Provost’s Digital Innovation Grants: Building a Virtual Museum

Building a virtual museum: Creating an online database of 3D primate postcranial models

Justin Gladman

Justin Gladman, Anthropology

This project aims to help establish an online database of 3D models of fossil and living primate postcranial bones produced using laser digitizations or high resolution MicroCT scans that will serve as a virtual museum for comparative studies and education. Primate limb bones are an important source of information for reconstructing the behavior and adaptations of extinct species as well as the phylogenetic relationships of modern and extinct groups. The free distribution of detailed 3D models increases the availability of rare specimens among both academics and the general public, conserves existing collections, and opens up a number of novel research methods for examining these bones including new statistical approaches designed explicitly for 3D morphological studies in physical anthropology and paleontology.

Dr. Douglas Boyer, Assistant Professor of Anthropology & Archaeology, Brooklyn College and Dr. Alfred Rosenberger (Advisor) Associate Professor of Anthropology & Archaeology, Brooklyn College

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