News

3D Printing Brings a Sea Monster to Life

You might have seen the recent story about the discovery of the giant fossil that was extracted in the UK in the beginning of December 2023. The skull of a pliosaur, an ancient marine reptile from the Jurassic period, was…

3D printed sea monster
3Dnatives

You might have seen the recent story about the discovery of the giant fossil that was extracted in the UK in the beginning of December 2023. The skull of a pliosaur, an ancient marine reptile from the Jurassic period, was first found on the cliffs of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, a world heritage site consisting of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous cliffs, by amateur fossil hunter Phil Jacobs. Indeed, the discovery was documented in the show “Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster” which aired on the BCC on January 1st and followed famed naturalist Sir David Attenborough as he investigated this fossil. But did you know that 3D printing was also used to help understand and visualize this so-called sea monster?

To understand how 3D printing was used, it is first important to understand why exactly this discovery was so important. The two-meter skull which includes 130 teeth is one of the biggest and most complete specimens of its type, and it would have never been discovered if the snout had not been happened upon by chance when it fell onto the beach. Pliosauroidea, which are more commonly referred to as pliosaurs and nicknamed the ‘Tyrannosaurus rex of the seas‘, were apex predators in the Jurrassic and Cretaceous periods. But a lot of mystery surrounds these gigantic creatures, especially in terms of how they moved given their size, hence the title sea monster.

The skull fossil of the pliosaur (photo credits: BBC Studios)

Making the Giant 3D Printed Sea Monster

Pliosaurs had a powerful bite (as obvious in the picture of the skull fossil), generating 33,000 newtons of force. An incredible amount considering that the living animal with the most powerful bite today is the saltwater crocodile, which only generates 16,000 newtons, and humans can only generate 700 newtons. It also was fast and moved thanks to four powerful flippers. These flippers are where scientists have been stumped, as it was unclear how they could be used to propel the enormous creature through the water. Enter Dr. Luke Muscutt and James Hogg.