Beetle Video Shows Dryops Inside Out, In 3D (VIDEO)

WOW: Video Shows Bug's Intricate Insides

Squash a bug, and what do see? Lots of squishy goop. But that’s misleading--there’s a lot of fascinating anatomy inside intact insects, as you can see in this animated beetle video of an little aquatic critter known as Dryops.

The beetle-from-the-inside-out “biofilm” was made by Javier Alba Tercedor, a professor of zoology at the University of Granada in Spain, according to a written statement released by the university. It was created by combining hundreds of computed tomography (CT) scans using the same essential technology doctors use to diagnose medical problems. Prof. Tercedor calls him a "microtomography enthusiast," according to the statement.

Want to learn more about the beetle video and how it was made? Check out Professor Tercedor's paper, Volume rendering reconstructions of the anatomy of small aquatic beetles (Insecta: Coleoptera) scanned with the Skyscan 1172 high resolution micro-CT.

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