ARTS
Fernbank Museum rebuilding the past
Dinosaur statues meticulously constructed
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Come spring, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History will be home to a family of dinosaurs.
Now nearing completion, the life-size sculptures of a Lophorhothon atopus mama and her two tykes —she’s 9 feet tall and 27 feet long, the juveniles half that size — will gather around the reflecting pool in the new entrance plaza.
Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com
Andre Freitas buffs one of the life-size dinosaur sculptures set to go on exhibit at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. They are the most accurate reproductions ever made of a species that inhabited prehistoric Georgia.
BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
At Chisel 3D of Atlanta, Paolo Ruvolo adds detail to a polystyrene replica of a dinosaur that will stand at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. Such an accurate re-creation is a first for this Georgia dinosaur.
BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
Marietta & Atlanta - L to R, Paolo Ruvolo and Anthony Alemany shape the open cell polystyrene replica at Chisel 3D of Atlanta. At right, James Hays, VP of Exhibitions for Fernbank Museum of Natural History inspects the work. Note the steel frame showing where the legs will be.
BOB ANDRES / bandres@ajc.com
Andre Freitas of AFX Studios in Marietta sculpts details in clay for a silicone mold that will be used to create the finished fiberglass eye. Great effort was made to get details just right.
These dinosaurs roamed Georgia more than 60 million years ago, but our knowledge of them is relatively recent.
Paleontologists first discovered their remains in the 1940s and recognized Lophorhothon atopus as a distinct species in 1960. The Fernbank sculptures will be their first full-scale life reconstruction.
Although anatomical accuracy is always a must at the museum, the historical import of the sculptures turned up the heat.
“I knew from the outset it had to be absolutely factual scientifically,” said James Hays, Fernbank’s vice president of exhibitions. “We had to get it right.”
Hays, who developed the designs for the trio, ensured that every aspect of the tableau — from the shape of the figures’ toes to the idea that these dinosaurs mothered their young — was true to the current scientific research.
He was just as rigorous in overseeing their multi-phased fabrication.
The team he assembled to bring the two-year project to fruition came from all over the state. You might say the sculptures, like the Lophorhothon atopus they represent, are native Georgians.
Developing the design
First, Hays made a “rough draft” of each dinosaur, a small clay model based on his own research. Then he began consulting with David Schwimmer, a professor at Columbus State University and an expert in Southeastern dinosaurs.
In an iterative process, Hays would e-mail him photos of the model, and Schwimmer would suggest adjustments.
Schwimmer has about a dozen specimens of fossilized bone, the sum total of Lophorhothon atopus discovered in the state. Filling in the blanks was not difficult because the species is a member of the hadrosaur family, a very common type, and he could extrapolate from its relatives.
Hays also sought advice from Emory professor Tony Martin, whose expertise is dinosaur tracks. Scientists can deduce a lot about an animal’s anatomy and behavior from its fossilized footprints. The mix of small and large tracks of hadrosaur herds indicate that they stayed together as families.
Martin was especially helpful in getting the postures, lower limbs and feet right.
Fabrication
Because the costs of a cast-bronze exceeded Fernbank’s budget, Hays turned to commercial fabricators, who make large objects out of polystyrene and fiberglass, to make the sculptures.
Hays made weekly visits to the fabricators throughout the multivenue process, to ensure that the figures stayed true to scientific fact.
He paid extra attention to the head, because some of the defining features of the species — including the crested head, the eye socket and fenestra (a hole behind the eye) — were evident there.
AFX Studios in Marietta was the first stop. Owner Andre Freitas worked over the clay models to accentuate details that might otherwise disappear. Then he cast them in resin.
At Chisel 3D in Atlanta, the resin maquettes were cut into pieces — 30 for the mama — and analyzed on a digital scanner.
The digital scanner scaled up measurements from the 30-inch model to life-size and fed them to a machine that milled the pieces out of industrial polystyrene.
The artists of Chisel 3D, owned by Gary Bystrom, assembled the parts over welded steel armatures that Bystrom designed and chiseled more details into the white styrene.
The completed figures were trucked to Devereaux Designs in Jasper to be sprayed, and strengthened with a fiberglass coating, a product used for boat hulls.
Then Freitas took over. He restored what details had disappeared under the fiberglass and added still more, including skin textures and custom features, such as eyeballs. After sandblasting and buffing, he sprayed the sculptures with a composite substance that is 75 percent bronze. The dinosaurs will look and weather like bronze sculptures.
FAST FACTS
• The Lophorhothon atopus walked parts of Georgia during the Cretaceous Period, 144 million to 65 million years ago, when the lower half of the state was under the sea. It is a member of the hadrosaur family, one of the herds in “Jurassic Park.”
• This plant-eating dinosaur grew to 12 feet tall, 35 feet long and 6,000 pounds. It walked upright, using its long tail as ballast. It used its beak to snap off plants and chewed them with 1,000 scissor-like teeth.
