Dinosaur research: the scanning revolution

The steady improvement in technological resources, as well as their
potential to be used to answer palaeobiological questions, has
manifested in a number of distinct areas in recent years. A few
of these will be examined in the following section; they are not
without their limitations and pitfalls, but in some instances
questions may now be asked that could not have been dreamt
of 10 years ago.

One of the most anguished dilemmas faced by palaeobiologists is
the desire to explore as much of any new fossil as possible, but at the
same time to minimize the damage caused to the specimen by such
action. The discovery of the potential for X-rays to create images on
photographic film of the interior of the body has been of enormous
importance to medical science. The more recent revolution in
medical imaging through the development of CT (computed
tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) techniques
that are linked directly to powerful data-processing computers has
resulted in the ability to create three-dimensional images that allow
researchers to see inside objects such as the human body or other
complex structures that would only normally be possible after
major exploratory surgery.

The potential to use CT scanning to see inside fossils was rapidly
appreciated. One of the leaders in the field is Tim Rowe, with his
team based at the University of Texas in Austin. He has managed to
set up one of the finest fossil-dedicated, high-resolution CT
scanning systems and, as we shall see below, has put it to some
extremely interesting uses.