The teaching, learning, communication, and practice of Developmental Biology require interested parties to be at ease with the considerable spatial complexity of the embryo, and with its evolution over time as it undergoes morphogenesis. In practice, the four dimensionality of embryonic development (space and time) calls upon strong visual-spatial literacy and mental manipulation skills, generally expected to be innate or to come through experience. Yet it has been argued that Developmental Biology suffers the most from available traditional media of communication and representation. To date, few resources exist to engage with the embryo in its 3D and 4D aspects, to communicate such aspects in one's work, and to facilitate their exploration in the absence of live observations. I here provide a collection of readily-usable volumetric models for all tissues and stages of mouse peri-implantation development as extracted from the eMouse Atlas Project (E5.0 to E9.0), as well as custom-made models of all pre-implantation stages (E0 to E4.0). These models have been converted to a commonly used 3D format (.stl), and are provided in ready-made files for digital exploration and illustration. Further provided is a step-by-step walkthrough on how to practically use these models for exploration and illustration using the free and open source 3D creation suite Blender. I finally outline possible further uses of these very models in outreach initiatives of varying levels, virtual and augmented reality applications, and 3D printing.

中文翻译：

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探索和说明鼠标胚胎：用于思考和创建的虚拟对象

发育生物学的教学，学习，交流和实践要求感兴趣的各方放心使用胚胎的相当大的空间复杂性，以及随着时间的流逝随着形态发生的演变。在实践中，胚胎发育的四个维度（空间和时间）要求强大的视觉空间素养和心理操纵技能，通常被认为是先天的或通过经验获得的。然而，已经有人指出，发展生物学受到传统的交流和表征传统媒介的最大影响。迄今为止，几乎没有资源可以在3D和4D方面与胚胎互动，在工作中交流这些方面并在没有实时观察的情况下促进其探索。我在这里提供了从eMouse Atlas Project（E5.0至E9.0）中提取的，适用于小鼠围植入期发育的所有组织和阶段的所有体积模型的易于使用的模型，以及所有预构建模型的定制模型。植入阶段（E0至E4.0）。这些模型已转换为常用的3D格式（.stl），并以现成的文件提供，以进行数字化探索和说明。进一步提供了有关如何使用免费和开源3D创建套件Blender实际使用这些模型进行探索和说明的分步演练。最后，我概述了这些模型在不同级别的外展计划，虚拟和增强现实应用程序以及3D打印中可能的进一步使用。