Glen Rose Dinosaur Track by KKHausman

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a simplified model derived from a 3D study of a fossilized dinosaur track from the Glen Rose digsite. The track model was used with Sugru and the open-source equivalent Oogoo (http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/) to create stamps for making dino tracks on paper as part of the SOLID Learning (http://SOLIDLearning.org) workshops theme "Making Tracks" and the form model is been used by several teachers to model Jell-o(tm) tracks (food safe materials used) for workshop lunches and to make hand-out cast track examples for kids to take him at their own classes.
Dr. Louis Jacobs of SMU together with Dr. James Brooks have shared their original scan for the world and were very happy to allow this simplified model to be shared publicly here for educational purposes. My thanks goes out to both of these gentlemen for their generosity in sharing this excellent example of preservation and curation of delicate solid forms from the distant past!
The positive mold was reduced by 50% in the z-axis to reduce the volume of Sugru/Oogoo needed for each track. The negative mold is proper by all proportions to allow dough used for making cookies and brownies, each with its own dinosaur track. One teacher filled these tracks with icing, but others say the kids seem to enjoy the crackling surface of the brownie well too.
Make sure you print using food safe materials or seal the object fully using food safe varnishes or food-rated silicone molding agents. Not a commercial endorsement, but I have used molding material from Reynolds Advanced Materials designed for casting edible sugar forms in the past with good results to make food-safe molds from 3D printed objects.