Bone and feather

This iconic fossil, mapped using synchrotron-based imaging at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, marks a major step in the evolution of modern birds. If all you could see was phosphorus and you happened to have this Archaeopteryx fossil on your lap...this is what you might see. Preserved for over 150 million years this life-defining element jumps from the bones of this early bird, but note the delicate 'ghost' of feathers, also preserved in phosphorus. When measured, the levels of this element were comparable to that in modern feathers. The element was emplaced by biological processes over 150 million years ago and have remained in place all this time. This image was generated from three scans by Dr Phil Manning.

Confuciusornis sanctus is the first beaked bird from the Lower Cretaceous of China. This Synchrotron Rapid Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence (SRS-XRF) image was scanned at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (California).  The colours relate to the distribution of three elements and their concentrations: Green is zinc, blue calcium, and red copper. The image was created from SRS-XRF data by Dr Roy Wogelius (University of Manchester) and published in the journal Science (2011).