The Academy makes hundreds of 3D scientific specimens available online for free

San Francisco (August 9, 2018)—More than 700 scientific specimens and artifacts from the California Academy of Sciences’ world-class scientific collections are now available to the public online through Sketchfab, the world’s largest online platform for immersive and interactive 3D.

Available to scientists, students, educators, artists, and anyone with an interest in exploring and examining rare and important specimens up close, the Academy’s diverse and expansive Sketchfab collection features detailed 3D scans that bring fascinating specimens and artifacts to your fingertips. Users can zoom in, glide around, and closely examine models from some of the museum’s most dynamic scientific collections, including marine and terrestrial mammals, herpetological specimens including snakes, frogs, and lizards, fish, geological fossils, marine invertebrates like corals and sea stars, birds, and California basketry. Among these digitized treasures users will also find the largest collections of 3D mammalian skulls and mollusks now available online through this interactive platform. The Academy’s Sketchfab collection also features unusually detailed scans of more intricate subjects—like jewelry, shells, and thin-walled basketry—that are typically challenging to capture using photogrammetry scanning techniques.

To access specific models for download, users can submit a simple download request form found on each specimen page to provide details on how they intend to use the 3D assets, information that helps the Academy measure and demonstrate the impact and use of scientific collections by a broad public audience.

The California Academy of Sciences is a renowned scientific and educational institution based in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It is home to a world-class aquarium, planetarium, and natural history museum, as well as innovative programs in scientific research and education—all under one living roof. The museum’s scientific collection of nearly 46 million scientific specimens is one of the largest and most diverse natural history collections in the world and provides scientists, students, and the public alike with a valuable record of life on Earth. Within the museum, visitors can also interact with many of the Academy’s scientific specimens featured in educational exhibits on the public floor.