Discovering Hominins - Application of Medical Computed Tomography (CT) to Fossil-Bearing Rocks from the Site of Malapa, South Africa.

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dc.article.end-page19en_ZA
dc.article.start-page1en_ZA
dc.citation.doidoi:10.1371/journal.pone.014534en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorSmilg, J.S.
dc.contributor.authorBerger, L.R.
dc.contributor.authorSmilg, Jacqueline S.
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-21T09:48:55Z
dc.date.available2022-02-21T09:48:55Z
dc.date.issued2015-12-18
dc.description.abstractIn the South African context, computed tomography (CT) has been used applied to individually prepared fossils and small rocks containing fossils, but has not been utilized on large breccia blocks as a means of discovering fossils, and particularly fossil hominins. Previous attempts at CT imaging of rocks from other South African sites for this purpose yielded disappointing results. For this study, 109 fossil- bearing rocks from the site of Malapa, South Africa were scanned with medical CT prior to manual preparation. The resultant images were assessed for accuracy of fossil identification and characterization against the standard of manual preparation. The accurate identification of fossils, including those of early hominins, that were not visible on the surface of individual blocks, is shown to be possible. The discovery of unexpected fossils is reduced, thus lowering the potential that fossils could be damaged through accidental encounter during routine preparation, or even entirely missed. This study should significantly change the way fossil discovery, recovery and preparation is done in the South African context and has potential for application in other palaeontological situations. Medical CT imaging is shown to be reliable, readily available, cost effective and accurate in finding fossils within matrix conglomerates. Improvements in CT equipment and in CT image quality are such that medical CT is now a viable imaging modality for this palaeontological application.en_ZA
dc.description.librarianRL2022en_ZA
dc.facultyScienceen_ZA
dc.funderThe authors have no support or funding to report.en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationSmilg, J.S. and Berger, L.R. 2015. Discovering Hominins - Application of Medical Computed Tomography (CT) to Fossil-Bearing Rocks from the Site of Malapa, South Africa. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0145340.en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.otherDOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0145340
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/32749
dc.journal.linkhttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0145340en_ZA
dc.journal.titlePLOS Oneen_ZA
dc.journal.volume18 December 2015en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.schoolArchaeology, Geography and Environmental Scienceen_ZA
dc.subjectcomputer assisted tomographyen_ZA
dc.subjectfossilen_ZA
dc.subjectimage qualityen_ZA
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_ZA
dc.subjecthomininsen_ZA
dc.subjectMalapaen_ZA
dc.subjectmedical computed tornographyen_ZA
dc.titleDiscovering Hominins - Application of Medical Computed Tomography (CT) to Fossil-Bearing Rocks from the Site of Malapa, South Africa.en_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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