Scanning whales in the desert

摘要

In Chile's Atacama desert, a team of researchers from institutions in Chile, Brazil and the United States has uncovered a trove of at least 80 exquisitely preserved whale fossils. Last week, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC completed an effort to scan the fossils using lasers, allowing the creation of a three-dimensional replica of the site. (Vincent Rossi from the Smithsonian's 3D digitization programme is pictured.) The team had to finish by December because the area will soon become a highway; the fossils were first spotted by a road-building firm working on the site in 2010. See go.nature.com/kd24pr for more.