Phoenix x ray

The thin-sections were produced following standard petrographic methods (Klein and Sander)⁵⁰ and then studied and photographed with a Leica® DM 750 P compound polarizing microscope equipped with a digital Leica® ICC50HD camera. Histological terminology follows Francillon-Vieillot et al.⁵¹ . Some samples were micro-CT-scanned with a v|tome|xs by GE phoenix|x-ray at the Steinmann Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie (StIPB) in Bonn (Germany). Image visualization was performed using VGStudio MAX 2.0 software (Volume Graphics GmbH) and Adobe Photoshop. Cross-sections of samples were transformed into black (bone) and white (cavities and vascular spaces) images to measure bone compactness with a custom-designed pixel-counting computer program developed by P. Göddertz (StIPB).

Measurements (Table 1) were taken with a caliper. In the text and figures, Arabic numbers refer to the correct anatomical positions of the articulated vertebrae of the neck and the anterior trunk region. Roman numbers refer to isolated or disarticulated elements without any reference to their anatomical position. The single slabs forming the entire block were distinguished by letters (A–M). Slab E (Fig. 5) was µct scanned with a v|tome|x s scanner manufactured by GE phoenix|X-ray (Wunstorf, Germany). The µct machine is operated by the Institute of Geosciences, Paleontology, at the University of Bonn (Bonn, Germany). Voltage and current were set to 100 kV and 120 μA, respectively, voxel size was 121 μm. Due to the dimensions of the block, a higher resolution was not possible with this machine.