The T. rex brain case rolls past much younger patients in the hospital halls after examination. (Representational Image)
Sometimes even a ferocious dinosaur has to go to the hospital.
The brain case of what some people are calling "The Nation's T. rex" - destined for the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History come 2019 - arrives at a hospital in Belleville, Ontario, in a minivan. The 66-million-year-old skeleton, one of the most complete ever found, is in Canada getting pieced together by Research Casting International. But first, part of its head needs a CT scan.
It takes some maneuvering to get the skull into the scanner. Finally, the fossil is positioned on an improvised bed of foam pieces. "Breathe in and hold your breath," says the machine's electronic voice, as if this is an ordinary patient. Images of the skull spin across screens in a nearby room. The scan will help the Smithsonian build a 3-D model of the creature for study, and eventually the imaging will be online for all to see.
"This is a really complicated fossil, so we couldn't get into all the nooks and crannies," said Vincent Rossi, a 3-D digitization specialist with the Smithsonian. "So the CT scanner allows us to get into those nooks and crannies but also capture interior geometry information as well."
When the exam is done, the T. rex brain case rolls past much younger patients in the hospital halls. The minivan is waiting.
© 2016 The Washington Post
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