Paleontology. Learning to dissect dinosaurs--digitally

Abstract

In the past 2 decades, as the resolution of computed tomography (CT) scans has grown sharper, paleontologists have increasingly trained the technique on long-dead animals, gaining an inside view of rich anatomical detail, including everything from bony canals that once held nerves to the internal networks of dinosaur noses. The technique doesn't work on all samples, and the images still require a trained eye to interpret. But CT scanning has contributed to a number of high-profile discoveries.