A visit to Liverpool, and a large fossil!

World Museum, Liverpool

A little while ago  the JISC GB3D fossils team were at the World Museum, Liverpool. As well as the more "normal" sized fossils, a couple of fossils presented a little problem.....

Chirotherium storetonense

This is a specimen of Chirotherium storetonense (the "hand-beast" of Storeton) - it is currently on display in the geology gallery in the museum. The slab weighs over a tonne, so moving it for photography in the available time was out of the question. Additionally, the gallery is open to the public every day, so we would not be able to set up lights and tripods without disturbing access.

We hope to be able to solve this problem through the use of photogrammetry software, where we will use several photographs taken from different angles to create a model of the specimen - we will update this post when we have some results.

Simon Harris

(GB3D Mobile Team)

Cambridge University Museum of Zoology

The mobile digitalization team was in Cambridge on the 14th of November, visiting the Cambridge Zoological Museum. Only 11 types are held there, but some are very nice specimens: two of the most complete Lower Carboniferous reptiles and a Cretaceous turtle, with the skull completely and nicely preserved! Nothing the size of a dinosaur, but let’s say that we encountered some of its smaller ancestors!

Michela scanning a type in the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge

Time is always running fast when you have only a day in Cambridge, but we managed to have a quick look through the Sedgwick Museum which is always fascinating to see (it was our lunchtime Mike, don’t worry, we worked as much as we could!), and we met the Cambridge digitisation team. Like us, Hilary (scanning) and Lindsey (photographing) are digitising the type collections of the Sedgwick Museum, the they showed us hundreds of boxes with types: it can seem an easy and quick job, but it is never as you would expected it! We also exchanged some useful information about common problems we had and tricks to solve them, I won’t reveal you the latter, you know we still have to keep a little mystery around the final product you will see on the website! 

Simon at work with the Canon EOS5D

Michela Contessi

(GB3D - Mobile digitization team)

And so what.......?

Ahead of a JISC Content Programme 2011-13 meeting in Bristol on 9^th November 2012, we have been asked consider the “value” of our project –“and so what?”

British palaeontologists have been active since the early days of the subject, and the great range of rock types present in Britain has resulted in large collections of type fossils (the reference specimen(s) that define species and subspecies) in many of the museums across the country. The Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London (1851 – 1935) was one of such museums.

 Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London

The project has involved the location and digitising (high-resolution images, stereo-anaglyphs, 3D digital models and locality / taxonomic metadata) of type fossil specimens in the partner institution collections, and at numerous other museums around the country. We have produced thousands of good quality photographs of type specimens, and already many hundreds of 3D digital models. We have improved the quality of much of the specimen metadata and have imaged many of the specimen labels. Making this information available through the web to the world is the natural extension of the work that museums have always done.

The project will ensure that palaeontologists working anywhere in the world can easily and rapidly track down the type specimens they need to view. This will improve their efficiency and the quality of their research. In some cases, the images and digital models will be sufficient, thus reducing personal travel or risk to specimens while being accessed and loaned. Type specimens underpin taxonomy, and without a consistent, accurate taxonomy, studies of biodiversity are impossible. This is particularly important now that we are relating changes in biodiversity to changes in climate.

The images and models are also being used in the development of OERs, which will hopefully inspire not only the next generation of palaeontologists, but also the public at large. There could even be many parents, grateful that their children have collections of virtual fossils, rather than dusty rock-filled shoeboxes under their beds.....

OERs - Open Educational Resources

ESTA - The Earth Sciences Teachers Association met at BGS Keyworth on the 28th - 30th September and the GB/3D team ran a demonstration of  laser scanning and 3D fossil models.

The project will produce an "OER" or Open Educational Resource using the 3D models and images. This is intended to be a "proof of concept", and the hope is that others will use the models and images to produce many other OERs. We are not sure yet whether our OER will be aimed at primary, secondary or higher education - or if there is sufficient interest, we might produce one for each sector.

We have already recruited some volunteers to help guide the work, including some at the ESTA meeting, but we are looking for one or two more any level. The work will be mainly via email and the web, but might include an odd trip to BGS Keyworth. If you have a suitable background and are interested in becoming part of an exciting project, please email me through the BGS website at:  http://www.bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/3858.html 

Museums Sheffield

The GB/3D Fossil Types digitisation team recently paid a visit to the stores of Museums Sheffield

(link: http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/), to image the type specimens held there. One of the most interesting specimens was the holotype of Dentalium sorbii, pictured below. 

