The British Museum 3D prints the skeleton bones to restore their original appearance

Dove is a strange animal with a zebra-like front half body and a normal horse. Strictly speaking, the spotted look looks more like a hybrid between a horse and a zebra. It is impossible to see this magical animal with your own eyes, because it has been extinct for more than 140 years. However, it is not a problem to see its bone specimens.

In the London Museum, there is a very rare scorpion skeleton. Interestingly, this sinuous skeleton has been mistaken for a zebra skeleton for many years. Today, this specimen is valued and the museum also uses 3D printing. Technology fills up the missing leg.

The restoration team scanned, modeled, and flipped its existing right hind leg, then printed it in 3D and replaced the left leg that the zebra skeleton lost. There are only seven known scorpion skeletons in the world, and the museum preserves one of them.

The museum now lists the specimens as one of their key assets, but these precious bones have been simply put on hold for more than a decade because they mistakenly thought they belonged to the zebra. It wasn't until 1972 that scientists discovered this big mistake in an inspection. Scientists scrutinized a pair of "zebra" skeletons in the museum and found that one of them was a zebra and the other was a precious spotted. Unfortunately, this plaque has lost a leg because of the loan and has not been returned so far.

3D printed model of the left hind leg (black)

For many years, the museum has been trying to find a way to make up for this shortcoming. Now with the help of 3D technology, the bones that have lost their legs are printed with nylon material (black, clearly marked not the original) and combined with the original skeleton. For a pair. Let the plaque recover the missing leg. Although it is only a copy of the 3D print, the museum is actively pursuing a follow-up project to restore the specimen, the “skeletal idol”, and plans to use the same method to restore the other 38 defective specimens.

(Editor)