At our annual Science Under the Stars fundraiser last September, or donors provided us with funding to start a #D scanning and printing lab the the Western Science Center. While some of our equipment is still on order, our first printer arrived a few weeks ago and we've been printing as much as possible while we train ourselves in its use. During the Valley of the Mastodons Symposium, Bernard Means from the Virtual Curation Lab scanned a number of our specimens. While we wait for our scanner to arrive we've been printing some of Bernard's scans.Earlier this week we printed a right Bison calcaneum, seen above in medial view. The original specimen is exhibited in the floor case with the mastodon "Little Stevie" (they were found together). It's difficult to photograph through this case (below), and it's difficult to open; the symposium is the first time it has been opened in 11 years! So while the case was opened we scanned as much as possible, including this calcaneum (which is visible in the center of the case photo below):
This bone was our largest single print to date, and took about 24 hours to print. We've since printed a slightly larger bone as we continue to explore the limits of the printer.
The calcaneum is part of the foot and ankle structure, and forms the heel and the attachment point for the Achilles tendon. This particular specimen was collected at Diamond Valley Lake's East Dam, and is roughly 45,000 years old. The original specimen is now back on display in its floor case, while the printed replica will be added to our teaching collection.