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LU

Emma Hammarlund

Research team manager

LU

Neutron tomography for understanding the evolution of life

Author

  • E. Hammarlund
  • Burkhard Schillinger
  • Elbio Calzada

Editor

  • Muhammad Arif
  • R. Gregory Downing

Summary, in English

Most organisms that ever lived on Earth lacked skeletons and have therefore escaped preservation in the geological record. This fact makes it hard to accurately trace the evolution of multicellular organisms and the tree of life. However a handful faunas did get exceptionally well-preserved, including their soft-bodied members, just when complex lifeforms diverged 550 million years ago. Geochemical analyses of rock surrounding the fossils reveal some of the sea chemistry that prevailed at the time, information then used to simulate this specific type of fossil preservation. Fragile samples of soft tissue and clay have been fixated at different stages of decomposition and inspected via cold neutron tomography. First measurements have rendered visualizations where different types of tissue, and internal structures, can be distinguished. Further exploration is necessary but results so far indicate that neutron radiography can be a non-destructive mean for monitoring geobiological processes.

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Pages

448-451

Publication/Series

8th World Conference on Neutron Radiography, WCNR-8

Document type

Conference paper

Topic

  • Biological Sciences

Conference name

8th World Conference on Neutron Radiography, WCNR-8

Conference date

2006-10-16 - 2006-10-19

Conference place

Gaithersburg, MD, United States

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISBN: 9781932078749