Multimedia Gallery
Project allows users to explore 3D vertebrate specimens from inside out (Image 9)
Duke University's MorphoSource project will create computed tomography scans of fluid-preserved museum specimens like this giant girdled lizard (Smaug giganteus) from the Florida Museum of Natural History's herpetology collection. Data from the scans will be made available on an open access website. [Image 9 of 11 related images. See Image 10.]
More about this image
A recent grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting the launch of a project that will scan 20,000 vertebrates from the Florida Museum of Natural History's collection using computed tomography (CT) scanning and make these data-rich, 3D images available to researchers, educators, students and the public via the internet.
Called the oVert project -- short for openVertebrate, the project will encompass representative specimens from more than 80% of existing vertebrate genera, and a selection of these will also be scanned with contrast-enhancing stains to characterize soft tissues.
CT scanning takes X-rays of a specimen from every angle, creating thousands of snapshots that a computer stitches together into a detailed 3D visual replica. The image can be virtually dissected, layer by layer, to expose cross sections and internal structures. The scans allow scientists to view a specimen inside and out, including its skeleton, muscles, internal organs, parasites and even its stomach contents, without touching a scalpel.
Images scanned for the project will then be housed in MorphoSource, a public database created by Duke University that scientists, educators, students or the curious can mine for 3D data on their species of interest.
[Research supported by NSF grant DBI 1701714.]
To learn more about this project, see the Florida Musum story New project allows web users to explore 3-D vertebrate specimens from inside out. (Date image taken: 2016-2017; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: Dec. 14, 2017)
Credit: Edward Stanley and David Blackburn; Florida Museum of Natural History photo by Andy Lievertz
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