Scientists Digitally Preserve World's Rarest Porpoise
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Researchers used hospital-grade CT scanning, ultra-high-resolution micro-CT, and photography to digitize a complete female vaquita skeleton collected in 1966, producing 3D models down to structures smaller than a human hair's width.
- Jamie Knaub, a doctoral researcher at Florida Atlantic University and the study's lead author, said the goal is open-access biodiversity datasets, with the full imaging published online and free for any researcher to study.
- Florida Atlantic University, the San Diego Natural History Museum, SeaWorld California, and NOAA Fisheries collaborated on the project, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science.
- Vaquita numbers collapsed from approximately 600 in a 1997 survey to an estimated seven to 10 today (per WWF), making it the rarest marine mammal on Earth, driven by bycatch in gillnets used by illegal fisheries targeting totoaba.
- Knaub noted the imaging can be used to produce accurate replicas for museum exhibits and classrooms, an approach that mirrors broader digitization efforts like the US's oVert project and Australia's Ozboneviz.
- Vaquita skeletons are so rare that only a few complete specimens are thought to exist, limiting physical study; the new dataset removes the need to ship or risk damaging the original bones.
Why it matters: With only 7-10 vaquitas left, every physical specimen is irreplaceable. By converting a 1966 skeleton into a freely available 3D dataset, the team removes the bottleneck of museum loan approvals and fragile-handling restrictions, letting any researcher worldwide study the rarest cetacean on Earth without endangering the few bones that exist.
