Aula, Museos y Colecciones

El Atlas digital del esqueleto del lince ibérico es un proyecto piloto desarrollado durante la segunda mitad del año 2013, y que forma parte del proyecto El museo virtual de la vida, el cual permite alcanzar de manera no presencial muchas de las posibilidades divulgativas de un museo tradicional. El Atlas digital que aquí se presenta es una obra accesible desde cualquier lugar mediante una conexión a internet, y también está disponible en DVD. Se han digitalizado, mediante fotografías seriadas, todos los huesos del esqueleto de un lince ibérico adulto perteneciente a las colecciones científicas de la Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC, Sevilla). El usuario puede elegir visualmente el hueso que desea ver, así como elegir cualquier punto de una visión en 360º, y hacer zoom sobre la parte que interese. Se han incluido también las medidas de cada uno de los huesos, así como la posición de puntos de medida (landmarks) seleccionados. Un menú visual permite acceder a diferentes opciones y niveles de información. El Atlas digital del esqueleto del lince ibérico es una herramienta que puede ser de gran utilidad tanto en la docencia universitaria (anatomía comparada, arqueozoología, veterinaria, evolución, etc), en investigación (comparación, medidas, vistas estándares, puntos de medida) y en la divulgación científica de nuestro patrimonio natural, donde la conservación de las especies amenazadas, como el lince ibérico, pasa necesariamente por un conocimiento preciso de todos los aspectos de su biología.

Natural Science Museums are especially attractive for people of all kind, nevertheless because of the scarcity of them, and their location usually restricted to big cities, the access and visibility of its exhibitions may be limited. In addition, the creation and maintenance of their collections and expositions requires significant investment of resources and workforce, and they are only available for some institutions and countries. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can lead a revolution in a renewed role of the popular sciences in museums (similar to the impact of new isolation techniques for ancient DNA from human ancestors or the PCR revolution). The Digital Atlas of the Skeleton of the Iberian Lynx is a pilot project developed during the first months of year 2013. It is part of an ambitious project which is aimed to be an indispensable complement for traditional museums: The Virtual Museum of Life. This project will achieve many of the functions and features of a Natural Science Museum, while avoiding some of the typical impediments to visit a museum such as travelling or displacement problems and mishaps, high costs, schedules incompatibilities, etc. Besides, because it is online it can also avoid some problems to the museums such as solid funding problems, buildings, staff and maintenance costs, including those associated to transferring and fixing up of deteriorated collections. This Atlas is available online and also it will be available on DVD. Every bone of an adult male Iberian Lynx have been photographed and digitized. This Iberian Lynx skeleton comes from the scientific collections of the Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC, Seville, Spain). The user can select the bone in the skeleton scheme, exploring and making zoom on it in 360º. It is also possible to make comparisons between several bones and watch them simultaneously. There are also measurements of each bone, as well as the position of the selected landmarks or measurement points. Its easy and user-friendly menu, with many different options and levels of information, make this digital Atlas of the Iberian Lynx a necessary tool that can be useful in university teaching (comparative anatomy, veterinary, archaeozoology, evolution, etc.), as well as in research and scientific divulgation of our natural heritage, where the goal of conservation of threatened species such as the Iberian lynx needs a detailed understanding of all aspects of the biology of this cat species.