Journal of Imaging (Jun 2025)

Photon-Counting Detector CT Scan of Dinosaur Fossils: Initial Experience

  • Tasuku Wakabayashi,
  • Kenji Takata,
  • Soichiro Kawabe,
  • Masato Shimada,
  • Takeshi Mugitani,
  • Takuya Yachida,
  • Rikiya Maruyama,
  • Satomi Kanai,
  • Kiyotaka Takeuchi,
  • Tomohiro Kotsuji,
  • Toshiki Tateishi,
  • Hideki Hyodoh,
  • Tetsuya Tsujikawa

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/jimaging11060180
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. 180

Abstract

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Beyond clinical areas, photon-counting detector (PCD) CT is innovatively applied to study paleontological specimens. This study presents a preliminary investigation into the application of PCD-CT for imaging large dinosaur fossils, comparing it with standard energy-integrating detector (EID) CT. The left dentary of Tyrannosaurus and the skull of Camarasaurus were imaged using PCD-CT in ultra-high-resolution mode and EID-CT. The PCD-CT and EID-CT image quality of the dinosaurs were visually assessed. Compared with EID-CT, PCD-CT yielded higher-resolution anatomical images free of image deterioration, achieving a better definition of the Tyrannosaurus mandibular canal and the three semicircular canals of Camarasaurus. PCD-CT clearly depicts the internal structure and morphology of large dinosaur fossils without damaging them and also provides spectral information, thus allowing researchers to gain insights into fossil mineral composition and the preservation state in the future.

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