X-ray CT Scans of a Purple Sea Urchin from Monterey Bay

174 X-ray CT slices of a purple sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) captured at The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility. The specimen was collected in Monterey Bay, CA in April 2001, frozen in liquid nitrogen, and scanned on 18 April 2001 with a voxel size of 0.07422 mm in X/Y and 0.09 mm in Z. Data acknowledgment is required for UTCT, Brian Wilbur, and NSF grant IIS 9874781.

Use Cases

• Analyze the internal skeletal structure of echinoderms based on the high-resolution CT scan data.
• Train 3D image segmentation models for biological morphology based on the volumetric scan slices.
• Conduct comparative anatomical studies of marine invertebrates based on the detailed specimen scan.
• Reconstruct and visualize the 3D morphology of a sea urchin specimen based on the warp-corrected scan data.

Strengths

• High-resolution volumetric data with specified voxel sizes (0.07422 mm X/Y, 0.09 mm Z).
• Detailed provenance including collection date (April 2001), location (Monterey Bay, CA), and scanning facility (UTCT).
• Specimen prepared with a controlled method (frozen in liquid nitrogen) before scanning.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.
• The dataset represents a single specimen from a specific time and location, limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility (UTCT)

Collection Method

Specimen frozen in liquid nitrogen and scanned using X-ray CT.

Time Range

April 2001

Freshness

Last updated 2024-03-18 05:14:55; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Monterey Bay, California, USA