Biodiversity Information Science and Standards : Conference Abstract
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Corresponding author: Markus Bastir (mbastir@mncn.csic.es)
Received: 02 Aug 2019 | Published: 08 Aug 2019
© 2019 Markus Bastir
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Bastir M (2019) Speedy Palaeoanthropology: How virtual morphology, digital databases and open access policies boost research in human evolution. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 3: e38778. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.38778
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The last two decades have seen the development of virtual morphology (ViMo), which emerged during the late 20th century through the application of medical imaging techniques to the study of fossil hominins (
A typical workflow in virtual morphology for geometric morphometric research in digital collections. a) original cranium; b) virtual 3D model of a cranium; c) virtual cranium plus 3D landmarks (3D point-, curve-, and surface measurements with Cartesian coordinates); d) superimposed 3D landmarks of a large sample of virtual 3D models of crania; e) 3D landmarks of the sample mean shape; f) 3D-print of a virtual cranium morphed to the mean shape.
The aim of this presentation is to briefly present standard workflows in the Virtual Morphology Lab in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, and to show, more generally, how ViMo-technologies, together with paradigmatic changes in science (open access, digital data bases), contribute to boosting current research in human paleontology.
The accidental discovery, in 2013, of fossil remains of a new human species, Homo naledi, in the Rising Star cave system, South Africa, has produced a large and important collection documenting early hominin diversity (
Because of this modern strategy, H. naledi was published very soon after its discovery (
digital collections, open access, virtual museum, 3D geometric morphometrics
Markus Bastir
Biodiversity_Next 2019
The author acknowledges Professors Peter Schmid, Lee Berger, John Hawks for their kind invitation to participate in the Rising Star Workshop at Wits University in May 2014.
CGL2015-63648-P, SYNTHESYS+
Paleoanthropology Group, Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC), J.G. Abascal 6, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Evolutionary Studies Institute and Centre for Excellence in PalaeoSciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa