Rare dinosaur species being studied at the Cincinnati Museum Center
By Adam Burniston
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CINCINNATI (WLWT) — Paleontologists and researchers at the Cincinnati Museum Center are leading new scientific research about an extremely rare dinosaur species they have on display. However, to complete the important research, they had to take their display apart piece by piece.
The dinosaur at the center of their research is the museum’s Torvosaurus, the only one of its kind in the world. Because of its rarity and to make it more accessible for even further extensive research, the museum partnered with a team from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Matt Lamanna, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, said it’s special to have the chance to work on this rare display.
“Dinosaur skeletons are almost never found complete, and that’s especially true with predatory dinosaurs, in particular, the giant ones. So, having about 50% of a skeleton of a dinosaur that’s about two-thirds the size of a T-Rex is a really rare and remarkable thing, ” said Lamanna.
Over four days, teams from both museums worked together to meticulously take apart the Torovsaurus, bone by bone, for 3D scanning. These scans will provide three-dimensional, high-resolution imagery integral to ongoing research.
“Having models of the skeleton that we can spin around on the computer, measure from all sides, look at it from all angles, it’s almost better than the original itself, because we don’t have to worry about harming the original fossils when we’re doing this,” said Lamanna.
The Torvosaurus, a giant carnivore and apex predator, lived during the Late Jurassic period 153 to 148 million years ago. While it bears some resemblance to the Tyrannosaurus, it predates it by over 80 million years.
“A good example of this is T-Rex is famous for having its little short arms. Torvosaurus is almost the opposite. It’s got, on top of a big skull like T-Rex, very well-developed forelimbs, very powerful arms that would have played probably a bigger role in prey capture than it would have in T-Rex,” said Lamanna.
You can view the Torvosaurus on display along with several other dinosaur fossils at the Cincinnati Museum Center, open daily 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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