To create each creature, Shen collected the bones from a variety of animals, mixed them together to give them autonomy from the original creature, and then reconstructed a new skeleton that bore no resemblance to the original creature. By creating his sculptures in this manner, Shen's skeletons gained an appearance of authenticity, encouraging viewers to view them as if they were real skeletons of extinct creatures such as they might encounter in a museum. Shen hoped that this kind of presentation would precipitate discussion about current issues such as genetic engineering. He says that he is "entirely convinced that scientists are capable of creating dragons" and points out that each element of his creatures comes from the bones of actual animals, thus demonstrating that the building blocks for creating such fantastical creatures already exist.