Digital Fish Library
The Digital Fish Library (DFL) project explores the morphological diversity of fishes using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Its mission is to catalog 3D MRI images of fish in an online archive that is accessible to scientists, educators and the general public via the web.
The anatomy of fish is typically studied by physical dissection with measurements and observations of tissues and organ structures such as bones, muscles, gas bladders, etc, made directly from the specimen. However, this approach most often destroys the integrity of the specimen and limits direct observations to a single researcher. MRI offers an alternative method for collecting detailed 3D anatomical information by using high resolution image data from scanned fishes that can be digitally dissected at any time by many researchers. It allows for detailed measurements and observations of almost any fish species, and is non-invasive, reducing the need to dissect rare specimens and holotypes.
