Insects up front: ZooSphere.net

The ZooSphere consists of a frame with a turntable, which carries the animal, and two motors. They move the turntable and rotate the animal around its own axis.

The camera is mounted on a movable slide and takes photos of the object at different focus levels.

The software developed for the ZooSphere coordinates the movements of the turntable and the slide carrying the camera. This allows the creation of 2,000 to 7,000 photos for the subsequent 360-degree view.

A series of images with continuous changes in the shooting distance or focussing ensures that an image with a particularly great depth of focus can be obtained despite the use of a macro-lens that allows a very close approach to the object.

Depending on the object’s length, it is necessary to take 20 to 60 photos at different focus levels.

The individual images are later combined by means of an algorithm. The use of this so-called focus stacking is particularly common in macro-photography. The end result is a single, completely sharp image.

Holotype is a term used in biological taxonomy and systematics. It concerns a selected individual that was used for the description of a species. If the description of an animal species was based on multiple individuals, these are referred to as syntypes. A specimen later identified as the name-bearing type specimen from such a series of types is known as the lectotype.

The loan exchange of holotypes poses a serious problem, since the specimens are sensitive and are frequently damaged during transport – like this Euanthoides petiolata (from the family Tachinidae) with a broken-off abdomen. In many cases, these problems can be circumvented with the ZooSphere.

At zoosphere.net, the museum is now able to make the images available for 360-degree viewing on the Internet, facilitating the morphological work during species identification for zoologists and amateurs alike, regardless where in the world they may be.

The image sequences in the ZooSphere are more detailed than 3D models that were computed by means of photogrammetry. They meet the requirements of scientists to reflect even the most minute surface traits and structures, contours, transparent as well as glossy parts and the finest colour nuances.

More than just famous dinosaurs: Today, the Museum für Naturkunde houses more than 30 million objects, including almost three million fossils, 220,000 mineral specimens, 276,000 preserved animals in the wet collection, approx. 15 million insects and 120,000 recordings of animal sounds.

A research infrastructure of global importance: The comparison material available in the collections facilitates the discovery of hitherto unknown species and thus the categorisation of biodiversity. The majority of insects are kept dried and pinned in approx. 35,000 wooden cases, which are stored in cabinets.

The Berlin-based research programme regarding the new T. rex is aimed at expanding our knowledge about the anatomy, physical abilities, the former ecosystem, the preservation and fossilisation as well as the diseases of this predatory dinosaur.

The proudly raised skull of the mounted skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex TRISTAN is a copy. The original would have been too heavy for the installation. Instead, hundreds of photos were taken of each of the individual bones, based on which extremely exact 3D models were computed by means of photogrammetry. On the basis of these data, the 3D laboratory at the Technical University Berlin then created copies of the individual skull bones using laser sintering technology.

Scientists at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin and the Natural History Museum of Geneva are involved in a study to determine whether tree frogs from West and Central Africa belong to separate species or whether they are conspecific, as previously assumed due to external similarities. The researchers compared the frogs’ genetic and acoustic characteristics and found out that they represent different species – a contribution to the larger question how species differentiate in a shared habitat.

Comprehensive studies were conducted on a group of Australian digger wasps. Based on pinned specimens, some of which were collected more than 150 years ago and which came from museum collections all over the world, the morphological traits of almost 1,000 animals were checked in minute detail. Previously, 23 species in this genus were known from Australia; thanks to this study, that number has now increased to 34.