Idaho Virtualization Laboratory | Idaho Museum of Natural History

Helicoprion Tooth Whorl Render. Using CAT scans and making 3-D virtual reconstructions of the jaws of the ancient fish Helicoprion, Idaho State University researchers have solved some of the mysteries surrounding large spiral fossils of this fish’s teeth.
The ISU Museum of Natural History has one of the largest public collections of Helicoprion spiral-teeth fossils in the world. The fossils of this 270-million-year-old or older fish have long mystified scientists ... More

"Recent Rapid Human Evolution: Some Implications for the Humanities and the Sciences"
by Dr. Henry Harpendig
Member of the National Academy of Sciences
Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences
Distinguished Professor of Anthropology.

On Thursday February 7th at 7:00 pm, in the College of Education Auditorium, Education Building Room 243 ... More

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society." ... More

Animal-bone specimens are in high demand. But researchers eager for access to them far outnumber the supply of such repositories. One anthropologists's solution: Share his animal bones. ...More

Idaho State Museum Cements Ties to Smithsonian

The Idaho Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution have announced a cooperative agreement that will utilize the museum's expertise at making 3-D digital images. ... More

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IVL Projects

Harbor porpoise skull with image maps.

Work conducted at the IVL is diverse and covers a wide range of subjects. As a research unit on the campus of Idaho State University, our open access policy for colleagues and students conducting any earnest academic pursuit as well as our own research interests encourages a broad range of heritage material to come through our doors; material which, regardless of size or complexity, often generates interesting and provocative data that can in turn give rise to much larger projects.

There are several of these much larger, multi-year projects currently underway at the IVL which include an expansion of the work done with VZAP into the Smithsonian’s cetacean collections and opening access to our own museums extensive catalogue of items among others. This will include making decades of scientific and ethnographic data, both 2D and 3D media of current collections, thousands of plant specimens housed by the IMNH Herbarium, unpublished historic photography, journals and field notes to name just a few, available to researchers, educators, and enthusiasts in interactive, dynamic virtual repositories.