Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence in Palaeontology (Kaye et al. 2015)

I urge you all to take a look
at a PlosOne paper titled: “Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence in Palaeontology” (Kaye et al. 2015).

From the abstract:
“Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF) is a next generation technique that is emerging as a way to fluoresce paleontological specimens that remain dark under typical UV. A laser’s ability to concentrate very high flux rates both at the macroscopic and microscopic levels results in specimens fluorescing in ways a standard UV bulb cannot induce.”

Many methods are used to pull data from fossils,
from UV light, to using a microscope, to using visible light filters to DGS (digital graphic segregation). Now a new method appears to pull data from bone and soft tissue previously invisible using traditional techniques: Laser-stimulated fluorescence (LSF).

Someone needs to put 
Sharovipteryx and Longisquama under the laser. And lots of other flat specimens as well. From what I hear from Tom Kaye, this new method has not received the attention it should have. But all tests to date have recovered additional data that the eye and camera cannot see using traditional techniques.

You will be hearing more and more
about LSF in the future, especially when dealing with small, flattened, 2D fossils.

References
Kaye TG, Falk AR, Pittman M, Sereno PC, Martin LD, Burnham DA, Gong E Xu X and Wang Y 2015. Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence in Paleontology. http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125923