Emma Hammarlund
Research team manager
Neutron tomography for understanding the evolution of life
Author
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