3D Scanning Dinosaurs!
This may be the coolest thing I have ever done…
I was lost and a bit scared.
The building was a maze and I hate mazes. I asked people for directions, and they gave me snide looks, like I was an alien, and walked away.
I called my contact, and he told me to go into the basement. It was dark, cold, and there weren’t any windows.
I walked past some pipes and a boiler, and then finally I saw the sign -> DinoLab Room B1-001
I opened the door, and entered Jurassic park.
I spent 4 years at the University of Alberta and had no idea this place existed. Thousands of dinosaur samples, skulls, bones, and eggs were down there in the depths of the bio-sciences building. Real life archaeologists exist and word down there in the dungeon. Like Indiana Jones.
And they had called me to come help them out.
The discovered a one of a kind young Chasmosaurus skull. This is the only sample of a young Chasmosaurus ever found, and they wanted to make sure it was accurately preserved.
Chasmosaurus
Thats where I came in. I brought my 3D scanner, accurate to 0.001 inches, which scans full color and texture, put on my archaeologists hat and went to work.
Being careful not to touch or disturb the skull, I proceeded to scan.
It took about an hour, and I was able to capture the intricate detail of the artifact, and store it forever digitally.
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Right
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Left
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Front Left
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Front Right
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Back
Young Chasmosaurus- 3D Scan Bottom
They were massively impressed. This technology is going to change the industry.
Here is how:
Digital Archiving
These fossils take years to find, years to clean, thousands of dollars to transport, and only seconds to destroy.
I was petrified that I would drop and break the young dino skull. They told me it took years to clean it, and if I slipped it could shatter. They would loose all their hard work, and critically important research evidence.
If at least it was backed up digitally, they would have something if it broke (although that is still not ideal).
Digital archiving protects evidence from breaking, from fires, and from theft. When you have invested tens of thousands of dollars into something, this is important.
3D Printing
When preserving fossils, a standard procedure is to clean / prepare the fossil, and then make a mold from it.
To make a mold takes days or weeks, is expensive in material and labour, and can be risky as the mold maker must be really careful not to break the fossil when molding.
There are (2) solutions which 3D printing can provide to solve some of these problems:
You can skip the mold directly and move straight to a 3D replica. There are a variety of materials available for 3D printing such as PLA, ABS, and full color powder bed printing. The 3D print can be used for showcasing, transporting, analyzing, measuring and more.
You can 3D print a replica and then use the print to make a mold. If the final result you are after is a mold, then this is the fastest and safest option. The 3D scanning is hands free, so the risk of damaging the original specimen is low. The resultant 3D print will have all of gaps and cracks filled, so molding will be easy and accurate.
3D Print of Chasmosaurusin PLA
Measuring
There are no perfect geometrical features on a fossil such as a spheres or planes which you can accurately measure from. This makes measuring with verniers, micrometers, and other tools difficult and inaccurate.
With a 3D mesh file, you easily and accurately take measurements from any points you wish.
This opens new possibilities for further analyzing fossil features.
Length Measurement across Chasmosaurus Skull
Internal skull measurement of Chasmosaurus
Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
Universities and museums are starting to use Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on a more frequent basis to determine characteristics of dinosaurs such as strength, bite force, muscle mass and other technical research.
With a 3D scan file, the researcher can directly start to do FEA on the fossil saving tons of time re-constructing the fossil in 3D.
3D Scan Mesh file From Chasmosaurus
3D Mesh file from Chasmosaurus Side View
Collaborating
Currently, fossils are shared with museums and universities across the world. For a small sample such as the young Chasmosaurus, shipping is not a huge problem with the exception of risking damage to the original sample.
But, for larger samples such as a full grown Chasmosaurus, T-Rex, or other massive dinosaur, shipping is not only risky but also incredibly difficult logistically as the samples can weight thousands of pounds.
With 3D scanning technology, samples can be transferred instantaneously around the globe so that researchers can collaborate.
And, coupled with 3D printing, samples can now be showcased in multiple locations all around the world simultaneously.
Interested to Learn More?
Contact us today and we can answer you questions, provide demonstrations, and get you started with 3D scanning!