Scientists Use CT Scans to Reconstruct 300 Million Year Old Insects
Posted on September 26, 2012
Scientists used a CT scanner to reconstruct 305-million-year old insects. The researchers from the University of Manchester put the insect fossils in a CT scanner and took over 3,000 x-rays from different angles. They created 2,000 slices to build the 3D digital reconstructions of the fossils.
One of the insects reconstructed by the scientists (pictured above) is characterized by a large number of sharp spines. It is a new species and genus which does not exist today. The other reconstructed insect (pictured below) was a predecessor of the cockroach. Both reconstructed insects are members of a group called the Polyneoptera, which includes roaches, mantises, crickets, grasshoppers and earwigs.
Dr Russell Garwood of the University of Manchester's School of Materials, lead researcher on the project, said in a statement, "Around this time a number of early 'amphibians' were insectivores - they lived by eating a lot of insects. The spiney creature was a sitting duck, as it couldn't fly, so the spines probably made it less palatable. It is bizarre - as far as we're aware, quite unlike any members of the Polyneoptera alive today."
The research was published here in PLoS One.