it doesn't even fit!
This task—inserting a replica of the biggest creature to ever walk the planet—is made easier by modern manufacturing methods. Because the museum only has around 40 percent of the dinosaur’s bones, they have to make the remaining 60 percent from scratch. Fortunately, dinosaurs are symmetrical; if a bone on one side of the body is missing its complement, paleontologists can replicate its mirror image and use it to fill in the gap. In the old days, curators would create casts and fill them with plaster or fiberglass. Today, they can take surface scans and then digitally flip the bone around, once it’s a file on a computer. The pieces get 3-D printed with a foam milling machine, and then coated in resin or fiberglass, “like a surfboard,” Norell says. The result is a much lighter set of bones, which allows for a more agile rigging method. “This one will appear like it’s floating.” (via)
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