Sigma Sd Quattro, applications for Palaeontology

 
 
That's for teaching purposes, but what for research?
I won't bother you with too much explanation, I will only say  that the starting point of any study is the description of the specimen(s) and this is based on direct observation, mostly under stereo microscope, at least in my field of interest (vertebrates).  Without direct observation no reliable description of the specimen can be made. 
 
If the specimen is held in one's institution, there is no problem, one can look at it whenever he needs. If, instead it is held in some other institutions, perhaps far away, and one cannot go there frequently, due to distance, time or whatever may complicate a researcher's life, what can be done? One stays at the institution in which the specimen is hold as long as he can, looking at it and writing down the better notes he can as a basis for the final description, the he brings home the best photographic record he may obtain, to limit the needs of coming back to see the specimen at a minimum.
 
In this case again, the finest the details, the more recognizable are the characters, and the Sigma Sd Quattro makes a difference:
 
 

 

A couple of Eocene fishes
 
 

 

 

Crop 100%

 

 

 

where can you better see the bones outlines?

 

 

A Cretaceous sea snake  (the stone slab is approximately 30 cm high)

 

 

 

 

Do you see the skull bones?

 

 

 

 

Did you know that these archaic snakes still retained tiny hindlimbs? Here you can see this.

 

 

 

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