Non-invasive imaging methods applied to neo- and paleo-ontological cephalopod research

[摘要] Several non-invasive methods arecommon practice in natural sciences today. Here we present how they can beapplied and contribute to current topics in cephalopod (paleo-) biology.Different methods will be compared in terms of time necessary to acquire thedata, amount of data, accuracy/resolution, minimum/maximum size of objectsthat can be studied, the degree of post-processing needed and availability.The main application of the methods is seen in morphometry and volumetry ofcephalopod shells. In particular we present a method for precise buoyancycalculation. Therefore, cephalopod shells were scanned together withdifferent reference bodies, an approach developed in medical sciences. It isnecessary to know the volume of the reference bodies, which should havesimilar absorption properties like the object of interest. Exact volumes canbe obtained from surface scanning. Depending on the dimensions of the studyobject different computed tomography techniques were applied.

[学科分类] 地球化学与岩石