As part of my non-academic placement with the paleotechnology company ZOIC, I’m currently working on a multi-modal characterisation study of fossilised Triceratops tendons. The goal is to better understand the preservation and internal microstructure of these exceptional specimens—using techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and synchrotron radiation micro-computed tomography (SR-µCT) to capture chemical, structural, and morphological data. Essentially, we’re trying to piece together how these remains have changed over millions of years.
As you’ll know, dinosaurs are massive—and very fossilised. That makes imaging their microstructure anything but straightforward, especially when we want to work non-destructively or scan large, in-situ specimens. At Elettra’s SYRMEP beamline, we can produce fantastic data, but we’re limited to relatively small samples when it comes to palaeontological or palaeoanthropological material. This has worked well for human and Neanderthal teeth or ribs, but with dinosaurs, we’re in a whole different category.
Enter: the road trip through the Alps to northern Germany, where we were awarded four days of beamtime at the BAM-Line, part of the BESSY II synchrotron facility in Berlin. The BAM-Line is a great fit for this kind of material—especially the tendon fossils we’re working with at ZOIC.
Alongside the imaging itself, we also took the opportunity to explore how different aspects of the beamline setup—such as the distance from the sample to the detector—impact image sharpness and the visibility of fine histological features. It was a good combination of palaeohistology and practical testing of imaging parameters.
The Elettra team (myself, Marko Prasek, and Paula Sanchez) went together, and since Elettra is due to close for a period in the near future, this was also a valuable step toward building stronger collaborations with other beamlines. With Marko and Paula planning to return to BAM in the autumn, this trip helped us get familiar with their software, workflows, and how we might tailor their acquisition settings to fit with our own data processing tools.
We came away with promising results and high-quality images—and got to enjoy a bit of Berlin while we were there. Vielen Dank, BAM-Line – und bis bald.. Tschüssi!
The Team being very excited about the first images! From left to right: Marko, Simone, Paula
Every seen a Dino-Tendon at a Beamline? Not many have..!