Our unit uses a vast quantity of images because all our publications, theses and conference presentations are illustrated.
The quality of scientific output (publications, congress and conference presentations, posters, exhibitions, multimedia) depends not only on the quality of research, but also on the excellence of the iconography which accompanies it.
Two photographers work in the section:
Photogrammetry is a photographic procedure consisting of taking a set of photos round a specimen, and then treating the data to obtain 3D representations.
Such representations can then be manipulated, measured and studied via digital supports. In addition to the fidelity of reconstitutions similar in quality to those of a surfacic scanner, computerised photogrammetric modelisation has other plusses such as permitting the preservation of calorimetric information about specimens, an important factor in palaeontology for differentiating sediment from fossils, for example ; furthermore, the capacity for computer modelling is vast, ranging from the tiniest of specimens to the dimensions of an excavation site.
It is extensively used for modelling excavation scenes during field surveys; in situ fossils are recorded in their discovery context, dinosaurs foot prints and trackways are represented in detail, etc...
The scientific imagery team has been extensively using these techniques since 2013.