Leonardo Project - Current technology helps the world understand the past
KODAK INDUSTREX ACR-2000i Digital System gives paleontologists their first look inside a mummified dinosaur
Meet “Leonardo” (Brachylophosaurus Canadensis)—the most complete dinosaur fossil ever discovered. Tens of millions of years after his demise in primeval Montana, his remains are still 90% covered with fossilized skin, the pattern of its body scales clearly visible. He may have had a face only his mother could love, but paleontologists think he’s excitingly handsome, and they are convinced there is a wealth of knowledge in still more fossilized soft tissue lying beneath his rocky skin.
Of course, they want to mine that knowledge without destroying Leonardo. Dinosaur paleontology is nearly exclusively the study of bones, so truly mummified remains are rare treasures. It has been nearly 100 years since the discovery of a fossil even remotely close to Leonardo’s completeness.
In June 2006, Kodak’s Non-Destructive Testing team (now a part of Carestream Health) and NDT Group, Inc. trekked to the Judith River Dinosaur Institute (JRDI) in Malta, Montana, bringing along a complete, mobile and digital radiographic laboratory to help scientists peer inside Leonardo. Virtually every image from the KODAK INDUSTREX ACR-2000i Digital System presented a view critical to the science being conducted on the specimen, and each image required unique X-ray and imaging techniques to uncover Leonardo’s secrets.
The NDT and scientific teams were thrilled at the preliminary results, which yielded more data than any of the paleontologists anticipated—so much study of the remarkable images remains. The scientific community will not present their findings and conclusions until late 2006, but is excited that the latest KODAK INDUSTREX product technology could be applied to further their work.
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