Digital imaging and public engagement in palaeontology

Bates, Karl T.; Falkingham, Peter L.; Hodgetts, David; Farlow, James O.; Breithaupt, Brent H.; O'Brien, Mike; Matthews, Neffra A.; Sellers, William I.; Manning, Phillip L.

doi:10.1111/j.1365-2451.2009.00714.x

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…High-performance computing has become increasingly accessible to paleobiologists and provides the facility to rapidly solve the complex chain of equations that describe the mechanics and energetics of three-dimensional (3D) motion in jointed musculoskeletal systems. Computational methods are now standard for calculating the mass and inertial properties of organisms (Henderson, 1999;Henderson and Snively, 2004;Hutchinson et al, 2007;Bates et al, 2009aBates et al, , 2009b and for reconstructing the mechanical behavior (e.g., Rayfield, 2004Rayfield, , 2005Richmond et al, 2005), range of motion and functional repertoire (e.g., Stevens and Parrish, 1999), and likely kinematics and energetic performance of biological structures (e.g., Sellers et al, , 2005Nagano et al, 2005). These numerical analyses have some advantages over the more traditional methods of analogy and theoretical inference because they are inherently more objective and deterministic, producing explicit quantitative predictions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sensitivity analysis on a volumetric reconstruction of the most complete specimen of Allosaurus currently known (MOR 693) indicates that the 'plausible' range for both total body mass values lies well within the range tested here for an Allosaurus with skeletal proportions similar to the model used here (Bates et al, 2009b). This study suggested that the trunk CM was likely to have been between 7% and 64% of femoral length cranial of the hip joint in Allosaurus (Bates et al, 2009b). Altering trunk CM across this range resulted in little change to maximum speed, but it did affect the kinematics of limbs and torso in running gaits owing to the sub-horizontal orientation of the torso in bipedal non-avian theropod dinosaurs.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sensitivity analysis in evolutionary robotic simulations of bipedal dinosaur running

Bates

Manning

Margetts

et al. 2010

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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ABSTRACT-Constructing musculoskeletal models of extinct vertebrates requires subjective assumptions about soft tissue parameters rarely preserved in the fossil record. Despite these necessary assumptions about fundamental input values, paleobiologists rarely perform objective tests of best-estimate models before reaching conclusions based on predicted results. The extent to which lack of knowledge on soft tissue anatomy limits the accuracy of running speed estimates of extinct dinosaurs is therefore poorly understood. In this study, a sensitivity analysis is performed on an evolutionary robotics model of the non-avian theropod dinosaur Allosaurus, used previously to estimate maximum running speed in this extinct animal. A range of muscle parameters were varied over the range observed in extant vertebrates, whereas mass-related parameters were altered across the range of published estimates for Allosaurus. Muscle parameters have a linear relationship with maximum running speed, whereas surprisingly total body mass and torso center of mass have little effect. Muscle force values produced the greatest range in predicted running speeds (4.5-10.7 m/s) and stride lengths (4-5.8 m) in the sensitivity analysis, equating to 65.9% and 30.7% variation about the original 'best-estimate' prediction, a relatively high potential margin of error. These results highlight the importance of sensitivity analyses in biomechanical modeling of extinct taxa, particularly where values for soft tissues parameters are not tightly constrained. The current range in plausible values for soft tissue properties makes a robust quantitative assessment of behavioral ecology and species interactions in dinosaurian communities extremely difficult.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Sensitivity analysis in evolutionary robotic simulations of bipedal dinosaur running

Bates

Manning

Margetts

et al. 2010

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

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“…), se han ido incorporando de forma significativa al mundo de la Paleontología, primero a su ámbito científico, y en menor medida al educativo y divulgativo (Rahman, et al, 2012). En especial, los modelos digitales de fósiles adquieren mucha relevancia porque son muy eficaces para comunicar visualmente conceptos complejos o técnicos convirtiéndose en un recurso educativo transversal (Bates, et al 2009;Reynolds, 2010). El resultado de aplicar técnicas no destructivas (tomografía computerizada, escaneado láser o sincrotrón, etc.)…”

Section: Recurso Digitales 3d En Educaciónunclassified

“…También se usan para hacer reproducciones con fines museísticos (Falkingham, 2012), para estudiar sitios naturales de difícil acceso (Cayla, 2014), para la digitalización de yacimientos, como el caso de las icnitas de dinosaurios de Galve (Royo Torres, Mampel, & Alcalá, 2013), y en la gestión del patrimonio paleontológico como parte del geoturismo (Mallison, 2011;Gonzalez-Delgado, y otros, 2015). En el ámbito de la divulgación de la ciencia o en el educativo también son muy útiles los modelos 3D, permitiendo producir materiales didácticos que mejoran el aprendizaje en general (Bates, et al, 2009), y para los alumnos con deficiencias visuales, en particular, pues les permite tener acceso a fósiles que solo se pueden ver con lupa o en el microscopio (Teshima, 2010), ya que los modelos 3D se pueden ampliar y replicar a diferentes escalas.…”

