Fossilized bones are essentially solid lumps of rock, which means that mounting them into a skeleton is an enormous challenge. 

 

Most of the bones are real, which makes them extremely heavy. We’re estimating at the total weight of the bones. It’s a little over a ton. The femur’s probably good 200, 250 pounds a piece. And we have to set those in place with special rigging devices helping forbid one of them falls, because it would take quite a bit of time to get those back together. 

 

The entire skeleton will be held together using a custom-made steel frame, which needs to be strong enough to support the enormous weight of the fossils.

 

This will fit in. This will get attached to this other section over here. And I’ll take one of these ribs here. I’m not sure exactly which one goes where at this point. This is no.5. So it would lay down right in there, that loch you get screwed in at the bottom and just settle itself right in here. 

 

Like many T Rexes, this one has been given a nickname, Thomas. He’s one of the best T Rex specimens ever discovered, but it’s still only 70% complete. The missing bones will be made by Paul’s team based on over 30 partial tyrannosaurs Rexes that have been found so far.

 

On this particular rib, you could see where the real rib goes together with the artificial rib. And this is a section that we had modeled and you could see how it blends in with the real rib, how it’s glued. And it’s also pinned on the inside, so it doesn’t break. And these ribs will break like icicles. If you pick them up the wrong way, they will just crack, break right apart. 

 

But it’s not just about hanging the skeleton safely, the steel frame will be a work of art in itself, millimeter perfect and subtle enough not to draw attention away from the dinosaur.

 

Chan is filing down part of the rib armature. Again this is specifically made like a piece of jewelry. It has to hold a specific piece in a special way. And he’s at the point now where he’s starting to clean up the welds. And it’s gonna be absolutely gorgeous by the time he’s finished.