Stories tagged disection
Virtual Fish Dissection: Island Kelpfish (Alloclinus holderi) Photo credit: MRI and 3D by UCSD Keck Center for fMRI; CT data from Digimorph at the University of Texas at Austin
Courtesy UCSD Keck Center for fMRI; CT data from Digimorph at the University of Texas at Austin
Students, scientists, or anyone with an internet connection will be able to digitally probe and dissect different kinds of fishes from anywhere in the world using their desktop computer. Researchers at the University of California , San Diego have applied magnetic resonance imaging technology, or MRI, to create a high resolution, 3-D online catalog of fishes from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Marine Vertebrate Collection. Scripps' Marine Vertebrate, or "Fish," Collection, is among the largest and most comprehensive collections of its kind, containing 90 percent of all known families of fishes. With more than 2 million specimens, the collection is used by researchers around the world to investigate the systematics, biodiversity, physiology, ecology and conservation of fishes. Through the Digital Fish Library project, coordinators will image at least one of every 482 fish families in the world.
How can this collection be used?
Hastings :With more than 2 million specimens, the collection is used by researchers around the world to investigate the systematics, biodiversity, physiology, ecology and conservation of fishes. The collection includes approximately six thousand species of fishes. One of the research goals of the Scripps Fish Collection is to study the evolution of fishes and we interpret the evolution and ecology to some extent of fishes based on their internal anatomy. Describing internal anatomy of fishes is relatively difficult. It requires tedious dissection of whole specimens, but this new technology will now allow us to go in and actually in a very much more rigorous way examine the internal anatomy of specimens without having to do these very tedious dissections.
How are the fish digitized?
Fish sections via MRI: Galapagos Shark (Carcharhinus galapagensis) Photo credit: UCSD Keck Center for fMRI
The fish are scanned with a Magnetic Resonance Imager (MRI). A simplified explaination is that very strong magnetic force lines up many of the water molecules in the fish tissues. Various radio frequences can then be used to interpret how these spinning particles wobble on thier axies, and through analysis, be used to differentiate tissue types and locations. The scans, when interpreted mathematically, result in high resolution, three dimensional images which enable visualizaton of all the various internal organs and tissues. Different tissue types can be color coded enabling students to easily compare similar tisue structures within different fish. The scans are being done at the University of California at San Diego's (UCSD) Keck Center for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).
Where can I go on the internet to dissect or learn more about fish?
Digital Fish Library - Homepage
Digital Fish Library - software description
Digital Fish Library - Browse collection
Digital Fish Library - links to more information
Video - Dr. Hastings about Scripps fish collection (Quick Time, 6.2Mb)
Video - Dr. Frank on MRI technology (Quicktime, 9 Mb)
Video - Dr. Peach on Educational goals of project (QuickTime,5.6Mb)
Source article from Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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