Apatosaurus from AMNH by AMNHeducation

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Apatosaurs were a genus of sauropod dinosaurs, the long-necked saurischian ("lizard-hipped") herbivores that were among the largest land animals ever to have lived on Earth. There are several known species in the genus, including A. excelsus, A. louisae, A. parvus, and the type species, A. ajax. In the early years of dinosaur paleontology, bones from an Apatosaurus were mistakenly included in a skeleton which also included bones from a Brachiosaurus and a Camerasaurus. This incorrect reconstruction was given the name "Brontosaurus" and although scientists discovered the mistake back in 1903 and officially retired the name, this nonexistent genus is still sometimes mistakenly used to refer to Apatasaurus in popular writings. Mass estimates for various species of Apatosaurs range from 16 to 39 tons. Apatasaur species have been found in upper Jurassic rocks, from 154 to 150 million years ago.
This digital 3D model is a scan of an object found in the American Museum of Natural History. The original object was handled and scanned in the Museum Library, during the Capturing Memories Program. Capturing Memories was a three day program in February, 2014 that brought MOUSEsquads from around the city to work with objects from the Museum Library's memorabilia collection.
To scan the original object, iPads were used to take multiple pictures of the object from many different angles. The program 123D catch was used to create digital 3D models from these photographs. The models were cleaned up using the program MeshMixer and then uploaded to Thingiverse.
Read an article about Capturing Memories here: http://www.qchron.com/editions/south/kids-become-tech-whizzes-at-jhs/article_a6ebe02a-c9fb-5891-b59c-fc3e4d8f0b40.html#.U5HJL7XeMNk.twitter
RESOURCES
Dinosaurs: From Allosaurus to Tyrannosaurus. By Gerrie McCall. Published 2005, Chartwell Books