December 2000 Dinosaur experts are using medical science to uncover ancient magnetic personalities. Back in 1997 quarry workers in Elgin in north-east Scotland were digging stone when they found something bizarre. A rock was discovered with a small hole that suggested a larger cavity hidden inside. They contacted a local student, Carol Hopkins, who was studying fossil footprints in the area. The rock turned out to be a mouldic fossil.
Mouldic fossils form when an animal dies and decomposes.
A layer of rock forms around the bones and packs hard. The original bone crumbles and disappears leaving a hollow cavity and just an impression of what once was there. Actually seeing the impression of these skeletons has always been difficult. The only way of viewing what remained of the animal was to fill the cavity with rubber before smashing the rock to get at the impression. For the first time ever Neil Clark from the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow has attempted to see inside a mouldic fossil using a technique normally applied to people.