Revealing the leg of an ancient snake

last modified 16-02-2011 17:38

Also the second ESRF press release in 2011 on a publication in "Vertebrate Palaeontology" attracted global media coverage. No wonder, snakes are fascinating, if not frightening animals. And if in addition, they have legs ...

Studying how ancient snakes lost their legs in the course of evolution helps answering a hot debate among scientists whether the ancestors of today's snakes were terrestrial or marine animals. The work led by Alexandra Houssaye from the French Natural History Museum at beamline ID19 was covered by more than 100 media, as a count on Google News showed.

The BBC's Jonathan Amos had been here three years ago, and he interviewed Alexandra when she undertook the first tomography scans in April 2008. Read his story on the BBC News Website:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12393387

ESRF in the media: Oldest Record of Insect Pollination 15-05-2012; How sand becomes glass 15-05-2012; Fluorescent proteins 11-04-2012; No Volcanos on the Moon 02-04-2012; Sea Urchins are no Easy Prey 02-04-2012; more

Conferences: Debian for Scientific Facilities Days 24-06-2012; HSC14: Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation in Materials for Energy 17-09-2012; Training Course in Complementary Optical Spectroscopies in Macromolecular Crystallography 19-09-2012; SYNEMAG 2012 17-10-2012; more conferences…

Seminars: PIXSIC – design and characterisation of a miniaturised pixellated silicon probe for in vivo functional brain imaging in freely moving rats 31-05-2012; Growth and properties of the window layer of a chalcopyrite based thin film solar cell device 01-06-2012; more seminars…

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