According to a news release from the Radiological Society of North America, researchers have utilized computed tomography (CT) scans and 3-D printers to recreate dinosaur fossils.

Typically, researchers must remove the plaster and all of the material surrounding a fossil in order to obtain information about it. Unfortunately, this process can destroy the fossil itself.

Researchers examined the expediency of utilizing CT scans and 3-D printers to remove fossilized bone from its encircling material matrix and generate a 3-D print of the fossilized bone itself.

“The most important benefit of this method is that it is non-destructive, and the risk of harming the fossil is minimal,” noted study author Dr. Ahi Sema Issever, from the Department of Radiology at Charité Campus Mitte. “Also, it is not as time-consuming as conventional preparation.”

The researchers tested the technique with a fossil from a major natural history museum in Berlin. The fossil was concealed under material in the basement after a World War II bombing raid. Prior to testing this technique, researchers had had trouble sorting through some of the plaster jackets.

Researchers conducted CT on the fossil with a 320-slice multi-detector system. The different attenuation through the bone examined in contrast with the encircling matrix allowed clear rendering of a fossilized vertebral body.

After comparing the CT scan to old excavation drawings, the researchers were able to follow the fossil’s origin back to the Halberstadt excavation, a significant dig from 1910 to 1926 in a clay pit located south Halberstadt, Germany. The CT scan also offered important data about the condition and completeness of the fossil, revealing several fractures in the front rim of the vertebral body.

The CT dataset allowed the researchers to make a precise reconstruction of the fossil with selective laser sintering, a technology that utilizes high-powered laser to fuse together materials to construct a 3-D object.

According to Dr. Issever, the achievement illustrates how new technology and the lower cost of 3-D printers are turning them into the perfect device for this type of research. Furthermore, scientific exchange is enhanced by the ability to quickly send digital copies of the objects to interested parties.

“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,” Dr. Issever noted. “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.”

The achievement is discussed in greater detail in the journal Radiology.

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