Grow ancient creatures from scientifically accurate augmented reality

Paleontologists from La Brea Tar Pits are currently developing a scientifically accurate herd of extinct animals for use in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

Scary wolves and saber-toothed cats no longer prowl around the La Brea Tar Pits archaeological site, but thanks to this new study anyone can bring these extinct animals back to life through augmented reality (AR).

Dr. Matt Davis and colleagues at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and La Brea Tar Pits collaborated with researchers and designers at the University of Southern California (USC) to create more than a dozen models. New, scientifically accurate virtual images of Ice Age animals.

The new model provides a scientifically accurate representation of Ice Age animals.

The team was investigating how AR would impact learning in museums, but they soon realized that there weren't any exact Ice Age animals in the metaverse that they could use. So they did all the latest paleontological research and made their own.

These models are built in a blocky, low poly style so they can be scientifically accurate, but still simple enough to run on normal cell phones with limited processing power.

According to study co-author Dr William Swartout, Chief Technology Officer at USC Institute for Creative Technologies, "The innovation of this approach is that it allows us to create scientifically accurate works of art. for the metaverse without paying attention to the details that we lacked well. fossil evidence".

The researchers hope the paper will also bring more respect to antiquities, the art of recreating what extinct animals looked like. Dr Emily Lindsey, Assistant Director at La Brea Tar Pits and senior author of the study said: 'Paleoart can have a huge influence on how the public, and even scientists, understand it. about fossil life. Even so, a lot of classical research is seen as a method of post-judgment and is not subject to the same scrutiny as other scientific studies. This can lead to particularly poor reconstructions of extinct animals that have been propagated for generations in the mass media and academic publications."

Dr Davis, lead author of the study, said: 'We think paleontology is an important part of paleontological research. That's why we decided to publish all the scientific research and artistic decisions involved in the creation of these models. This will make it easier for other scientists and paleontologists to critique and build on our team's work."

Dr. Davis notes that acknowledging what we don't know about the appearance of these animals is just as important as documenting what we do know. For example, we can accurately describe the rough coat of Shasta ground sloths because paleontologists have found an intact skeleton of this species with hair and skin still preserved. But for mastodons, paleontologists have only found a few hairs. Their thick coat is an artistic decision.

Dr. Davis and colleagues hope that paleontologists and other scientists will follow their example by publishing all their reconstructions of extinct species. It will lead to better and more accurate versioning for everyone.