NZ Scientists Bring Extinct Birds Back to Life

A collaboration between scientists at Massey University, the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa bring extinct birds species back to life with 3D scanning.

“Technology like 3D printing is the way of the future, and will help to ensure precious objects, like bones from long extinct birds, are protected while still being fully accessible to the public,” said Alan Tennyson, vertebrate curator at the Museum of New Zealand.

The aim of the project that is led by Massey University ornithologist Dr. Daniel Thomas is to make museum collections more accessible.

“We are going to see more of this in New Zealand. For a while now, researchers have used CT scanners to make digital versions of 3D bones, but few museums have this technology in-house. The 3D scanner we have is portable, so it can be brought into museum collections,” said Dr. Thomas.

Dr. Thomas has been working on an in-depth digital reconstruction of a moa skeleton as part of Evolution in Isolation (a digital gallery of New Zealand’s past and present wildlife) with Auckland Museum Natural Sciences Collections Manager Jason Froggatt.

Article Source: 3DPrint, Clare Scott, December 2, 2015

Image Source: Wikipedia