Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
According to Science Daily Paleobiologist J. William Schopf and team have used two techniques called confocal laser scanning microscopy and Raman spectroscopy to construct 3-D (click link above) images of fossils inside rocks:
"It's astounding to see an organically preserved, microscopic fossil inside a rock and see these microscopic fossils in three dimensions," said Schopf, who is also a geologist, microbiologist and organic geochemist. "It's very difficult to get any insight about the biochemistry of organisms that lived nearly a billion years ago, and this (confocal microscopy and Raman spectroscopy) gives it to you. You see the cells in the confocal microscopy, and the Raman spectroscopy gives you the chemistry.
*snip*
Raman spectroscopy, a technique used primarily by chemists, allows you to see the molecular and chemical structure of ancient microorganisms in three dimensions, revealing what the fossils are made of without destroying the samples. Raman spectroscopy can help prove whether fossils are biological, Schopf said. This technique involves a laser from a microscope focused on a sample; most of the laser light is scattered, but a small part gets absorbed by the fossil.Schopf is the first scientist to use this technique to analyze ancient microscopic fossils. He discovered that the composition of the fossils changed; nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur were removed, leaving carbon and hydrogen.
Confocal microscopy uses a focused laser beam to make the organic walls of the fossils fluoresce, allowing them to be viewed in three dimensions. The technique, first used by biologists to study the inner workings of living cells, is new to geology.
To give you an idea of what Confocal microscopy is capable of, below is a picture of a zebra fish showing the muscle sarcomeres:
I don't know much about either technique, but I wonder how applicable this is to other fossils...?
The research will appear in Astrobiology.
Comments
We had Bill Schopf out to give a seminar (CSU San Bernardino). He is a very interesting guy, and his work on early life (fossilized as stromatolites) is fascinating. I think eventually this will change a lot of peoples notions about how life originates (it probably already has, I just am not that up on the subject).
Posted by: Paul Orwin | February 3, 2006 11:04 AM
Wow, this is really amazing. What I'm most interested in, as a tophonomist, is what this technique can tell us about how differently fossils are preserved in different environments on a molecular level. Wow, thanks!
Posted by: Brad Hoge | February 3, 2006 11:21 AM
I expect it will change a lot of notions about how life originates. To be able to see cells and understand the chemistry of early fossils is purely amazing - prospects for future research are phenomenal...
Posted by: afarensis
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February 3, 2006 11:48 AM