A innovative scanner Claudio Silva's PaleoScan, created by a computer scientist at New York University, allows scientists to digitize fossils that were previously isolated in remote regions of South America. Claudio Silva's PaleoScan offers a portable and affordable way to preserve and share collections of ancient prints that might otherwise have been lost or smuggled out.
Brazil's Araripe River basin is full of ancient fossils, some of them in unusually pristine condition. After a visit to the nearby Placido Cidade Nuvens Museum of Paleontology (MPPCN), where many of them are stored, Silva saw “a labyrinth of metal shelves that went from floor to ceiling” that were “packed with stacks of the most beautiful fossils I'd ever seen” from the Cretaceous period, such as described by Smithsonian MagazineThe problem was that the collection of insects, fish, turtles and pterosaurs from the distant past had not been digitised. And, given the region's limited funding and staff, and its remote location (getting there requires a flight in a four-seater plane), there was little hope of remedying that.
Another problem facing the museum (and others like it) was illegal fossil trafficking. The Araripe Basin is a prime target for ruthless exploitation of historic resources by smugglers and wealthier nations. Digitizing fossils could help thwart that practice, both by providing virtual scans, which help offset the risk-benefit ratio for smugglers, and by creating a global dataset that paleontologists could use to trace stolen artifacts back to their source.
“I think empowering under-resourced museums and institutions to scan their own fossils and provide virtual versions of those fossils to the rest of the world would really help the scientific community, but also the institutions themselves,” said paleontologist Akinobu Watanabe of the New York Institute of technology. Smithsonian Magazine.
![Split-panel view of the Museum of Paleontology in Brazil. Left: exterior; right: a shelf with fossils inside.](https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/PaleoScan-is-an-affordable-imaging-device-that-democratizes-fossil-research.png)
Silva, an expert in graphics visualization and geometry processing, saw an opportunity. He left the MPPCN and promised to return in two years to help digitize its collection. Given the scope of that task, it wouldn’t have been surprising to hear a few snickers or sarcastic jokes from the staff after he took off on his flight back to the U.S.
The solution Silva created is PaleoScan, a low-cost, high-throughput scanner that he packed into “large wooden crates” on its return trip to MPPCN in the summer of 2023. Designed to fill the gaps between hard-to-access fossil collections and the global community of paleontologists, the device produces high-quality 3D fossil reconstructions through inexpensive and relatively portable scanning.
Adaptable to a variety of fossil sizes, PaleoScan uses a downward-facing camera on an automated gantry. Its calibration plate allows batch scanning with simple correction of camera scale and position. The device costs less than commercial 3D fossil scanners, is easier to transport than computed tomography (CT) scanners, and is much easier to use, even for non-technical people.
The PaleoScan camera is mounted on a frame that moves on two axes. It takes “thousands of individual, unprocessed photographs of a fossil under controlled lighting conditions,” as described by Smithsonian MagazineMeanwhile, the person operating it only needs to navigate a touchscreen (which, in the videos, appears to be a repurposed mobile device).
![Left: A fish fossil in front of a scanner calibration panel. Right: Graphics showing data analysis.](https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1723058085_401_PaleoScan-is-an-affordable-imaging-device-that-democratizes-fossil-research.png)
![Left: A fish fossil in front of a scanner calibration panel. Right: Graphics showing data analysis.](https://technicalterrence.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/1723058085_401_PaleoScan-is-an-affordable-imaging-device-that-democratizes-fossil-research.png)
Once scanned, the batch of photographs is uploaded to the cloud for processing, where software stitches them together to form highly detailed 3D models. The processed data can then be saved in a metadatabase and made available via an API for paleontologists around the world to study and share (think of something like a GitHub for fossil enthusiasts).
Researchers say the resulting reconstructions have been validated as highly accurate. Museum workers can receive video tutorials with step-by-step instructions for operating the scanner.
More than 200 unique fossils have already been digitized at the MPPCN, using more than a terabyte of high-quality data, and the response from the paleontological community has been receptive and enthusiastic. Researchers not connected with the project were impressed with the scanner and were hoping to get their hands on versions for other remote regions of Mexico and Chile. Some have requested an improved model with true 3D capabilities rather than the current two-axis version ideal for the mostly flat fossils of the Araripe Basin, something Silva says is already in the works.
To learn more about the innovation and future of PaleoScan, you can check out the research article and Detailed article from Smithsonian Magazine.