---
author:
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  family: Edmunds
  given: Scott
  url: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6444-1436
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date: '2016-03-17T00:00:00+00:00'
date_updated: '2025-12-06T10:34:12+00:00'
guid: http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/gigablog/?p=1710
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- id: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zsc.12175/abstract
  unstructured: Unknown title
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  unstructured: Unknown title
- id: http://gigadb.org/dataset/100190
  unstructured: Unknown title
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summary: A new portrait of Obama shows a spineless, slimy, gutter dweller, and in
  <em> GigaScience </em> today we give you unprecedented insight into what makes them
  tick. Don't worry, we haven't encroached upon Fox News to provide partisan political
  commentary for the US elections, we are talking about the Obama genus of leaf-shaped
  Planerians from South America.
title: See inside Obama in 3D? Yes We Can!
url: https://wayback.archive-it.org/22098/2025-05-01T17:13:42Z/http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/see-inside-obama-3d-yes-can
version: v1
---

[![](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Obama14575350254961-263x300.gif){.alignright
.size-medium .wp-image-1713 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="263"
height="300"}](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Obama14575350254961.gif)A
new portrait of Obama shows a spineless, slimy, gutter dweller, and [in
*GigaScience*
today](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13742-016-0119-4){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} we give you unprecedented insight into what makes them
tick. Don\'t worry, we haven\'t encroached upon Fox News to provide
partisan political commentary for the US elections, we are talking about
[the Obama genus of leaf-shaped
Planerians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama_%28genus%29) from South
America. So called because their name is formed in the [extinct
Brazilian Tupi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupi_language) language by
a composition of the words oba (leaf) and ma (animal). Planarians are
platyhelminth flatworms that live in leaf litter, hunting other creepy
crawlies such as earthworms, snails, slugs, and insects. A new species,
*Obama otavioi Carbayo*, has [just been
discovered](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zsc.12175/abstract){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} in the [Serra de Paranapiacaba nature
reserve](https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serra_de_Paranapiacaba) near Sao
Paolo, but what makes this species description different from
traditional characterizations was the data-driven, non-destructive
approach to catalogue it. Morphological discrimination of these soft
bodied, morphologically similar species, with asymmetric and difficult
to interpret internal organs (particularly the reproductive ones), is
challenging and laborious when depending on traditional techniques such
as histological sectioning. Many species are poorly represented in
museum collections, and destructive techniques such as these do not help
in their preservation, or are compatible with modern molecular
(DNA/RNA-based) techniques.

New non-destructive methods such as X-ray micro-computed tomography
(μCT) can address a lot of these issues, and the high resolution 3D
imaging data produced has already been shown [to work well
discriminating](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096617)
between soft bodied species such earthworms. Masses of data (in the
region of gigabytes to tens of gigabytes per sample) is produced as a
result, and until recently it has been difficult to share the resulting
outputs. *GigaScience* and our
[GigaDB.org](http://gigadb.org/){target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
repository has provided a hopefully valuable service here, and we have
already published a number of morphological microCT and MRI datasets
from species as diverse as
[earthworms](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2047-217X-3-6),
[sea
urchins](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13742-015-0093-2),
[centipedes](http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100063) and
[brittlestars](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13742-015-0093-2).
[It is
hoped](http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/virtual-dissection-method-could-reinvigorate-zoology/)
data of this kind can kickstart comparative morphology beyond
centuries-old descriptive practices to a 21^st^ century data-driven
discipline, and we are pleased to be able to help provide a forum and
means for this.

