For Immediate Release Contact: Greg Borzo (312) 665-7100 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Indeed, Westneat, Lee and their coauthors are already aiming the synchrotron at the jaws of insects to see how they chew. “Most of the twelve moving parts in an insect’s jaw mechanism are internal, so our inability to see inside living, moving insects has prevented us from understanding how these parts work together,” Westneat says. Down the road, Westneat envisions using synchrotron x-ray videos to study a wide variety of animal functions, biomechanics and movements. New discoveries about animal function can have broad implications. For example, active tracheal breathing in the head and thorax among insects may have played an important role in the evolution of terrestrial locomotion and flight in insects, and be a prerequisite for oxygen delivery to complex sensory systems and the brain, the authors say. This would not only help scientists learn more about the animals studied but also provide insights on human health. For example, studying how larval fish move their backbones could shed light on how to treat spinal chord injuries in humans. Likewise, studying the walls of blood vessels in mice and the tiny hearts in beetles (each beetle has eight to ten hearts) could shed light on how to treat high blood pressure. “Basic principles of mammal, fish or insect physiology and function could have important implications for health care,” Westneat says. “We intend to develop this novel technique for a range of applications that will greatly improve our knowledge of how tiny animals live and function.” Ground Beetle Researchers shined an Advanced Photon Source synchrotron x-ray beam through the head and thorax of this ground beetle, Platynus decentis, to view the compression and expansion of tracheal tubes. They discovered that insects breathe rapidly in a manner similar to lungs. Tracheal tubes are visible at the junction between the head and thorax.