Welcome to the Paleontology database

The Paleontology database hosts data obtained from X-ray Computed Tomography experiments at ESRF. Started in 2011, it has helped the ESRF user community share their data upon publication.

While the ESRF data portal hosts the raw data from the experiments, this space provides access to processed tomograms and, in some cases, associated derivatives (images, movies, 3D meshes). Data are only deposited here upon request from the experimental teams and relevant parties (museum curators, researchers involved in the analysis). Revamped in 2024, each dataset is now associated with geographical, geological, temporal, and taxonomical keywords to facilitate searches.

Data hosted here cover a wide taxonomical spectrum and can represent complete specimens or specific close-ups depending on the case. Tomograms (i.e., the stack of virtual slices) are stored as JPEG2000 to help with storage space and facilitate download by users. We hope that this open-access database, enabled by ESRF-EBS, will contribute to the reuse of data according to the FAIR principles.

The ESRF unveils a 2000 year old Egyptian crocodile mummy.

See the related dataset page. More videos can be found on ESRF YouTube channel.

Acknowledgements

The development of this portal has been done as part of the STREAMLINE project.

European flag

STREAMLINE has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870313.

The following people were involved in the development: Vincent Fernandez, Paul Tafforeau, Alejandro De Maria Antolinos, Axel Bocciarelli, Marjolaine Bodin, Guillaume Gaisné and Andrew Götz from the ESRF, as well as the broader STREAMLINE and ICAT communities.