3-D scans reveal secrets of extinct creatures
New modeling paired with X-ray scanning exposes every angle of hard-to-extract fossils
View the video or View the slideshow
All Rachel Racicot wanted to do was look at a fossil. As a paleontology graduate student at San Diego State University, Racicot had scheduled some time with a local hospital’s CT scanner. She was going to examine a 3-million-year-old porpoise jaw.
But when the day came to slide the fossil into the scanner, the hospital put her on hold. A stabbing victim needed the CT machine. Paleontology would have to wait.