The fossil record can tell us a lot about the species that came before us; how they lived, who their ancestors were, and what their time on this planet may have looked like. But what can we learn when we take an even closer look?
We’re all familiar with the giant skeletons on display in museums across the world, and while we can learn a lot from them, there’s a lot more information waiting to be discovered inside of those bones.
Source: Museum of the Rockies // Paleohistology Lab
This is an image from inside the fossilized frill of a triceratops. After painstaking hours of slicing the bone to the thickness of a human hair, and placing it under a high powered microscope we not only get this stunning, up-close picture of a fossil but with the right training, scientists are able to “read” these images to learn so much more about the animal.
The Museum of the Rockies Paleohistology Lab is one of the few places in the world where research like this is performed. Their collection of over 2,200 thin-sliced slides of fossil specimens gives paleontologists the opportunity to study dinosaur physiology and behavior at a microscopic level.
One of our favorite YouTube channels, PBS Eons, recently ventured to the Paleohistology Lab at the Museum of the Rockies to interview one of their lead researchers and learn what, exactly, we can learn from these beautiful specimens.
AAKASH 