I started 3D-printing the skull of an Allosaurus! This project has been a long time coming. Ever since I found out researchers will upload their scans and/or data to repositories the very first dinosaur I began to look for was Tyrannosaurus and I ended up with INCREDIBLE results. Allosaurus was the second and much more challenging search for data.
The artist InhumanSpecies, the same artist who digitally sculpted my T. rex, has a model of an Allosaurus skull on Cults3D that is printer ready but I wanted to see if I could find scans. I found several skeletons lacking the permissions to download. Then I checked SketchFab and found a couple low poly skulls but nothing I was excited about. Then I decided to double check MorphoSource at a later date and the data for the study titled “Endocranial anatomy of Allosaurus supports neural trends among non-avian theropod dinosaurs” had been uploaded, so I requested access to the data, received it, and segmented the data into the STL files.
The wait was worth it as I got access to 2 different skulls from 2 different species of Allosaurus, so I got a choice! Between A. fragilis and A. jimmadseni I chose to work on A. jimmadseni for a few reasons: it’s the smaller skull of the 2, it’s a half skull so wall mounting it for display should be easy while also cutting down on print time and filament used, and my most desired Allosaurus specimen for printing purposes is MOR 693, Big Al, whose scans I know exist but I could not find anywhere. Big Al was reclassified into A. jimmadseni in 2020 when the species was recognized so this skull is the closest I think I can get to printing Big Al.
This skull is the holotype of A, jimmadseni and it’s known as A.J. and DINO 11541 Both the Allosaurus skulls reside at @dinosaurnps with the A. fragilis skull (the larger skull not being printed) on display.
Finally I upgraded my printer from an Ender 3 to a Neptune 4 Plus. This print that would’ve taken 2 days on the Ender took less than 12 hours on the Neptune. The new printer has been amazing so far and I can’t wait to use it to finish A.J.!
#allosaurus #allosaurusjimmadseni #skull #replica #fossil #3dprinting