State-of-the-art: virtual palaeontology of Vossenveld fossils

Abstract | Ongoing improvement of tomographic visualisation techniques has sparked a digital revolution in palaeontological research by providing increasingly powerful tools for the visualisation and study of fossil remains. Here, we provide a concise overview of the history of radiography and tomography, discuss several palaeontological applications of tomographic techniques, and present published examples in which tomographic evaluations aided in the description and study of Vossenveld fossils. Finally, we demonstrate the nondestructive yet three-dimensional exploration of vertebrate fossils in the micrite matrix from the Winterswijkse Steengroeve using a medical tomograph. This case study assessed the potential presence of cranial material in limestone blocks containing diagnostic postcranial material of a thus far poorly known basal pistosauroid from the Vossenveld Formation. Although no obscured skeletal elements were encountered in the matrix, our study offers a clear example of the tomographic visualisation of vertebrate fossils in general, and those in the Vossenveld Formation in particular.