The Cutting Edge of Palaeontology

摘要

Recently I spent a few days working with my colleagues at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne. We used the facility to get clear 3-D images of our ancient fossil fishes for various research projects. The facility is costly to run, so we utilised the time around the clock, with specimens being changed at all hours of the night to maximise our allocated beam time. Finally near the end of the 48-hour session, we were almost done. Our last specimen, a 380-million-year-old placoderm fish male's reproductive clasper, was scanned to the rousing chorus of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the wee hours of the night to much rejoicing by the team.