This project seeks to utilize Digital Interpretive Visualization (DIV) in order to make fossil collections and the important biology surrounding them more visible and accessible to the public. The public are twice separated from the significance of paleontological specimens. First, there is the geological time that separates one from the original context of a fossil, that being a living organism. Second, there is an accessibility gap between the public and the collections that store fossils. Direct access to original source fossils is often limited.
DIV can be leveraged to unite the public with fossil collections, the connections between related fossils, and the important theories associated with them. Stepping beyond a strictly anatomical restoration of an individual, there are other restorations that could convey wide reaching topics and processes within biology. One of the growing topics in paleontology is the evidence of ontogeny in the fossil record.
I will carry out a digital paleontological restoration of a collection of fossils from the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The collection is of the Devonian placoderm Bothriolepis. The collection is significant because it represents compelling evidence of an ontogenic growth series. Using photogrammetry to bring the fossils into digital space, an ontogenic character rig to interpolate between different life stages, and other digital animation techniques I will present a coherent view of how development might have appeared. This project will present an example for museums and other institutions to mobilize their collections to potentially reach a larger audience with a greater impact.