Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

WATCH: D’Arcy Thompson collection comes to life with new 3D modelling technology

Post Thumbnail

Prairie dogs, puffer fish and giant tortoises from a Dundee museum can be viewed online thanks to new digital 3D modelling technology.

Specimens from Dundee University’s D’Arcy Thompson Museum have been uploaded to enhance the learning of anatomy students around the world.

State-of-the-art scanning and design techniques have been deployed to digitise the animals, as well as the skulls of elephants, rhinoceroses and other items from the collection of D’Arcy Thompson, Dundee’s celebrated first professor of biology.

The resulting 3D models are hosted online and are available for viewing and downloading worldwide under a creative commons licence.

This has already led to one of the items, a skull thought to belong to an Indian elephant, being reclassified as that of an African forest elephant following comments posted by an expert.

The project was instigated by Dr Caroline Erolin, MSc Medical Art course coordinator at the university’s Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, who uses the museum’s collection and facilities as part of her teaching practice.

“Every visit to the D’Arcy Thompson Zoology Museum throws up something else fascinating,” she said.

“My focus is on the future of medical art and artists, particularly in relation to new and developing technologies, and this gave me the opportunity to explore the collection further while also honing my 3D scanning and modelling design skills. It’s been incredible to see the models come to life, as it were.

“I worked on the project throughout 2016 whenever the opportunity arose. Smaller specimens were scanned with a micro CT scanner, while larger specimens (from around 20cm) were captured using hand-held structured light scanners. All the colour had to be added later in the process.

“I would love to scan and digitise every specimen in the museum but with there being thousands of them it just isn’t possible.

“I worked with Matthew Jarron, the museum curator, to identify the most interesting specimens and those most relevant to D’Arcy Thompson’s work and legacy.”

The catalogue of models also includes the sectioned skull of a Thylacine, otherwise known as the Tasmanian wolf, an extinct species of carnivorous marsupial.

So far the models have been viewed over 10,000 times in more than 25 countries with over 1,600 downloads having taken place.

The digital collection is being used in a variety of learning and teaching initiatives around the world, including at Queensland University in Australia.

Mr Jarron said: “This is a great way to make parts of D’Arcy Thompson’s amazing collection more accessible to audiences around the world, particularly appropriate in this anniversary year when there is huge international interest in D’Arcy’s work.

“We can also use the scans within the museum, by printing the models in 3D so visitors can handle them.”

Dr Erolin’s students will now take the project forward by digitising more items from the collection and using a 3D printer to produce copies of fragile specimens that can be used in teaching in multiple locations worldwide.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of D’Arcy’s seminal book, On Growth and Form, which has been hailed as “the greatest work of prose in twentieth century science”.

Through his iconic transformation diagrams, D’Arcy demonstrated that laws of growth rather than evolution could be used to explain the different forms of related species.

The 3D models can be viewed online through the museum’s website.