Biogeosciences www.biogeosciences.net 1726-4170 1726-4189 5 1 2008 10.5194/bg-5-25-2008 http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/25/2008/ http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/25/2008/bg-5-25-2008.html http://www.biogeosciences.net/5/25/2008/bg-5-25-2008.pdf 25 41 2008-01-23 Three-dimensional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of fossils across taxa D. Mietchen daniel.mietchen@uni-jena.de M. Aberhan B. Manz O. Hampe B. Mohr C. Neumann F. Volke Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBMT), 66386 St. Ingbert, Germany University of the Saarland, Faculty of Physics and Mechatronics, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Department of Psychiatry, 07740 Jena, Germany Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Museum für Naturkunde, 10099 Berlin, Germany The frequency of life forms in the fossil record is largely determined by the extent to which they were mineralised at the time of their death. In addition to mineral structures, many fossils nonetheless contain detectable amounts of residual water or organic molecules, the analysis of which has become an integral part of current palaeontological research. The methods available for this sort of investigations, though, typically require dissolution or ionisation of the fossil sample or parts thereof, which is an issue with rare taxa and outstanding materials like pathological or type specimens. In such cases, non-destructive techniques could provide a valuable methodological alternative. While Computed Tomography has long been used to study palaeontological specimens, a number of complementary approaches have recently gained ground. These include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) which had previously been employed to obtain three-dimensional images of pathological belemnites non-invasively on the basis of intrinsic contrast. 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