Micro and Nano
CT scanning

3d x-ray imaging of amber

3D X-rays from CT scanning

Computed tomography, or CT, is a scanning technology that uses X-rays to create images of the inside of an object; it is widely used in hospitals for diagnosing internal injuries and diseases. CT is a powerful technique, which is capable of producing images cheaply and quickly, usually without causing any damage to the original sample. This means that it has many applications outside of hospitals, including the study of fossils in amber(i.e. modern palaeontology). Medical scanners use low-energy X-rays and short exposure times to reduce the amount of radiation a patient receives, but non-medical (industrial) CT is not restricted in this way (when applied to inanimate objects like fossils). Therefore, such systems can penetrate dense layers of amber and generate very high-resolution images, resolving details less than one-hundredth of a millimetre in size. CT scans can be reconstructed into 3d objects and here at AAKZ we offer STL, NRRD and UVF files, we may start offering DICOMS too for all our vertebrate fossils. If you cannot see the fossil or file format you require listed here please feel free to contact us.

here is a link to the 3D STL file reconstructed from a micro ct scan of a lizard like creature in amber, you are free to use it for computer art, research, 3d printing etc as we support open source science and education

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/ct-scan-render-vertebrate-in-99-million-year-old-amber-from-myanmar

Those wanting an instantly loading 3d model can download or edit one for free on Sketchfab or play with our embedded version to try first, you can move the 3d volume with your mouse go ahead and try!

micro ctscan recon of bipedal lizard in amber by BURMITE on Sketchfab

If you wish to edit this file change colors or textures etc or just download to edit on your own machine they the files are free and open source for you to enjoy as you like https://skfb.ly/6UQFM

We will be posting more links to other CT scans here soon, we appreciate you visiting our site too, if you are looking for a better more comprehensive listing of fossils in Kachin amber then you may consider checking out the new wiki page under development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleobiota_of_Burmese_amber

Researching ambers does not have to be expensive and throughout this website there are numerous tips and pieces of advice that are useful to collectors and scientists alike. Many simple cheap solutions can be implemented without sacrificing quality, if there is a research aspect that we have not answered then please feel free to let us know and we shall endeavor to help whenever possible, if you have any interesting solutions that you would like to share with is then of course we are always glad to hear from you too.

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Bird in amber

We have discovered quite a few birds in amber, they are amongst the hardest of all inclusions to find in Burmite, often they suffer from bad decay, poor amber transparency. Very rarely indeed do we find exceptional bird inclusions in amber and a few of them are shown on this website on various different pages.