Palaeontologists print out 3D dinosaur bones

AZO Robotics reports.

For the first time, scale models of real fossils will be used in order to test hypotheses about how prehistoric animals and dinosaurs lived and moved during their time.

According to Gizmodo, 3D printing technology can serve a number useful functions for palaeontologists.

It can be used to make new life-size replicas of dinosaur skeletons for museum display, as well as to print small, scale models for educational purposes.

“Technology in palaeontology hasn't changed in about 150 years,” Forbes quotes Drexel palaeontologist Doctor Kenneth Lacovara as saying.

“We use shovels and pickaxes and burlap and plaster. It hasn't changed, until right now.”