NASA Uses Rocket Testing Equipment to Analyze Dinosaur Skull

NASA Tech Briefs, Mar 2005

NASA scientists used equipment originally designed to examine rocket motor assemblies and turbine blades to scan the skull of a tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that was discovered on a South Dakota ranch in 1992. Dubbed "Samson," it is believed to be the most complete and well-preserved T. rex skull ever discovered.

The skull, which resides at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA, was sent to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, where Dr. Ron Beshears led the project at Marshall's National Center for Advanced Manufacturing. The team ran tests on the fossil with a computed tomography scanner used for nondestructive testing of space parts and equipment.

The scans provided Carnegie Museum experts with detailed cross-section images of the skull, which will allow them to compare Samson's skull with previous computed tomography scans of other T. rex fossils and establish a baseline to determine anomalies in future finds.

"Marshall is one of the few places in the world with the technology needed for such a complex scan," said Dr. Chris Beard, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Carnegie Museum. "We are very excited NASA has agreed to provide space-age technology for this project."

Said Beshears, "The idea of working with 65 million-year-old dinosaur bones alongside next-generation space technologies is something we're quite excited about."

For more information, visit NASA Marshall at www.msfc.nasa.gov.