Scientists have created a digital reconstruction of the world’s most endangered marine mammal, preserving its anatomy in three dimensions to aid research and conservation efforts as the species teeters on the brink of extinction.

The project digitised the skeleton of a female vaquita, a small porpoise found only in Mexico’s northern Gulf of California, using a combination of medical imaging, ultra-high-resolution micro CT scans and photography.

Researchers have made the imaging freely available online to ensure that the complete skeleton – of which only a few are thought to exist – can be studied by scientists around the world without risking damage to the rare and fragile physical specimens.

Jamie Knaub, the study’s lead author and a doctoral researcher at Florida Atlantic University, said: “We want to influence conservation and awareness of the vaquita, but what it boils down to is open access datasets for biodiversity.

“There’s this whole web [of information] that can be shared to study biodiversity, conservation, evolution – there’s so many things that can come from one dataset.”

A 1997 survey reported about 600 vaquitas in the wild. Today, the WWF estimates there are between seven and 10, making it the rarest marine mammal on Earth.

Its decline has been driven by bycatch in gillnets used by illegal fisheries targeting totoaba, a large fish whose bladder commands high prices on international hidden markets.

The research team, led by Florida Atlantic University, San Diego Natural History Museum, SeaWorld California and Noaa Fisheries, based the project on a complete female skeleton collected in 1966.

The study, published in the journal Marine Mammal Science, combined hospital-grade CT scanning with microscopic CT imaging capable of revealing structures smaller than the width of a human hair. Thousands of scan slices were then assembled into three-dimensional models of every bone.

The techniques allowed researchers to create a highly detailed model, from the overall skeleton down to microscopic bone structures.

Because vaquita skeletons are so rare, access to them is limited. Knaub said the imaging could be used to produce accurate replicas for museum exhibits and classrooms, helping introduce more people to the species.

Advances in imaging technology over the past decade have increased efforts to digitise museum collections. Digitised projects such as oVert in the US and Ozboneviz in Australia aim to make rare specimens accessible to researchers worldwide, removing the need to rely on photographs or gain permission to examine delicate originals.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t have access to museum specimens, or museums are wary of loaning out specimens because of how fragile or rare they are,” Knaub said.

The vaquita was only recognised as a species in 1958. Growing to about 5ft in length, it is the smallest member of the whale, dolphin and porpoise family and is distinguished by dark markings around its eyes and mouth.

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