UC Berkeley Paves Way for Digitizing Vertebrate Collections With oVert Project

Museums worldwide are embracing innovative technologies to revolutionize access to their extensive artifact collections. Among these advancements, 3D scanning and printing have emerged as powerfully useful tools, offering unprecedented opportunities for researchers, educators, and enthusiasts to engage with historical specimens in immersive ways.

At the forefront of this technological revolution is the University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ), which currently houses more than 300,000 carefully preserved reptiles and amphibian vertebrate specimens. In partnership with over 25 museums across the United States, Berkeley is driving the openVertebrate project (also called oVert), aiming to digitize collections through 3D scanning. This initiative seeks to confront the pressing need to preserve fragile specimens while still expanding accessibility to researchers and the general public.

MVZ 3D scans of amphibian vertebrate, muscle tissue, skeleton, and more achieved through CT scans and X-rays.

This integration of 3D scanning has significantly propelled oVert, allowing the project to thrive through its quick and extensive digitization of collections nationwide. Scientists have leveraged the high-resolution scans to conduct detailed anatomical studies, providing crucial evolutionary and ecological data on scanned specimens. This has also proved especially useful in research, as museums need to carefully consider why they collect animals from the wild, and must ensure that the specimens they gather are valuable for both current and future research. With 3D scanning, a new avenue has emerged to study and access these specimens, with zero risk of degradation.