A mere 200 million years ago, the South African dinosaur Massospondylus walked the earth—and now, thanks to modern CT imaging, researchers have a better understanding of the Jurassic giant.
Kimi Chapelle, a Phd student at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, used CT to rebuild each individual bone of the dinosaur, according to a phys.org article. The scans even allowed her to examine the smallest features of its skull, such as nerves exiting the brain and inner ear balance organs.
Chapelle published her findings online January 12 in the journal PeerJ.
"Students like Kimi have been able to use our CT facility to produce cutting-edge research like this, and it's changing the way we do dinosaur research," said Jonah Choiniere, PhD, supervisor and co-author of the study.
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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.