3D printing enabling dinosaur skeleton reconstruction
Posted By Lucie Gaget on Nov 13, 2019 |
Additive manufacturing enables great reconstruction projects. It can be in the architectural sector or medical sector reconstructions. Jaw reconstruction or knee reconstruction
3D printing enabling dinosaur skeleton reconstruction
Posted By Lucie Gaget on Nov 13, 2019 |
Additive manufacturing enables great reconstruction projects. It can be in the architectural sector or medical sector reconstructions. Jaw reconstruction or knee reconstruction are made possible using additive manufacturing, and we saw how 3D printing could be used for the reconstruction of monuments. But today, we are about to tell you about another kind of reconstruction made thanks to additive manufacturing: dinosaur skeleton reconstruction!
How is 3D a great technique to study dinosaurs, and why is additive manufacturing such a great way to reconstruct dinosaur skeletons?
3D printing to preserve history
We recently interviewed Aurélien Mounier, a paleoanthropologist using additive manufacturing for his work. As he explains “3D printing is really important to study fossils coming from abroad. Indeed, we can bring back the fossil virtually and 3D print it to get a new physical version of it. With Sculpteo we recently 3D printed a fossil from Kenya. Fossils that I am also working on with 3D modeling can also be 3D printed and studied like real ones. “This way, the fossil doesn’t risk to be damaged
Additive manufacturing is also more and more used for museum conservation. For museums, art, and history, 3D printing is actually helping on different levels.
This 3D technology can first be used for cultural conservation, in order to create replicas of rare or fragile artifacts. Museums visitors can sometimes be tempted to touch, and this way, damaged these rare pieces. To avoid this, creating replicas of these objects to put them in the museum and allowing visitors to interact with it, seems to be an interesting idea which totally rethinks the museum experience as we know it. This could also be a new way to help people with visual impairment to experience art, by touching and feeling the shapes of 3D printed artifacts.
3D printing is also offering the opportunity to restore damaged sculptures. A lot of art pieces, structures and statues have been destroyed by ISIS during the last years in the city of Palmyra in Syria. Some restoration experts in Rome used the additive manufacturing technology in order to recreate some 