I agree it seems like AI

But if it came from anywhere it would probably be the book he published last year.

Dr Echols invented new technology allowing researchers to see anatomical features such as blood vessels with the use of CT. The Second Edition has all new images of CT based wing and leg anatomy clearly depicting important anatomic features for several avian species.

https://avianstudios.com/reviews/avian-surgical-anatomy-and-orthopedic-management-second-edition/

Which seems like a pretty credible origin to me

I doubt this is AI. This looks right for a micro-CT angiograph.

The blood vessels will have X-ray opaque dye injected, so they stand out on the CT. You can then set a threshold in the visualization software to filter out other tissue. The software then uses an algorithm to apply some shading to the surfaces of the unfiltered tissue to create a 3D effect.

The red colouring is a choice of the user, it just colours darker parts red and fades out to transparency.

I didn’t suspect AI, but using “captured” stood out to me as well. Assuming the data was CT like huginn sourced, this is a very processed resulting product. So whoever chose to use the term “capture” was too imprecise for my taste.