Digital dinosaur
CAT scan unlocks fossil secrets
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From Correspondent Melissa Sander
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (CNN) -- The dinosaurs that ruled the
earth millions of years ago have long since disappeared, but
we still know what they looked like, based on fossil records
interpreted by scientists and artists.
Now, computers are helping to create an even more accurate
image.
The technological advance was achieved through computerized
axial tomography (CAT) scans, a type of X-ray used by
hospitals as a diagnostic imaging system.
It helped paleontologists Bob Sullivan and Tom Williamson
"see" inside the fossilized remains of a crested duck-billed
dinosaur they discovered in New Mexico in 1995.
"Bob ... jumped up and said, 'it's a parasaurolophus!'"
Williamson remembers.
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Another fossil from the rare dinosaur -- this one found in
Canada -- is the basis for how experts think the
parasaurolophus (pronounced par-ah-sor-rah-LOFF-us) looked,
with a long, boney crest rising out of the back of its skull.
The crest Sullivan and Williamson discovered is perhaps the
most complete one ever found.
Computers did what paleontologists couldn't
But it was Carl Diegert, a scientist expert at Albuquerque's
Sandia National Laboratory, who digitized the discovery,
giving us a more complete picture of what the parasaurolophus
once looked like.
Working with CAT scan technology, Diegert is revealing clues
that the paleontologists could not uncover on their own, even
by hacking apart the fossil.
CAT scans on the fossil, performed at a local hospital,
produced about 500 images of the parasaurolophus crest.
Diegert converted the images into three-dimensional computer
models, using some of the same software that helped create
the beasts in the dinosaur movie hit "Jurassic Park."
Sandia also uses the technology to simulate nuclear weapons
testing, and to help surgeons plan operations -- for example,
examining lesions from all sides without cutting.
Diegert found a labyrinth of breathing tubes and passages
inside the 4-foot-long Parasaurolophus crest.
'This was a major surprise'
"This was a major surprise," Sullivan says, because the extra
chambers and tubes were a new discovery.
To breathe, the animal drew air "through a configuration of
tubes and sinuses, and then back down through the skull roof
and down its windpipe," Williamson says.
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Paleontologists also think the partially hollow crest may
have helped regulate the dinosaur's body temperature and
served as a resonating chamber for producing sound.
"If an elephant trumpets through its trunk, the tone -- the
frequency of that sound -- is determined by the length of the
trunk," Diegert says.
The advanced computer and medical technologies are 75 million
years too late to save the parasaurolophus. But they add a
whole new dimension to a spectacular find.
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