Blaschka "Football Sea Squirt" (CT & Photos)

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Model SC-418 of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology Collection of Blaschka Marine Invertebrates showcases a partially painted glass model of a Tunicate Colony widely recognized as the "Football Sea Squirt" (Diazona violacea, described by Savigny in 1816). According to the Encyclopedia of Life (https://eol.org/pages/46583699), this tunicate colony is native to the NE Atlantic and Mediterranean regions. Measuring approximately 5 cm, this small model is one of thousands crafted by Rudolf and Leopold Blaschka as educational models in the late 1800s. The high definition of the model stems from a 6M-face mesh created through a CT scan by Jon Woodward at Harvard, which was then decimated to 1M faces. The mesh was aligned and merged with another made from 699 photographs using Agisoft Metashape. A textured image was generated from these photos, resulting in a detailed representation of the model. Notably, the thick white-green paint on the bottom section was transparent to X-rays, necessitating photo creation of this section of mesh. Credit for access to the models is extended to Prof. James Hanken (Curator) of the Harvard Museum.