.	Project Done! Bruce and I celebrate with some not-so-great scotch

I went to get my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Ohio University in beautiful Athens, OH under the supervision of Larry Witmer (who is a superb researcher and teacher). During this time I conducted my dissertation research which included hours of dissection, writing, illustration, travel to most of the museums and major cities on the continent, and more writing and illustrating, in fact, probably not enough writing and illustrating was done. I also taught various anatomy-based courses. This could be a really long story, best told over scotch, but, to keep it simple: I have no complaints. The people I interacted with on a daily basis were fantastic to be around and there was more going on than I could ever keep up with. So, shout out to everyone.


Hanging with petroglyphic art in Utah. Apparently Bison were in my future.	Hanging with giraffe in Florida...and its still alive	Typical data collection

Lizard trigeminal nerve and ad nexa	Pick a card, any card	Ketla, the white rhino from AZ, fresh off the plane

Sister Erin in collections room. Skulls & Denim!	New Friends in Canada!	Witmer lab circa '02, Tobin's late.

Dawn Rocks!	Taking the plunge in AZ, 2006	The only reason I went to grad school was embodied by this nice graphic.

	Casey M. Holliday, Ph. D.
	Evolutionary Morphologist