A dataset of high-resolution microCT scans of primate skulls (crania and mandibles) and certain postcranial elements was collected to address questions about primate skull morphology. The sample consists of 489 scans taken from 431 specimens, representing 53 species of most Primate families. These data have transformative reuse potential as such datasets are necessary for conducting high power research into primate evolution, but require significant time and funding to collect. Similar datasets were previously only available to select research groups across the world. The physical specimens are vouchered at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. The data collection took place at the Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard. The dataset is archived on MorphoSource.org. Though this is the largest high fidelity comparative dataset yet available, its provisioning on a web archive that allows unlimited researcher contributions promises a future with vastly increased digital collections available at researchers' finger tips.

Copes et al. Dryad submissionThe zipped folder contains the original Excel spreadsheet with 3D digitized points from ~400 non-human primate skulls. It also contains "cleaned up" versions of the points split into separate files by infraorder (strepsirrhines, catarrhines, platyrrines) and R code for importing the files. Many thanks to Randi Griffin for her assistance in reformatting the original data to make it more useful/accessible for analysis.