A sediment slab from the Holstein rock was to be examined for its fossil content using computer tomography. The CT technology delivered results that nobody had expected.

The geosciences, and palaeontology in particular, open windows into the past of our planet and provide information about changes in our habitat over millions of years. Species that are possibly long extinct paint pictures of life long before the emergence of mankind in an environment and vegetation that is drastically different from that of today. It is not only dinosaur finds that inspire our imagination, but also fossils in the micrometer range that prove the enormous changes our planet has undergone. And we are amazed at the insights scientists have already gained and the conclusions that can be drawn about our future.

Dr. Ulrich Kotthoff, Head of Palaeontology at the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change in Hamburg and a team of researchers from the University of Hamburg's Micropalaeontology Department, the Foraminifera.eu Labs and the LIB recently visited the Comet Yxlon Application Factory to see what today's X-ray technology can do for their research. A sediment slab from the Holstein rock, a special sandstone found mainly in eastern Schleswig-Holstein, was to be examined for its fossil content using computer tomography.

Until now, such examinations have mainly been carried out by destroying the rock, but this always entails the risk of damaging the fossils it contains. Non-destructive examination is therefore an attractive alternative if the necessary resolution can be achieved. New technological possibilities were actually able to deliver results that nobody had expected: Not only larger snails became clearly visible, but also an accumulation of millimeter-small foraminifera shells. Foraminifera are single-celled organisms that occur in marine habitats such as oceans or salt marshes. The oldest foraminifera that have been found are around 540 million years old. Scientists can read the smallest changes in the respective environmental conditions from their shells and thus look far back into climate and marine development.