April OER of the Month – 3D Skeletons & Skulls

Our April OER of the month is the set of 3D CT scans of a variety of wild and domestic animal skeletons and skulls.
The scans were made by Dr. Tobias Schwarz, as part of his research at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and have been formatted and uploaded to the Open.Ed Sketchfab account by Brian Mather, Senior E-Learning Developer at The Dick Vet.
Within Sketchfab anyone can use the viewing tool in Sketchfab to zoom in and rotate the view to examine the images from a variety of angles. A Virtual Reality view is also provided!
And as the files have been openly licensed, they can be viewed, downloaded, 3D printed, re-used, and re-shared!
So why are these so cool?
A CT scan (X-ray computed tomography scans) combines multiple x-ray images taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional images allowing us to see inside the object without cutting.
Digital geometry processing is then used to generate a three-dimensional image of the object. Medical imaging is the most common application of X-ray CT. Its cross-sectional images are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in various medical disciplines.
Learn more about CT scans on Wikipedia
View the 3D animal skeletons and skulls on Sketchfab
Header Image: Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisili) 3D skeleton from the Open.Ed Sketchfab collection.