SPIERS and VAXML; A software toolkit for tomographic visualisation and a format for virtual specimen interchange

'Virtual palaeontology', the study of fossils through the medium of digital models, is an increasingly important palaeontological technique. The vast majority of such work is tomographic, based around serial-slice datasets generated either physically or via scanning technologies. There are, however, no general-purpose software packages for tomographic reconstruction that are freely available and tuned to the needs of palaeontological data. In addition to its value in the primary study of specimens, virtual palaeontology has the potential to become a powerful medium for online data-dissemination, greatly increasing the degree to which palaeontologists are able to inspect each other's data. The absence of a standardised data-format for these datasets, however, has been a primary factor impeding such data exchange. We describe here solutions to both problems. The SPIERS software suite is a complete, free, multi-platform and fully documented software toolkit for the reconstruction of any tomographic data into threedimensional models. While capable of rapid reconstruction, it is especially well suited to the production of carefully prepared models from difficult data. We argue that virtualspecimen dissemination should take the form of triangle-mesh datasets, which can be generated from a maximally broad range of data sources. We introduce here the VAXML data format for such datasets, a candidate for a standard dissemination format for virtual specimens, both palaeontological and biological. The SPIERS suite includes a package capable of both visualising and exporting VAXML files, designed to support the viewing of complex datasets on relatively low-powered systems. © Paleontological Society June 2012.