新CT技术在恐龙蛋化石扫描中的应用与发现

Application and Discovery of the New Computed Tomography Technology in the Internal Structure of Dinosaur Egg Fossils

恐龙蛋化石是探索恐龙起源和演化的重要研究材料,由于恐龙蛋化石的珍贵性,对其进行实体解剖的可行性较小,应用医学界CT扫描技术于恐龙蛋化石的内部形态研究具有特别的意义。早期部分学者已应用CT扫描对恐龙蛋化石进行了有益尝试,绝大多数均显示恐龙蛋化石内的胚胎结构由于成岩作用未被保存下来,仅有少数报道保存了恐龙蛋胚胎结构,但也因当时CT扫描技术不完善,结果不明确、图像不清晰等可能存在着一定问题。本次研究利用第二代双源CT(SOMATOM Definition Flash CT)以1mm层厚,1mm间距对长安大学地质博物馆馆藏18枚恐龙蛋化石内部结构进行研究,测出恐龙蛋内部各部分的密度分布数据,发现仅有一枚标本卵壳与原生质之间存在规则的空腔,可能保存了恐龙蛋胚胎的原始结构。

Dinosaur egg fossils are important research material to explore the origin and evolution of dinosaurs.As the egg fossils are very precious,they are in feasible for dissection.In this case, there is a special significance to apply the medical computed tomography scan technology into the internal morphology study of dinosaur egg fossils.Some scholars tried to use the medical compu-ted tomography in research,whose results showed that as a result of diagenesis,only a few em-bryonic structures inside the dinosaur egg fossils were preserved.However,because of the im-perfect computed tomography scanning technology,those studies may be disadvantaged by un-clear results and graphics.The authors used the second generation of the dual-source computedtomography to study the internal structure of the eighteen dinosaur egg fossils collected in the Geological Museum of Chang’an University with 1mm thick and 1mm spacing.Theconcrete den-sity distribution of each section inside were measured,and it is discovered that only one egg em-bryo fossil has a regular cavity between the egg shell and protoplasm,and the original structure of dinosaur egg embryomay be saved.