Long-Gone Mollusk Comes to Life with 3D Printer

Long-Gone Mollusk Comes to Life with 3D Printer
2012 09 26

Scientists have created a lifelike model of a long-extinct sea creature using a 3D printer.

The oval-shaped mollusk — a type of multiplacophoran called Protobalanus spinicoronatus — creeped around on ocean floors 390 million years ago with a single, suction-like foot. It also had an imposing armor of stiff plates surrounded by a ring of spines, but scientists were not sure how exactly these features were arranged. Most known fossil specimens of multiplacophorans are broken and decayed.

The textured model in clay, resin and silicone shows how the multiplacophoran looked 390 million years ago.

In fact, scientists are not sure how the multiplacophorans, which are distinguished by their 17 plates, are related to polyplacophorans (also called chitons), another group of armored mollusks.

To find out, a team of researchers used a micro computed-tomography (CT) scan on fossilized fragments of the prehistoric mollusk found in Ohio 10 years ago. The scan gave the scientists an animated view of the creature’s shells and spines in their original position; the researchers also used the scan to create a three-dimensional cast of the animal in its reconstructed shape. With this information, along with details on living relatives of this mollusk group, the researchers created a multicolored, textured model made of clay, resin and silicone. The result: a view of what the mollusk looked like millions of years ago.

[...]

Read the full article at: news.yahoo.com

Share |

Latest News from our Front Page

So It Begins: Darpa Sets Out to Make Computers That Can Teach Themselves
2013 06 18
The Pentagon’s blue-sky research agency is readying a nearly four-year project to boost artificial intelligence systems by building machines that can teach themselves — while making it easier for ordinary schlubs like us to build them, too. When Darpa talks about artificial intelligence, it’s not talking about modeling computers after the human brain. That path fell out of favor among computer ...

The Illuminati Depopulation Agenda
2013 06 18
While the global elite construct underground bunkers, eat organic and hoard seeds in Arctic vaults; the global poor are being slowly starved thanks to high commodity prices and poisoned with genetically modified (GMO) food. Austerity measures aimed largely at the poor are being imposed on all the nations of the world. Weather events grow more deadly and brushfire wars more ...

Ron Paul on Syria: This Is How Vietnam and Iraq Started
2013 06 18
President Barack Obama’s pledge to initiate a limited operation in Syria will likely escalate into a full-blown war, with Americans supporting a rebel cause that is backed by al-Qaida, retired Texas Rep. Ron Paul is arguing. "The president has opened a can of worms that will destroy his presidency and possibly destroy this country. Another multibillion dollar war has begun," Paul ...

Google’s deep CIA and NSA connections
2013 06 18
The Western media is currently full of articles reporting Google’s denial that it cooperated in a government program to massively spy on American and foreign citizens by accessing data from Googles servers and those of other U.S. software companies. The mainstream media has, however, almost completely failed to report that Google’s denial, and its surface concern over ’human ...

Inside Bilderberg: Clues left in the Grove Hotel reveal another piece to their financial agenda
2013 06 18
21st Century Wire says… As the dust had settled from Bilderberg’s global weekender held at The Grove Hotel in Watford, England, some members of the alternative media stayed on site continuing to dig for answers… Investigative journalists from the UK Column, American Free Press and Sovereign Independent accidentally wandered into a presentation suite at the Grove – only discover the remnants of ...

More News »