Dr Paul Tafforeau, from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France holding a replica of his newly discovered ancient Australian wood beetle
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Dr Paul Tafforeau, from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France holding a replica of his newly discovered ancient Australian wood beetle
For the first time Paul has been able to construct exact replicas of these ancient organisms using synchrtron imaging techniques to discover an array of new species. These techniques have opened up the world of paleontology so that details of many fossilised organisms previously locked inside dense rock matrix can now be revealed. This technique does not destroy the precious fossils and allows reconstruction of the missing body parts to reveal extrodinary details of both the internal and external structures of the organism and hence provide more information on the animals life history. Because of this synchrtron technique many more fossilised oganisms will be idenified and classified than has occured in the past 50 years.The Australian Synchrotron is commissioning an imaging and medical beamline that will one day provide this sophisticated information to paleontologist and to medical researchers.
Dr Paul Taffereau is a guest speaker at the 10th International conference on Synchrotron Radiation Instrumentation (SRI09) being held at the new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this week (27 September - 2nd October. ) Paul also spoke at a public lecture entittle "Seeing into the past with synchrtron light" at the Melbourn Museum on Tuesday 27 September, 2009.
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- Digital Image
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