University of Michigan 3D Fossil Web Site

The Online Repository of Fossils Museum of Paleontology at the University of Michigan has a GREAT 3D fossil web site. It can be found at https://umorf.ummp.lsa.umich.edu/wp/ The image below shows a Spinocyrtia mourantae Devonian Period brachiopod. Once on the web site the image can be rotated on all three axis and magnified. You can also use the S and E keys to display measurements across the specimen. It is a very nice interface. If you look in the About section of the web site under credits it took quite a lot of people to create this very nice web site.

Their site contains images of 3D invertebrates (phylums: brachiopoda, mollusca, arthropoda, and echinodermata), 3D vertebrates (proboscidea), and a 2D gallery.

I look forward to seeing more of their work and specimens from this museum (over 2,000,000 invertebrate fossils).

Smithsonian X 3D Beta Web Site

I am excited to see this web site created by the United States premier museum. Museum collections tend to be vast and hard to show to the general public. So many specimens are kept in storage and probably hardly seen even by researchers and curators.  3D technology and the Internet have a way of unlocking these collections for a large segment of the population to share in the wonders of all these artifacts. Go to their web site at http://3d.si.edu/ to check it out! As of this writing they have 20 models to view including 3 whale fossils and a mammoth.

In order to view the Smithsonian X 3D Beta site your browser needs to support WebGL. As of this writing Google Chrome (version 30+) and Firefox (version 24+) can be used. Internet Explorer 11 when released should work. Apple Safari needs to have its default setting change to Enable WebGL. Apple iOS does not support WebGL right now.

The interface is smooth and rotation allowed with 3 axis rotation. It says powered by Autodesk and the software reminds me of using the Autodesk Maya program.

Below are some links to their YouTube videos describing the system.

Viewing 3-D Fossil Images

Back in October 2012, the British Geological Survey has posted an experimental video on YouTube with 3-D fossil images using red/blue colors. The video lasts over 3 minutes and features over 10 fossils.
In order to look at the video one needs some 3-D glasses. You can make a pair using a PDF template found at NASA's STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) web site.

I created a pair using the following materials

• card stock paper with printer to print out template
• clear transparency (I used transparent plastic sheet protectors)
• blue Sharpie marker
• red Sharpie marker
• scissors
• pen knife (optional to cut out eye holes instead of using scissors)
• Scotch tape

Some changes made to the original was to cut out a rectangular area next to the arm pieces to allow it to be taped together better. I drew dashed lines are on the template if you look close at the image.

The Geosciences Collection at the British Geological Survey also have a 3D image of trilobite on their blog site: http://gb3dtypefossils.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/oers-open-educational-resources_31.html

3D Laser Scanned Fossil Images

The British Geological Survey has posted on YouTube a nice video showing some of the fossils from their collection of around three million specimens. Fossils contained in the collection range from time from the Neoproterozoic to modern times. At 51 seconds into the video the Precambrian Charnia masoni is shown which is Britain's oldest animal. Learn more about it this Wikipedia page.