GB3D type fossils go to Italy....

The 3D Fossil team was in Bologna (Italy) over the second weekend in October  for the "GeoDay" event organized by the Alma Mater Studiorum University. This is the very place where the word geology, or rather “geologia”, was coined in 1603 by Ulisse Aldrovandi !

It was a busy 2-day event showing people the reasons for studying geology and what exactly a geologist does. The 3D Fossils display was hosted in the Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini (http://www.museocapellini.it/), home of one the Diplodocus carnegii skeleton copies, like the one you can see at the National History Museum in London. 

Technician Dr Michela Contessi at the 3D-Fossils stand in the Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini, 

just before the doors opened. 

We demonstrated the potential of the UK fossil types online database and we illustrated the power of the iPad  for interacting with 3D models. We demonstrated 3D model acquisition with the NextEngine laser scanner and we exhibited a 3D printer - a  MakerBot Replicator 2X - printing fossils in red ABS plastic.

FS4053, “horny trilobite” from the palaeontological collection at Wollaton Hall (Nottingham), 

3D printed with red ABS plastic. 

Visitors were enthusiastic in their assessment of the use of new technologies in museum palaeontological collections and in particular how they helped to make collections more accessible to both the general public and researchers from all around the world! 

3D printer in action, printig red plastic fossils

Dr Michela Contessi