Secret 'dino bugs' revealed (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

It is like a magic trick - at first there is nothing and then it appears: a tiny insect unseen by any eye for 100 million years.

We are with Paul Tafforeau who is scrolling through images on his computer.

His pictures have been produced by a colossal X-ray machine that can illuminate the insides of small lumps of clouded amber (fossil tree resin).
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Tafforeau and colleague Malvina Lak have put kilos of opaque amber chunks in the way of this beam and have found a treasure trove of ancient organisms.

From more than 600 blocks, they have identified nearly 360 fossil animals. Wasps, flies, ants - even spiders. There are also small fragments of plant material. All of it caught up in the sticky goo of some prehistoric tree and then locked away until modern science provided the key.


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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7324564.stm

Hmmm ... would this work with microfossils, say in the Gunflint & Marble Bar Cherts etc., *without* thin sectioning? Could result in lots more data from those specimens.

[mike_c]

1. probably not....

I'd say no, really. This works because the actual insects are preserved within the amber, i.e. the matrix and the insect have different x-ray densities. Mineralized fossils in chert have had their organic material replaced by minerals from the matrix, so I don't know how much of a difference in density you'd expect. Little or none, I would think.

[gtar100]

2. This is why science is just so darn cool

Absolutely brilliant. I feel privileged to see such things.