Carolina Santa Isabel Nascimento is a doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Natural Resources (PPGERN) at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar). One of the objectives of her research is to discover the habits and behavior of Brazilian megafauna by direct or indirect identification of remains of plants, bones, hair, or parasites. To do so, she studies micro-inclusions in fossilized animal feces (coprolites), using samples from different Brazilian archaeological and paleontological sites. She says that the classic techniques used to analyze this type of material are destructive and not recommended for work with rare samples like fossils; X-ray microtomography makes it possible to obtain detailed information without damaging the samples. During her studies, Carolina discovered the potential for using synchrotron light techniques in her area of research, and during a university visit to the CNPEM she got a closer look at the laboratory installations and their possibilities. “Often at a paleontological site we don’t find the skeleton of the animal, but we have evidence that it passed through that territory. Coprolites are one such type of evidence.”
Advisor: Marcelo Adorna Fernandes | Facility: LNLS/X-ray microtomography (IMX)