Dilophosaurus: Is This the Only 3D Mount?
3D Dilophosaurus!
I am on a quest to determine who made this 3D mount and to learn if it was cast from original bones. The texture on the femur and some of the vertebrae suggests it was made from casts. As it has been mounted here since at least 1997, when I first observed it, then that would mean it was either made from the holotype material, lifted from another specimen, or done by hand.
I know of a plaque mount (I have posted it here before), multiple sculpts from bronze to feathered to scaled, an odd partial plaque I hope to show someday soon that was new to me, but no 3D mounts other than the one that toured with the Jurassic Park Lost Worlds exhibit, which I think was based off of the Chinese specimen, #Dilophosaurus sinensis (now #Sinosaurus), which was alledgesly cast from the original. I have a rentable cast of it and have my doubts that it was molded straight from the original material.
This cast, at the Museum of Northern Arizona, conveys the size of this predator quite nicely (being on a base helps :-)). That two-crested skull towering above mere mortals does the trick. I wonder if those crests were brightly colored for display? Could it flush them with blood and generate a rainbow of reactions?
I have been on a Dilophosaurus kick of late, having finally touched the holotype (alas, no pics or vids will be forthcoming on that front), which had far more material than I ever realized existed. When people write multiple skull and skeletons, they aren’t kidding! It would be amazing if that material was 3D scanned, it is in great shape. However, there are understandable politics associated with the holotype material.
I find it amazing that Arizona opted to NOT use it as our State Dinosaur. We have a State Fossil, Petrified Wood, but I can’t figure out the species selected. The reason? Connecticut used it! Why did CT do that? Well…
They have a beautiful track site that is roughly the same age and, as such, they decided it could be Dilopho stomping about. However, #Triceratops and #Stegosaurus are shared by states, surely AZ could have done so, considering we have the holotype and there is no law against it. Politicians…
#FossilCrates