![Long-Gone Mollusk Comes to Life with 3D Printer
by LiveScience Staff
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. [Image Gallery: Extinct Sea Creature Reconstructed]
A team of researchers used a micro 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 and allowed for a textured model of the mollusk to be produced with a 3D printer…
(read more: Live Science) (image: Jakob Vinter, UT-Austin)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mapiypzdTc1qc6j5yo1_500.jpg)
Long-Gone Mollusk Comes to Life with 3D Printer
by LiveScience Staff
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. [Image Gallery: Extinct Sea Creature Reconstructed]
A team of researchers used a micro 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 and allowed for a textured model of the mollusk to be produced with a 3D printer…
(read more: Live Science) (image: Jakob Vinter, UT-Austin)
