It isn’t that unusual for a home lab to have a microscope, but wouldn’t it be cool to have a CT scanner? Well, you probably won’t anytime soon, but if you are interested in scans of vertebrates — you know, animals with backbones — a group of museums have you covered.
The oVert project is scanning 20,000 specimens and making the results available to everyone. This should be a boon to educators and might even be useful for 3D printing animal forms. Check out the video about the project below.
The 20,000 scans should cover about 80% of the vertebrates. Digital images and mesh files are on MorphoSource which is an interesting resource, too. Need a model for a pre-Aztec spindle whorl? They got that.
Of course, it’s not as good as having your own scanner, but it’s still an amazing source of detailed scans that will be a handy resource for educators, researchers, and anyone interested in natural sciences. Maybe the next generation won’t have to dissect frogs.
Of course, you can still dissect robotic dinosaurs. If you really want to get your own scanner, you can find some advice.
Scans help with paleontology.
https://youtu.be/-NYsz82eTEE
For the TL;DR people who do not want to watch videos, what is the headline image?
Video doesn’t explicit mention it, but the “slideshow-type teardown” they show implies some sort of pregnant lizard or dinosaur or aligator.
gotta jump through some hoops to get a download from these clowns… I picked a CT scan of a bird, hit download…
!!! register to download this file
ok
i register
!!! fill form all about use of data etc, promise not to 3D print the bird or use it for commercial gain… like the bird gives a f**k
ok, next next done done…
download
!!! popup, please enter the reason you wanna download the CT scan file of a bird? 50 characters or less
“I wanna test the file format for use in the unity game engine for use in volumetric display AR glasses.”
OK
… your request for download has been registered, go to the MY Requests panel to await approval status
fuck me
most guarded bird picture of all time.