Overview
- A multi-institution team completed and publicly released a layered digital archive and interactive 3D models of a complete vaquita skeleton scanned with medical CT, micro-CT and high-resolution photography.
- The workflow produced thousands of cross-sectional images that specialists processed with 3D software to isolate each bone and reconstruct rotatable, zoomable models that show both external form and microscopic internal structure.
- The specimen is a female vaquita collected in the 1960s and donated to the San Diego Natural History Museum, with NOAA biologist Robert L. Brownell Jr. recorded as the original collector.
- Researchers and funders including Florida Atlantic University, the Berlin Family Bioimaging Lab, SeaWorld California and FAU donors say the models allow accurate replicas for museums and classrooms and broaden access for remote scientific study.
- The release preserves fragile anatomical data but does not change the species’ outlook: vaquitas remain critically endangered from accidental entanglement in illegal totoaba gillnets, and experts say stronger enforcement and international action are still needed to protect the few animals left.