CT with 3D printing- Recreating the Dinosaur

In an article by  René Schilling, MD et al   From the Department of Radiology, Charité Campus Mitte, Universitaetsmedizin Berlin.  Radiology, Vol. 270, No. 3, March 2014: 864-871. 

Authors  examined plaster jacket containing an unprepared fossil. CT was performed with a 320-section multidetector unit. A marching cube–based method was used to transform the voxel CT dataset into triangle-based, editable geometry. Then, a comprehensive postprocessing step was performed to isolate the geometry of the vertebra from its surrounding fossilized matrix. 

 The CT examination provided enough data to assign the fossil to the genus Plateosaurus. In addition, much valuable information about the fossil has been gained—in particular the visualization of multiple fractures and the destruction of the anterior rim of the vertebral body. 

Finally, the results show that the 3D print generated, including the fractures and the anterior destruction, may be considered an accurate copy of the bone with the unprepared fossil.