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A biometrical analysis of the dinoflagellate cyst Lingulodinium machaerophorum (Deflandre and Cookson 1955) Wall, 1967 in 144 globally distributed surface sediment samples revealed that the average process length is related to summer salinity and temperature at a water depth of 30 m by the equation (salinity/temperature) = (0.078*average process length + 0.534) with R² = 0.69. This relationship can be used to reconstruct palaeosalinities, albeit with caution. The particular ecological window can be associated with known distributions of the corresponding motile stage Lingulodinium polyedrum (Stein) Dodge, 1989. Confocal laser microscopy showed that the average process length is positively related to the average distance between process bases (R²=0.78), and negatively related to the number of processes (R²=0.65). These results document the existence of two end members in cyst formation: one with many short, densely distributed processes and one with a few, long, widely spaced processes, which can be respectively related to low and high salinity/temperature ratios. Obstruction during formation of the cysts causes anomalous distributions of the processes. From a biological perspective, processes function to facilitate sinking of the cysts through clustering.

For years X-ray computerized tomography has been widely used as a medical diagnostical tool.This non-destructive technique soon turned out to be very practical in rock material research. In the 1970s CT was introduced in material research while in the nineties, micro-CT became an important non-destructive research technique. Recently nano -CT is being developed creating even more possibilities for the 3D visualization of small objects. In this paper CT, micro-CT and nano-CT are specified and discussed. Several applications illustrate the possibilities, specific advantages and limitations of each machine. Like every technique some restrictions occur, but X-ray CT turns out to be an emerging non-destructive analytical technique with a lot of possibilities in material research.