ABSTRACT
The goal of this project is to describe the application of Synchrotron Radiation Micro-Computed Tomography (SRμCT) for three-dimensional imaging of fossil cheilostome bryozoan colonies. The technology is applied to the challenging problem of 3D visualization of silicified bryozoan fossils in Eocene cherts from southern Western Australia. The reconstructed colonies from Aboriginal chert artifacts and chert nodules from well cuttings allowed assignment to the following genera: Quadricellaria, Siphonicytara, Trigonopora, and Reteporella. The benefits of SRμCT include effective imaging of bryozoans in dense cherts non-destructively and the integration of 2D and 3D internal zooecium- and colony-level morphologic characters. The disadvantages of SRμCT include large data handling and analysis, relatively high cost, and low resolution in chert.
