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Dinosaur and Crocodile Fossils from the Mesozoic of Portugal: Neutron Tomography and Synchrotron-Radiation Based Micro-Computed Tomography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2011

Rui M.S. Martins ,
Felix Beckmann ,
Rui Castanhinha ,
Octávio Mateus  and
Philipp Klaus Pranzas
Rui M.S. Martins
Affiliation:
Unidade de Física e Aceleradores, Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear, EN10, 2696-953 Sacavém, Portugal Centro de Física Nuclear da Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto 2, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal Museu da Lourinhã, Rua João Luis de Moura, 2530-157 Lourinhã, Portugal CENIMAT/I3N, Departamento de Ciência dos Materiais, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Felix Beckmann
Affiliation:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Institute of Materials Research, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
Rui Castanhinha
Affiliation:
Museu da Lourinhã, Rua João Luis de Moura, 2530-157 Lourinhã, Portugal
Octávio Mateus
Affiliation:
Museu da Lourinhã, Rua João Luis de Moura, 2530-157 Lourinhã, Portugal CICEGe, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal
Philipp Klaus Pranzas
Affiliation:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Institute of Materials Research, Max-Planck-Str. 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
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Abstract

Portugal is ranked within the 10 countries with the most dinosaur taxa and the Lourinhã Formation is known by the Late Jurassic findings of dinosaurs and other fossils. In many cases, studies of the external morphological characteristics of the fossils are not sufficient to extract all the information for a paleontological study and, thus, observations of internal structures, using non-destructive techniques, are required. The fossils studied in the present work belong to the Museum of Lourinhã. The access to the Geesthacht Neutron Facility in Germany allowed us to characterize a jaw of the dinosaur Baryonyx walkeri specimen and the jaw of a crocodile (possibly a Tomistomidae) by Neutron Tomography. The study allowed us to detect the presence of teeth inside the jaws and it provides valuable information about the development of its dental characteristics. Synchrotron radiation based micro-computed tomography studies on tiny samples have been performed at the beamline HARWI II operated by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht at the storage ring DORIS III at the Deutsches Elektronen–Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The first data recorded for eggshells collected in the Lourinhã Formation is shown. It allowed us to visualize the morphology of the pores and their connectivity in the eggshells, providing information that is either exceedingly difficult or impossible to obtain by traditional methods based on section cutting.

Keywords

x-ray tomographymorphologygeologic
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1319: Symposium WW – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology IX , 2011 , mrsf10-1319-ww02-03
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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