SGER: High-resolution digital scanning of the Thermopolis Archaeopteryx

热城始祖鸟的高分辨率数字扫描雅克·戈蒂埃和瑞安·卡尼，耶鲁大学始祖鸟化石（意思是古代的翅膀）是最早和最原始的飞行恐龙，生活在大约1.5亿年前的侏罗纪时期。它是灭绝恐龙和现代鸟类之间缺失的关键一环，属于与电影《侏罗纪公园》中著名的迅猛龙关系最密切的一群恐龙。在已知的10块始祖鸟化石中，热莫波利斯化石是保存最完整、保存最完好的，其惊人的质量使它成为了解飞行早期进化的关键标本，并坚定地将其置于几个世纪以来关于鸟类起源的争论的中心。该标本将在加州利弗莫尔的国家安全研究机构劳伦斯利弗莫尔国家实验室（LLNL）进行扫描。这种特殊的扫描过程以前从未在古生物学中使用过，它将结合几种不同的最先进的数字扫描技术，通常用于扫描航天飞机机翼和核弹头，以获得前所未有的3D化石分辨率。此外，考虑到这个项目令人兴奋和新颖的性质，LLNL承诺大幅降低扫描费用，从而提供的扫描不仅质量更好，而且价格也比其他地方更低。然而，在2009年夏天，扫描这个私人标本的机会之窗很窄，这给这个前所未有的机会增加了紧迫性。扫描将以数字方式保存这一重要化石，以供未来的科学研究和教育使用。它将提供以高分辨率3D方式检查始祖鸟的整个解剖结构的机会，并将其与它的近亲，鳄鱼和鸽子进行比较。研究结果将在网上公布，供科学家和公众使用。这可能还包括可通过网络浏览器操作的交互式3D图像和动画，这将使公众能够轻松地可视化和理解与解剖学和进化相关的复杂概念。这个项目的数据反过来也会刺激一些后续研究的创新研究。这包括一个预期的项目，以3D方式重建和动画始祖鸟的骨骼和肌肉，以研究这种动物的飞行能力。这些后续的研究可能会为向下与地面的飞行起源之争提供重要的新见解，并极大地增强我们对鸟类进化的理解。这些发现将通过博物馆展览、对公众的科学报告以及以非科学家可理解和有用的形式出版的各种出版材料，传播给广泛的受众。这些努力将对促进地理上代表性不足的群体的全球参与以及从根本上加强对进化科学的教学和理解产生更广泛的影响。

High Resolution Digital Scanning ofthe Thermopolis ArchaeopteryxJacques Gautier and Ryan Carney, Yale UniversityThe fossil bird Archaeopteryx (meaning ancient wing), the earliest and most primitive flying dinosaur, lived in the Jurassic Period around 150 million years ago. It is the critical missing link between extinct dinosaurs and modern birds, and belonged to a group of dinosaurs most closely related to the raptors made famous in the movie, Jurassic Park. The spectacular quality of the Thermopolis specimen, the most complete and best-preserved of the ten known Archaeopteryx fossils makes this a key specimen for understanding the early evolution of flight, and firmly places it in the center of centuries-long debate on the origin of birds. The specimen will be scanned in Livermore, California at the national security research facility, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). This particular scanning process, never before used in paleontology, will combine several different state-of-the-art digital scanning technologies normally used to scan space shuttle wings and nuclear warheads to obtain unprecedented resolution of the fossil in 3D. Additionally, given the exciting and novel nature of this project, LLNL has pledged to substantially reduce the scanning charges, thereby providing scans that are not only of better quality, but at a better price than what could be achieved elsewhere. However, the narrow window of opportunity to scan this privately-owned specimen in summer of 2009 adds urgency to this unprecedented opportunity. Scanning will digitally preserve this important fossil for future scientific study and educational use. It will provide the opportunity to examine the entire anatomy of Archaeopteryx in high-resolution 3D, and compare it to that of its closest living relatives, the alligator and the pigeon. Results will be published and made available online for scientists and the public. This may also include interactive 3D images and animations that can be manipulated through web browsers, which would allow the public to easily visualize and understand complex concepts related to anatomy and evolution. The data from this project will in turn spur innovative research in a number of subsequent studies as well. This includes an anticipated project to reconstruct and animate the skeleton and muscles of Archaeopteryx in 3D, in order to study how well this animal was able to fly. These subsequent studies may provide crucial new insights into the trees down vs. ground up origin-of-flight debate, and greatly enhance our understanding of the evolution of birds. Such findings will reach broad audiences through museum exhibits, scientific presentations to the public, and diverse published material in formats understandable and useful to non-scientists. These efforts will have Broader Impacts for promoting the global participation of geographically-underrepresented groups, and for fundamentally enhancing the teaching and understanding of evolutionary science.