Tour a fragile fossil skull

Our colleague Chris Yahnke, Professor and Curator of Birds and Mammals at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, created a narrated tour of a rare and fragile fossil elk moose skull for students in his Mammalogy class (Biology 378). You can find it here. Dr Yahnke used 123D Catch to make a 3D model, then created a podcast as he manipulated the model. This shows how professors might use the online 3D models to teach students how to look at skulls, drawing their attention to important landmarks and key features.

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Variecia variegata

This is skull 172669 from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Mammal Division. It is Varecia variegata, the variegated lemur. Click on the "3D view" icon below the image to get the 3D controls.

Read more about Varecia variegata at the Animal Diversity Web.

Hylobates skull

This is skull 160909 from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Mammal Division. It is a Hylobates species. Click on the "3D view" icon below the image to get the 3D controls.

Read more about Hylobatidae on the Animal Diversity Web.

Why Are We Here?

Just before the turn of the 21st century, the Animal Diversity Web created a series of cutting-edge QTVR object movies of skulls. A highlight of our original collection can be found here, and spinning skulls are embedded throughout mammal species accounts.

Now, we're creating new 3D models using photogrammetry tools provided by Autodesk. This allows us to create higher-resolution models, and provide you with much finer control over the spinning.

Below you'll see a preview of the new technology - click on the "3D view" icon below the image to get the 3D controls, or use Macaca mulatta on 123dapp site to view it on the 123dapp site. You need to be using a browser & video driver that supports WebGL (for example, Chrome; go to this web site to check your current setup).



We'll be adding the spinning models later in 2014. Watch this space for an announcement of when they'll be going live!