TOUCHING THE JAPANESE NATIONAL “TREASURE”: UTILIZATION OF MULTIMEDIA-BASED VISUAL CONTENTS OF JAPAN’S NATIONAL MONUMENT, THE HOLOTYPE OF TANIWHASAURUS MIKASAENSIS (SQUAMATA: MOSASAURIA)

Taniwhasaurus is a genus of tylosaurid mosasaur (the Cretaceous aquatic Squamata) and was distributed in New Zealand, Antarctica, and Japan. The holotype of T. mikasaensis (MCM-M0009) is registered as the Japanese National Monument (JNM). Because of this, this specimen is one of the most famous fossils in Japan. On the other hand, its JNM status renders it is never allowed to be handle by museum visitors. In recent years, the Japanese government encourages “heritage tourism” which attracted people’s attention to museum activities. To break the boundary between the specimen and people, we worked on making and utilizing multimedia data of MCM-M0009 for a new way to introduce this iconic specimen to the public in a much more interactive setting.

MCM-M0009 is housed in a Japanese local museum that operate on a very tight budget. The particular importance to be considered for creating and using multimedia data in such local museums is the production cost. Therefore, this project was carried out with low-cost, readily available tools. For example, the first step of generating the digital 3D model of MCM-M0009 was taken some movies by a smartphone. With the resultant digital 3D model, downsized 3D printed models for hands-on and an AR application were built. Anyone with a smartphone and/or tablet PC was easy to use this app by connecting to just only the HTML site we provided.

We assessed the educational effect of the new multimedia components of T. mikasaensis in a workshop in July 2019. Questionnaire results of hands-on models and AR viewing of T. mikasaensis indicated that the new multimedia applications garnered users' interest not only in paleontological aspects, but also in most developed imaging technology. Our result hence revealed that incorporation of multimedia technologies in museum activities had unexpected an interdisciplinary effect. Digital 3D data are also deemed competent in preventing total losses of valuable specimens by disasters like the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. In addition to that, the global pandemic of COVID-19 has forced many museums to close their doors temporarily. To reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection by contact through museum exhibitions, it is necessary to discontinue the hands-on activities in museums for a long time. Under such circumstances, it is expected that the exhibition will be enriched without losing the "experience" of the museum by interweaving the exhibition using AR into the conventional exhibition.