The bear came from a rescue centre, before living out her life at the sanctuary she was kept as a pet. It was stipulated that when she died her remains were to be used for educational purposes, and now, here she stands.

Nom nom nom

All the scans, reconstructions, and 3D models will be made freely available in open repositories. That means anyone, from entomologists to curious hobbyists, could explore these ancient insects in digital space.

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What emerges won’t just be pretty pictures. These models could rewrite parts of insect evolutionary history.

Each piece of amber will be scanned in full at a resolution fine enough to spot features a few micrometres across (a micrometre is one-thousandth of a millimetre — about one-hundredth the width of a human hair). 20 chosen specimens will then be magnified further still for an even sharper look.

Why does this matter? Well, these insects lived during the Early Eocene, around 53 million years ago, when flowering plants had taken over the world in what scientists call the Angiosperm Terrestrial Revolution (ATR).

At SOLEIL, near Paris, a group of researchers led by OUMNH’s own Dr Corentin Jouault are preparing to shine one of the world’s brightest X-ray beams through over 100 blocks of Oise amber, each containing a fossilised insect no larger than a fingernail.

The most revealing details, like delicate mouthparts, are sealed away under the resin’s glossy surface. Cutting into them would destroy what makes them precious.

Enter the SOLEIL synchrotron.

Learn more here:

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