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Creación, visualización e impresión 3D de colecciones online de modelos educativos tridimensionales con tecnologías de bajo coste; Caso práctico del patrimonio fósil marino de Canarias

Saorín

Meier

Castillo

et al. 2016

Education in the Knowledge Society

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El uso de objetos tangibles (maquetas, réplicas de obras artísticas, fósiles…) en entornos educativos se suele utilizar para mejorar el proceso de aprendizaje. Cuando el conocimiento se difunde a través de entornos virtuales, a veces, se pierde el valor de estos objetos tangibles. Las nuevas tecnologías de bajo coste, permiten solventar este problema, permitiendo a los profesores incluir en sus aulas virtuales el acceso y manipulación de objetos tridimensionales. En este artículo se describe el proceso de creación y divulgación de un contenido educativo tridimensional e interactivo para aprendizaje en un entorno virtual. Como caso práctico se ha trabajado sobre el patrimonio fósil marino canario. Los fósiles se usan como material tangible en la enseñanza de paleontología, sin embargo no están disponibles para el trabajo fuera del aula. En el trabajo descrito en este artículo, se han digitalizado en 3D una selección de 18 fósiles. Los archivos obtenidos están a disposición de los alumnos en un entorno online, permitiendo su descarga, visualización e interacción en dispositivos móviles multitáctiles. Además, si el alumno lo prefiere, puede imprimirlos en 3D. Para finalizar, se ha realizado una experiencia con 70 alumnos universitarios que, después de acceder al repositorio online creado, han contestado a un cuestionario para valorar los materiales diseñados.

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“…Digital approaches in palaeontology are an important medium through which to communicate information concerning contemporary scientific issues [Bates et al, 2009] and the goal of this project was to produce an interactive, educational exhibit featuring cutting edge computational techniques that could be used in the context of science festivals and other educational venues such as events at museums or school visits. We have been working for a number of years on the use of evolutionary robotics as a way of reconstructing the locomotor capabilities of fossil animals [Sellers et al, 2005;Sellers and Manning, 2007;Sellers et al, 2013] and have produced an open source simulation software package, GaitSym (http://www.animalsimulation.org) to do this.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kinect controlled dinosaur simulations for education and public outreach

Sellers

Pond

2015

Preprint

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Dinosaurs are a source of enormous public interest and as such are useful for fostering greater interest in basic science and technology. With the increasing popularity of dinosaur films that claim to portray realistic dinosaur behaviour, one question that is regularly posed for palaeontologists to answer is how we know that our reconstructions are accurate. Dinosaur locomotion is no exception to this line of questioning and one technique for estimating how dinosaurs may have moved is multibody dynamic simulation (MBDA) of high biofidelity musculoskeletal computer models. Such simulations uses Newton's Law's of Motion to calculate how the different parts of the animals body would have moved depending on the internal forces generated by the muscles and the external forces due to gravity and physical contact with the ground. In this project we designed a system that allowed the user to directly control the muscles forces generated using a Kinect for Xbox One sensor attached to a PC using the Kinect Adaptor for Windows. The Kinect output is used to drive the muscles using customised software and models (Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, Edmontonia, Edmontosaurus, Gorgosaurus) based on our standard GaitSym MBDA system. The initial system was trialled over 7 days at the 2015 Cheltenham Science Festival which showed that the bipedal models were relatively easy to control using human body movements and provided a good vehicle to explain how the physics and physiology behind dinsoaur locomotor reconstruction. The quadrupedal models in their current form are much more difficult to control and further work is needed in this area. The 3D models and software for this project are freely available to download (http://www.animalsimulation.org or DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.2008977) and it is hoped that they will find further uses in areas such as 3D printing for anatomical education and virtual world simulations.

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Digital imaging and public engagement in palaeontology

Cited by 20 publications

References 3 publications

Sensitivity analysis in evolutionary robotic simulations of bipedal dinosaur running

Sensitivity analysis in evolutionary robotic simulations of bipedal dinosaur running

Creación, visualización e impresión 3D de colecciones online de modelos educativos tridimensionales con tecnologías de bajo coste; Caso práctico del patrimonio fósil marino de Canarias

Kinect controlled dinosaur simulations for education and public outreach

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