ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2010) — Even some of the most advanced technology in medicine couldn't get Clarisse to give up all of her secrets. After all, she's protected them for more than 50 million years.
Lasers lock X-ray beams onto the remains of Clarisse, a 50-million-year-old snake. The fossil was scanned on a 64-slice CT scanner at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, and the resulting images were analyzed by Brazilian paleontologist Hussan Zaher. The snake is part of the collection at the Houston Museum of Natural Science and will go on display in 2012. (Credit: Photo by Denny Angelle/The Methodist Hospital System)
Clarisse is a snake, found in the Fossil Butte region of Wyoming, perfectly fossilized in limestone and the only one of her kind known to be in existence. Palentologist Hussan Zaher came to Houston at the behest of the Museum of Natural Science to study her.
He brought the precious find to The Methodist Hospital and subjected her to a detailed CT (computerized tomography) scan in hopes of finding where Clarisse fits along the timeline of evolution.
"Most fossilized remains of snakes are individual pieces of bone," said Zaher. "This is unique because it's a complete snake, which gives us an opportunity to study her makeup and hopefully learn more about her."
CT scan technician Pam Mager conducted the scan on a 64-slice scanner that is capable of sending laser-guided X-rays through a target. "We can take almost 3,000 images in less than a minute," she explained, "and then we can use those images to construct a three-dimensional picture of the snake's bone structure."
Zaher, professor and curator of the collections of herpetology and paleontology at the Museu de Zoologia of the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, worked with the Museum of Natural Science in Houston to get Clarisse to Methodist for the scan. He believes Clarisse could be an evolutionary link between snakes who take a lot of small bites to eat their prey and snakes who swallow their prey whole.
He brought the precious find to The Methodist Hospital and subjected her to a detailed CT (computerized tomography) scan in hopes of finding where Clarisse fits along the timeline of evolution.
"Most fossilized remains of snakes are individual pieces of bone," said Zaher. "This is unique because it's a complete snake, which gives us an opportunity to study her makeup and hopefully learn more about her."
CT scan technician Pam Mager conducted the scan on a 64-slice scanner that is capable of sending laser-guided X-rays through a target. "We can take almost 3,000 images in less than a minute," she explained, "and then we can use those images to construct a three-dimensional picture of the snake's bone structure."
Zaher, professor and curator of the collections of herpetology and paleontology at the Museu de Zoologia of the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, worked with the Museum of Natural Science in Houston to get Clarisse to Methodist for the scan. He believes Clarisse could be an evolutionary link between snakes who take a lot of small bites to eat their prey and snakes who swallow their prey whole.
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