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From bone to pixel—fossil restoration and reconstruction with digital techniques
Author(s) -
Lautenschlager Stephan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.188
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1365-2451
pISSN - 0266-6979
DOI - 10.1111/gto.12194
Subject(s) - fossilization , paleontology , geology , paleobiology , hollywood , key (lock) , biology , history , ecology , art history , philosophy , linguistics
Fossils represent the only physical evidence for the existence of extinct life, and hold a vast potential to reconstruct organisms and ecosystems vanished a long time ago. Yet fossils are not as complete as they might appear in museum exhibits, documentaries or Hollywood blockbusters. Millions of years of fossilization have left their marks on the fossils, which might no longer resemble the condition of the organism when it was alive. A key challenge in palaeontology is therefore to restore and reconstruct the morphology of fossils. Luckily, novel digital visualization and reconstruction techniques offer powerful tools to bring extinct organisms back to life in unprecedented detail.