Researchers can now perform computed tomography (CT) scans on ancient fossils and recreate them through a 3D printer.
Handling fossils is an extremely delicate practice, but must be done in order to learn more about the creatures that once walked the planet, a Radiology Society of North America news release reported.
Fossils are usually stored in plaster casts, but researchers must remove these coatings if they wish to take a closer look; in doing so some of the material is usually compromised. This new method could give researchers the opportunity to analyze a fossil copy, and leave the original intact.
"The most important benefit of this method is that it is non-destructive, and the risk of harming the fossil is minimal," study author Ahi Sema Issever, M.D., from the Department of Radiology at Charité Campus Mitte in Berlin, said. "Also, it is not as time-consuming as conventional preparation."
A research team tried the new method out on an unidentified fossil; during World War II a bombing left many plaster-wrapped fossils buried in the Museum für Naturkunde's basement. Researchers are still working to sort through all of them.
The team performed a CT scan using a "320-slice multi-detector system"
"The different attenuation, or absorption of radiation, through the bone compared with the surrounding matrix enabled clear depiction of a fossilized vertebral body," the news release reported.
The scan allowed the team to study the fossil without harming it. They traced the fossil back to a German dig that took place from 1910 to 1927. The scan also revealed fracture and damage to the ancient bone.
The researchers were also able to recreate the fossil using selective laser sintering (when "high-powered laser to fuse together materials to make a 3-D object.")
"The digital dataset and, ultimately, reproductions of the 3-D print may easily be shared, and other research facilities could thus gain valuable informational access to rare fossils, which otherwise would have been restricted," Issever said. "Just like Gutenberg's printing press opened the world of books to the public, digital datasets and 3-D prints of fossils may now be distributed more broadly, while protecting the original intact fossil."
