Spectrum News 1
HEMET, Calif. — 3D printers can print anything from jewelry to artificial limbs, but they can also be used to print relics from the past. Dr. Alton Dooley built the largest 3D lab of any natural history museum in Southern California and today, he’s printing the leg bone for a mastodon, an animal that’s been extinct for over 10,000 years.
“This particular piece has been printing for almost two days so far,” said Dooley. “Each of the other four pieces will take at least a day and a half to two days. And when that’s done, they all have to be glued together, finished, painted, everything else before we have a finished bone that we can put out on display.”
They may take a long time to print, but it sure beats waiting thousands of years. As the executive director at the Western Science Center in Hemet, Dr. Dooley built the 3D printing lab not only to create installations for the exhibit floor, but also to foster relationships with educators and other museums.
“3D printing is the future of paleontology and especially the interface between paleontology and the public,” explained Dooley.