|A computer model of the sychotron at Switzerland. |
The offshoots are the individual 'microscope' moduals
Based in Switzerland, it is a vast particle accelerator that fires high energy electrons round a circuit. When they approach the speed of light, they have enough energy to penetrate solid rock. The machine can be used to x-ray fossils without damaging them in any way and build up a three dimensional, manipulable model. Palaeontologists and physicists from the University of Bristol (UK), the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (China), the Museum National D'Histoire (France) and the Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland) have collaborated to study the galeaspid fossils and vertebrate evolution.
|An artist's rendition of a galeaspid and the |
structure of its brain and sensory organs
In the embryology of living vertebrates, jaws develop from stem cells that migrate from the hindbrain and down between the developing nostrils. This cannot happen in living jawless vertebrates as there is a single nasal organ that gets in the way. All vertebrates were originally jawless and therefore they could not have evolved jaws unless the structure of the brain and sensory organs changed. Professor Min Zhu stated that 'this is the first real evidence for the steps that led to the evolutionary origin of jawed vertebrates and the fossil provides this with rock solid proof.'