Even just the name of the fossil tells us many things:

·         Dentalium, the name of the Genus, is taken from the latin Dentis, for tooth, as the fossils are shaped like teeth, even though they are actually a kind of mollusc!

·         sorbii, the species name, is named after Henry Clifton Sorby (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clifton_Sorby), who presented this specimen to the museum. Sorby was born near Sheffield in 1826, and went on to become a geologist and metallurgist of some significance. He was once ridiculed for wanting to “examine mountains with microscopes”, yet his work examining rock slices ground so thin that light could pass through them led to the establishment of the field of thin-section petrography, nowadays considered a standard analytical technique. Metalurgically, he was the first person to realise the contribution made by a small amount of carbon to the properties of steel, and who has not, at some time, used a blade with the words “Sheffield Steel” engraved upon it?

·         Finally, we know that the species was described by William King in 1850 – the rules for naming new species state that it is not allowed to name a fossil after oneself. Therefore King was able to name this shell after Sorby, in his honour. Roughly translated then, the name means “Henry Sorby’s tooth shaped shell”. 

Simon Harris,

GB/3D mobile team 

Dust off your fossil types..... the JISC funded GB/3D type fossils online project would like to visit you

The following call has gone out by the Geological Curators' Group to all curators and managers of geological collections across the UK:

The Geological Curators’ Group is a partner in the JISC funded project GB/3D type fossils online (JISC was previously known as the Joint Information Systems Committee, and it runs the JANET computer network to which all .ac.uk domains belong).

Other partners include:

·         British Geological Survey

·         National Museum, Cardiff

·         Oxford University Museum of Natural History

·         Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge

Other collaborating organisations to date include the Natural History Museum, London and a number of local museums.

The ICZN and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants require that every species or subspecies of organism (living & fossil), should have a type or reference specimen to define its characteristic features. These specimens are held in collections around the world and must be available for study. Many of the UK type fossil specimens were first described over a century ago, and with the passage of time and the transfer and amalgamation of collections, their present location is uncertain.                                                                                                                                                                          

The project partners are busy photographing all their UK macro-fossil type specimens, including close-ups and labels. In most cases they are also taking stereo-pairs for anaglyph production. They are laser scanning about 10% of the specimens to produce downloadable digital models. Please see the project blog for the background to the project and for some free downloadable digital models - http://gb3dtypefossils.blogspot.co.uk/ . Next year a web portal will be released, linking all the fossil registration details (including identification, locality, age, registration number, repository, etc.) to the images, stereo-anaglyphs and 3D digital models.

The Geological Curators’ Group is now trying to track down the UK type macro-fossils held in other collections and museums around the country. We would like to visit as many collections as possible with our mobile cameras and laser scanner to photograph and record all the available types, and make them available through the web portal. All the material will be clearly badged with the holding institution’s logo, which will link to contact details and access information, thereby helping to open up the collection for worldwide study. At a time when collections are being increasingly required to justify their existence, this is a good way of raising their profile and demonstrating the international scientific importance of material they hold. All collections will be provided with copies of the photographs and digital models of their material to do with as they wish; the images and models on the web portal will be available for free download under a Creative Commons  – Attribution – NonCommercial – ShareAlike licence.

We would like to hear from any museums and collections interested in joining the project. We also have a budget available to help cover the cost of the collection staff involved (£200 per day, on a first-come first-served basis). Please email me (GB3D-Fossils@bgs.ac.uk ) with information about the types you hold, including the approximate number of specimens, or if you wish to receive further information. Where a collection has just a few types, and they are considered safe to travel, we would ask you to consider loaning the material to BGS for the work to be done in Keyworth.

Please consider joining what is becoming a very exciting development.

Kind regards,

Mike Howe

Project leader & Chairman GCG.

Simon Harris joins the project team

The JISC fossil digitisation team at Keyworth has recently welcomed a new member. Simon Harris joins us as a photographer who has specialised in photographing objects in museums and historic houses for several years. 

Simon Harris using one of the project's Canon EOS5D MkII's

Simon commented:

"I have spent a number of years working with varied historic collections across the UK, and have been interested in fossils since my childhood, so the opportunity to work with historically and scientifically significant fossil collections is a very exciting prospect for me."

"I also have training in engineering and object conservation - it's surprising just how often these different disciplines come in handy when working in a museum!"

"The nature of the collection we are working with here means that a lot of the specimens are quite small and we really need to utilise the capabilities of the equipment that we have. For instance, the live view facility on the camera is invaluable for checking focus and depth of field, and we can check the final image for any problems, like camera shake or under exposure, instantly. It was never that easy when we used film!"

We will bring you some fossil photographs in a future blog posting.