In December 2021 we continue digitally with fresh coffee and very exciting research! The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin invites you to the Digital Science Communication Café. This month in English. Get ready to get exciting insights from scientist into their work while drinking coffee in front of the screens in a relaxed atmosphere. Everyone is invited to ask questions and contribute to the conversation.
For the last edition of the year, we invited Dr Verónica Díez Díaz, postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. She is currently starting her new German Research Foundation (DFG) project, in which she aims to understand the biomechanical patterns of several sauropod taxa, by studying the locomotion of their hindlimbs and tails. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their body), and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group includes the largest animals to have ever lived on land.
Thanks to digitization, 3D musculoskeletal reconstructions and biomechanical analyses she will develop 3D models which could help us to better understand how these huge dinosaurs moved. Verónica also aims to calibrate these models by comparing the created digital tracks with the fossil ones.
Besides, Verónica is an advocate on best practices regarding the creation, storing and publication of digital data in palaeontology. She has been assessing some 3D surface digitization techniques (i.e. photogrammetry and structured light 3D scanning) in the vertebrate palaeontology collection of the MfN, looking for efficient methods for digitizing the specimens, but also looking for the highest quality possible of the created 3D models.
Come and join us for a cup of hot chocolate or coffee and discover why Verónica’s work is so important and why studying dinosaurs is still her favourite job in the world
Event information
- Topic: Bringing dinosaurs back to life
- with Dr Verónica Díez Díaz, postdoctoral researcher in palaeontology at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
- Moderation: Franziska Sattler
- Participation via Zoom and YouTube
- Event in English
Related links
- Information about the Experimental Field
- An overview of other digital offers can be found here: For Nature digital