Breaking the size barrier to a full understanding of a unique Devonian tetrapod fauna.

Experiment ES-1297, which was carried out on Beamline BM18 in February 2023, aimed to image a collection of previously unstudied tetrapod fossils from the Devonian of Greenland by propagation phase contrast synchrotron microtomography. It was highly successful for small to medium-sized specimens, with superb data capture including evidence of soft-tissue preservation, but the largest blocks (20-30 cm diameter) yielded poor image quality because the currently installed detector is not optimal for such pieces. This is unfortunate, because the largest blocks contain semi-articulated skeletons, critical for interpreting the individual bones in smaller blocks. A new detector with a larger field of view and and much better properties will soon be installed; at the invitation of the Local Contacts I am submitting this follow-up application for beamtime to scan the large blocks with the new detector, thus completing this landmark project.