Observing the wonders of the natural world is a truly amazing experience. Beluga Whale Migration Live Stream A visit to your favorite zoo is great, but what about the wonders of long-extinct species that roamed the Earth millions of years ago? IFLScience visited the Natural History Museum in London. Learn all about their shiny new bronze DiplodocusFern, and What to Make Dinosaur specimens for display.
Standing in front of a giant bronze statue Diplodocus Museum’s new Jurassic Garden welcomes visitors Professor Suzie MaidmentFern, the museum’s palaeontologist, explains what work goes into creating the dinosaur specimens on display – a staggering 22 metres long and 4 metres high specimen that is also a replica of the world-famous Dippy. Diplodocus Dippy has greeted visitors in the museum’s main entrance hall for nearly 40 years, but thanks to new technology and knowledge that didn’t exist when Dippy first arrived in London in 1905, Fern has been improved and is now more scientifically accurate.
of Original Dippy It was discovered in Wyoming, USA, in 1899. The billionaire businessman Andrew Carnegie planned to buy it to display at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. But is the remains of a creature that died so long ago still a bone? Paleontologists and Amateur fossil hunter Discovering a dinosaur skeleton in the wilderness. What did they actually find and what will then be on display?
“We found fossilised bone, which is a combination of actual bone tissue and minerals that have permeated the bone and precipitated and replaced parts of the bone over the millions of years it has been buried in the earth,” Prof Maidment told IFLScience.
You’ll often see a combination of fossilized bones and replicas in museums for a variety of reasons. Not all skeletons can be exhibited, and some have more scientific value when studied, so museums around the world make replicas to display to the public. By law, some bones must remain in the country where they were found, so creating replicas is a great way to introduce species to a wider audience.
Sophie StegosaurusThe second entrance of the museum greets visitors with the most complete Stegosaurus Maidment told IFLScience that most of the skulls on display at the world’s largest exhibition facility are real bones: the real skulls are stored behind the scenes, but the skulls on display are 3D printed replicas because they are in pieces and have high scientific value to researchers who can study them in detail, rather than being stuck together for display.
Dippy, and now Fern, are perfect replicas of Carnegie. Diplodocus The body is made up of three skeletons, and the skull is made up of many more. In fact, Dippy’s hind legs were originally used as front legs as well, because scientists didn’t know what front legs looked like. But don’t worry. Since being replaced.
To make replicas of specimens, they take an old mold like Dippy’s, cover each bone in plaster of Paris, and use that to make a detailed mold, which they then fill with resin or plastic to replicate each part.
“In the old days, they would cover the bones with a latex or rubber-like liquid, harden it, peel it off the bone and put plaster of Paris inside to make an exact replica,” Maidment explained.
But times have changed, and new technologies like 3D printing made it possible to scan all 292 of Dippy’s bones, make a mold, and cast Fern in more weather-resistant bronze for installation in the museum’s gardens. While creating a bronze dinosaur like Fern was a technical challenge, 3D printing also gives scientists a more flexible material that is easier to work with when working on a life-size model of an animal that weighed 30 tonnes.
