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Prehistoric Printing
Paleontologists are using modern technology to gain a greater understanding of the distant past. With the aid of computed tomography (CT) scanning and 3-D printing, researchers are able to create accurate models of prehistoric fossils. 1 These models have expandedre searchers’ knowledge of ancient species and 2swear to advance the field of paleontology in the years to come.
CT scanners use X-rays to map the surface of a fossil in minute detail, recording as many as one million data points to create a digital blueprint. A 3-D printer then builds a polymer model based on this blueprint, much as a regular computer printer reproduces digital documents on paper. 3 Whereas the head of an ordinary computer printer moves back and forth while printing ink onto paper, the corresponding part of a 3-D printer moves in multiple dimensions while squirting out thin layers of elted polymer plastic. The plastic hardens quickly, 4 it allows the printer to build the layers of the final model. Compared with older ways of modeling fossils, scanning and printing in this way is extremely versatile.
[1] One significant benefit of 3-D printing technology is its ability to create scale reproductions of fossils. [2] But now 3-D scale models can be rearrangedwith ease, which is a huge boon to scientists. [3] A team led by Drexel University professor Kenneth Lacovara is making models of dinosaur bones one-tenth the bones’original sizes 5 in order to learn how they fit together when the animals were alive. [4] In the past, such research was limited by the weight and bulk of the fossils as well as 6 its preciousness and fragility. [5] In many cases, scientists had to rearrange bones virtually, using artists’ renderings. 7
Because CT scanners can map objects that are impossible to excavate, CT scanning and 3-D printing can also be used to reproduce fossils that scientists cannot observe firsthand. 8 By contrast, researchers from the National Museum of Brazil 9 has relied on this technique to study a fossilized skeleton that was discovered protruding from a rock at an old Sao Paulorailroad site. 10 The fossil was too delicate to beremoved from the rock. Because of the fossil’s delicate nature, the team dug up a block of stone around the fossil and brought it to their lab. With the aid of a CT scanner and a 3-D printer, they were able to produce a resin model of the fossil. Examining the model, the researchers determined that 11 one had found a new species, a 75-million-year-old crocodile. While not every discovery will be as dramatic as this one, paleontologists anticipate further expanding their knowledge of ancient life-forms as CT scanning and 3-D printing continue to make fossils more accessible.
Questions 1-11 are based on the following passage.
Prehistoric Printing
Paleontologists are using modern technology to gain a greater understanding of the distant past. With the aid of computed tomography (CT) scanning and 3-D printing, researchers are able to create accurate models of prehistoric fossils. 1 These models have expandedre searchers’ knowledge of ancient species and 2swear to advance the field of paleontology in the years to come.
CT scanners use X-rays to map the surface of a fossil in minute detail, recording as many as one million data points to create a digital blueprint. A 3-D printer then builds a polymer model based on this blueprint, much as a regular computer printer reproduces digital documents on paper. 3 Whereas the head of an ordinary computer printer moves back and forth while printing ink onto paper, the corresponding part of a 3-D printer moves in multiple dimensions while squirting out thin layers of elted polymer plastic. The plastic hardens quickly, 4 it allows the printer to build the layers of the final model. Compared with older ways of modeling fossils, scanning and printing in this way is extremely versatile.
[1] One significant benefit of 3-D printing technology is its ability to create scale reproductions of fossils. [2] But now 3-D scale models can be rearrangedwith ease, which is a huge boon to scientists. [3] A team led by Drexel University professor Kenneth Lacovara is making models of dinosaur bones one-tenth the bones’original sizes 5 in order to learn how they fit together when the animals were alive. [4] In the past, such research was limited by the weight and bulk of the fossils as well as 6 its preciousness and fragility. [5] In many cases, scientists had to rearrange bones virtually, using artists’ renderings. 7
Because CT scanners can map objects that are impossible to excavate, CT scanning and 3-D printing can also be used to reproduce fossils that scientists cannot observe firsthand. 8 By contrast, researchers from the National Museum of Brazil 9 has relied on this technique to study a fossilized skeleton that was discovered protruding from a rock at an old Sao Paulorailroad site. 10 The fossil was too delicate to beremoved from the rock. Because of the fossil’s delicate nature, the team dug up a block of stone around the fossil and brought it to their lab. With the aid of a CT scanner and a 3-D printer, they were able to produce a resin model of the fossil. Examining the model, the researchers determined that 11 one had found a new species, a 75-million-year-old crocodile. While not every discovery will be as dramatic as this one, paleontologists anticipate further expanding their knowledge of ancient life-forms as CT scanning and 3-D printing continue to make fossils more accessible.
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