The Digital Morphology library at the University of Texas at Austin (http://digimorph.org/) is a dynamic archive of information on digital morphology and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography of biological specimens.

Digital Morphology, part of the National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative, develops and serves unique 2D and 3D visualizations of the internal and external structure of living and extinct vertebrates, and a growing number of invertebrates. This unique online resource contains nearly a terabyte of imagery of natural history specimens that are important to education and central to ongoing cutting-edge research efforts.

The Digital Morphology library site serves imagery for over 75 specimens contributed by over 55 collaborating researchers from 24 of the world's premiere natural history museums and universities. The information core for the Digital Morphology library is generated using a state-of-the-art, high-resolution X-ray computed tomographic (X-ray CT) scanner. The Digital Morphology project also explores new technologies for archiving, transforming, studying, publishing, and serving digital biological information.

One of the project's major goals is to develop and implement new software for transforming CT and other tomographic data into novel and informative 3D visualizations of complex biological objects. The Digital Morphology site includes the following kinds of visual objects:

• QuickTime animations of complete stacks of serial CT sections
• Animated 3D volumetric movies of complete specimens
• Stereolithography (STL) files of 3D objects that can be viewed interactively and rapidly prototyped into scalable physical 3D objects that can be handled and studied as if they were the original specimens

The project is an outgrowth of The University of Texas Digital Morphology Group, an informal association of students, researchers and educators from many different universities that collaborate to develop useful new digital tools, and to exploit digital technologies. The Digital Morphology Group includes scientists, museum curators, software developers, computer programmers, multimedia and Web designers, and publishers who meet informally, as well as in grant-funded research projects and training programs.

Information in this article was drawn from: http://digimorph.org/aboutdigimorph.phtml