Daspletosaurus Assembly: Building a Frightful Lizard

There is actually a very good reason why I haven't updated this blog in a while: We've been up to our armpits in the lab building the prototype cast copy of Pete III, our 11m Daspletosaurus.

Ilium cast fresh in the mold

Progress is going quick by Academic standards, and we hope to finish the cast by early May.

Both feet before assembly

Jacob and I called "dibs" on making this skeleton, since we've been working on the project for 10 years.

We just admired this for a few days

It really is a great thing to see all this hard work finally amount to something tangible

Making the pubis. It is no longer blue

Plus everyone loves a huge tyrannosaur, especially one way more rare than T. rex.

Progress as of a few days ago. Tail is 17 feet (5.2m) long

Stay tuned for some more exciting progress really soon. We're finishing the neck, working out the gastral basket and have a few cervical ribs to go. 

Ava Restoration Update: March

Reconstruction of the skull started with 40 individual bones

Whether they are big or small, all ceratopsians sure do have a lot of parts. When they are juveniles like our Avaceratops, the lack of fusion in bones makes that even more apparent. For example, the sacrum (the wad of bones that holds up the rear end of the animal) in adults is usually one giant unwieldy piece. In our young animal, it is 26 individual parts, all with some degree of crushing, though not always in the same direction or degree.

Sacral neural spines molded

More of the massive piles of sacral parts

We've finished preparing the specimen and are busy restoring the individual bones to get molded. Restoration is a catch-all phrase that can mean anything from putting a protective layer of consolidant over the surface to sculpting missing bits to molding crushed vertebral centra, casting them, then cutting up the casts to re-inflate them to their appropriate size.

Most of the ribs, many crushed in strange directions

We're even using our trusty 3d scanning and printing equipment again to make precise mirror images of elements we are missing from one side to help complete the skeleton. In the end we'll end up with everything we need for a full sized standing cast skeleton, hopefully by Memorial Day.

Dorsal neural spines. Each one gets a centrum once restored.

Keep watching the updates on this blog for more news and pics of the restoration, molding and mounting project.

Cap'n Chuck Rises: A Teaser

Like many places, progress on various projects here ebbs and flows. Sadly, the Pete III Daspletosaurus restoration project has been temporarily put on hold so we can address more pressing matters. In this case, it's Cap'n Chuck (RMDRC 06-009), a fairly complete and extremely well preserved Platecarpus tympaniticus specimen that I discovered one cold October day in 2006. A recap of the early part of the project can be found by clicking here. Once prepared the specimen sat in drawers in my office for years.

Squalicorax bites on the top of the skull

That's a nice set of ribs

Recently the powers that be have decided that we should restore and mold the skeleton to replace the smaller Platecarpus planifrons skeleton in our cast catalog. Comparing it to the lower chalk mosasaur, Cap'n Chuck has a nearly identical skull length, more gracile lower jaws and wider top of the skull, however its postcranial skeleton is radically different in proportions. Humerei and vertebrae are nearly twice as big. The ribs are surprisingly uncrushed, preserving their original round cross section as well as curvature. In fact they are so well preserved we can even with some degree of certainty determine which ones belong on the left or right side (nearly imossible to do on typically crushed ribs).

Lower jaws, slender and displaying symmetrical tooth replacement

Nearly complete axis showing beefiness

The differences really are amazing. A few years back, Takuya Konishi split Platecarpus planifrons into its own genus: Plesioplatecarpus. I was very skeptical of this split for a long while, but now after comparing the low chalk mosasaur against its upper chalk relative, I'm really beginning to see his point.

The Little Protostega is Restored!

A final follow-up on the project that I had mentioned in the last update. The project is "finished" for now, all molding is complete and the first two prototypes have been assembles and packed.

Cast bones and skull restoration before assembly

We molded hundreds of individual bones for this project. Those cast parts were restored, put into subassemblies, then remolded to produce the final cast. The cast preserves all the pathologic and taphonomic detail, including what appears to be puncture wounds from predation by one of the many mosasaurs in the Niobrara. I blame it on Tylosaurus.

Prototype #2 flying by the green screen

Prototype #1

Prototype #1 with curator for scale

Amazingly, the whole animal now goes together from a trimmed cast to a final project in less than a week. The first specimen was given to the Sternberg Museum at Fort Hays State University to accompany the original specimen now safely in their collections. The second cast will be on display beginning next week at the Tucson gem and mineral show, at the 22nd street show. Come by and check it out!

Helping with museum renovations

I'm a little late to the party, but I wanted to share this link: http://uwgeomuseumrenovations.blogspot.com/2012/05/updates-on-renovations-happening-at-uw.html

A few years back, a crew from TPI took down the Apatosaurus skeleton from the University of Wyoming Geological Museum, reprepared and stabilized the bones, then remounted the skeleton in a more modern (non tail-dragging) pose. Recently the museum has been slated for renovations/asbestos abatement so I was sent up to help Dr. Kelli Trujillo and Bill Turner remove the tail (and a Pteranodon cast, and also an Allosaurus, at least in part) from display so work on the museum could commence.

The tail will be back on display later this year, just in case anyone is concerned. It should be viewed as a minor miracle that I actually made it that far up on a scissor lift. I don't do heights well. You can see a complete cast of this Apatosaurus on display at the RMDRC.

Nyctosaurus restoration finished!

Beautifully detailed specimen

We've added another flying critter to our family of casts. This time it's a restoration of a female Nyctosaurus gracilis. This is the smaller of the two flying reptiles found in the Niobrara Chalk of western Kansas, and by far the most rare. Contact me if you're interested in a copy. We're offering a substantial discount off of our introductory price through the end of August.

Top-ish view showing lack of wing claws

Look out for that Pteranodon!

Our restoration ended up with a wingspan of 7 feet. We'll be debuting the crested male specimen in a few weeks, so keep tuned for updates. Also come to the museum to see this specimen now proudly on display in out exhibit hall.

Termonaris: Now with skull... sorta

Assembly of the body of the first cast is done! Just detailing and the skull to go. Today we decided to see what it looks like with the skull on the body. Let's just say we were a bit surprised with the size of the animal that resulted. Here April and Todd do the honors!

Terminonaris is coming together!

A quick update from the last post. Progress on the Terminonaris is being made on the two prototype articulated mounts. All molding except the skull is finished and all parts are poured. The first mount even has an arm! That should get people excites, since we all know people love pointy bits. Just legs, coracoids and a skull to go. Please excuse the clutter in the shop!

Terminonaris restoration project

For the past month or so we've been working hard on restoring a specimen of the extinct crocodilian Terminonaris, in collaboration with the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) in Regina. We were supplied molds of the original slightly crushed specimen, which provide the basis for our restoration. It's been a long but fun process. As of today, restoration and molding of all postcranial elements have been completed. Casts are nearly finished being poured and trimmed... now for the good part - a sneak peek.

We've moved on to the exciting assembly portion of the project. Cast #1 is intended for a travelling exhibit and is being built to the exact specifications provided by the RSM. The animal is pretty dang big, at over 18 feet long. As you can see, the dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae are finished, the ribs and pelvis are hung and the chevrons are being attached. Nearly 100 individual elements so far! I'll be updating our progress as the projects progress. Stay tuned.