Fig. 1

Schematic diagrams of photogrammetry methods (a, b) and examples of the use of photogrammetry in palaeontology education (c, d). a Photographs are taken of the specimen from multiple angles, often using a turntable for small specimens. b Photogrammetry uses triangulation to calculate the 3-D coordinates of points that occur in overlapping images; these are used to create a point cloud that defines the 3-D surface on which the colour and texture information from the photographs can be overlaid. The specimen in a and b is the trilobite Calymene blumenbachii (‘The Dudley Bug’) Lapworth Museum of Geology BIRUG BU53; the model was downloaded from the Lapworth Museum’s account on sketchfab.com and the reconstructions in b were made in the Avizo software. c An example of the use of a photogrammetry model in an exercise for students in the Blackboard VLE. The specimen is the bivalve Mercenaria mercenaria Paleontological Research Institution PRI 76728; the model was downloaded from the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life account on sketchfab.com and re-uploaded to the author’s account where the labels were added. d An example of a photogrammetry model that has been embedded into a virtual worksheet in a webpage and viewed on a smartphone. The specimen is a cast of the skull of Tyrannosaurus rex that is on display at the Museum of the Earth, Ithaca, NY and was embedded from the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life account on sketchfab.com