The \"cyber centipede\" was our first example ([in collaboration with
Pensoft](http://biodiversitydatajournal.com/articles.php?id=1013){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}) of a [\'cybertype\' species
description](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2047-217X-2-14):
a 3D computer image and swathe of data types to suit modern biology,
including its gene catalogue, DNA barcodes, and video of the live animal
in additional to the traditional morphological description. This new
flatworm species also follows this approach to some extent, combing 2D
and 3D μCT-based images [stored in
GigaDB](http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100190){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, complementary histological sections which were combined
and digitized into virtual slides, and molecular barcoding data to
evaluate phylogenetic placement on the tree of life. The raw and
derivative *μ*CT data and virtual histological sections are described
and published in a [new Data Note
in](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13742-016-0119-4){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} *GigaScience* by Fernando Carbayo and Jennifer Winifred
Lenihan, and this has been published alongside validation and species
description papers in *[Zoologica
Scripta](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zsc.12175/abstract)*
and *Zool J Linn Soc.* (still in press). The nearly half a terabyte of
data is our largest imaging dataset so far, and was challenging to copy
over from Brazil. This data is [available for
download](http://gigadb.org/dataset/100190){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} for comparative morphology studies and beyond via our
GigaDB repository, and we\'ve also put together a video to give you a
quick visual insight into what it is like inside of a flatworm.

**Forward. Data we can believe in.**\
On top of spurring on the development of comparative morphology
research, this high resolution data from the natural world is also
popular with the wider community. Allowing armchair naturalists to
inspect the wonders of life in unprecedented detail and three dimensions
from their internet browsers is a powerful aid for teaching and citizen
science. Our [previous *μ*CT Data
Note](http://gigascience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13742-015-0093-2){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} showcasing scans of pregnant African brittle stars (see
the [Q&A in
GigaBlog](http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/gigablog/2015/11/17/brooding-brittle-star-babies-qa-jannes-landschoff/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}) has had over 6,000 views of [the GigaTV video
version](https://youtu.be/-jBKtQ0D998){target="_blank" rel="noopener"}
driven from the [feature in
Gizmodo](http://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-first-look-inside-an-intact-brittle-star-1743175433?){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}, and was also highlighted in [The
Atlantic](http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/brittle-stars-dissection-microct/462579/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. We hope this new Planarian data drives some interest to
this underexplored corner of the tree of life normally obscured and
hiding under the leaf litter.

[![](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_8232-300x268.jpg){.alignright
.size-medium .wp-image-1715 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
srcset="http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_8232-300x268.jpg 300w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_8232-768x686.jpg 768w, http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_8232.jpg 805w"
sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" width="300"
height="268"}](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IMG_8232.jpg)On
top of just browsing, some enterprising citizens are also building upon
this data. With the ability to render and manipulate these 3D imaging
datasets, we\'ve now got lovely examples of our 3D sea urchins and
earthworms printed out via 3D printer. We\'ve also been experimenting
with [volumetric
printing](http://lookingglassfactory.com/volumetricprinting.html){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} of some of the more complicated specimens, and plan to
make the 3D printer files available on GigaDB when they are high enough
quality. The earthworm data we published in a co-ordinated manner with a
[*PLOS One*
paper,](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0096617){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} beautifully rendered the internal structures and
systems, and provides fantastic teaching aids for future comparative
taxonomists and anatomists. The increasing pace of species extinction,
coupled with the decreasing pool of taxonomic expertise, means that
there is an urgent need to speed up the process of investigating
biodiversity. This data driven approach in study, training and outreach
in taxonomy we can assist somewhat in this ongoing challenge.

### References

1\. Carbayo F, Álvarez-Presas M, Jones HD, Riutort M. The true identity
of *Obama* (Platyhelminthes: Geoplanidae) flatworm spreading across
Europe. *Zool J Linn Soc.* 2016, in press.\
[2.](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zsc.12175/abstract){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} Carbayo F, Giribet G, Francoy TM. Non-destructive
imaging to describe a new species of *Obama* land planarians
(Platyhelminthes, Tricladida). *Zool Scr.* 2016.
doi:[10.1111/zsc.12175.\
](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/zsc.12175/abstract){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}[3.](http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100190){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} Carbayo F, Lenihan JW. Micro-computed tomography scans
and virtual histological slides of a recently described land planarian
species of *Obama otavioi* (Platyhelminthes). GigaScience Database.
2016.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.5524/100190](http://gigadb.org/dataset/100190){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

The post [See inside Obama in 3D? Yes We
Can!](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog/see-inside-obama-3d-yes-can/){rel="nofollow"}
appeared first on
[GigaBlog](http://gigasciencejournal.com/blog){rel="nofollow"}.