This jugal, or cheek bone, is from a sub-adult mastodon (Mammut americanum) found in a bog in Darke County, Ohio. It was brought to the Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL) for scanning by Ray Vodden, Research Technician in charge of casting and molding at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH). Ray is reconstructing the mastodon for an exhibit at VMNH, and needed to have a left jugal bone to mirror the right one that was discovered. He can sculpt a replica, but that would take considerable time and effort. Instead, we 3D scanned the bone in the VCL using a NextEngine Desktop 3D scanner, mirrored the digital model in Meshmixer, and then 3D printed the “left” bone using our MakerBot Replicator–all in a fraction of the time sculpting would have taken.
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