Rebbachisaur Cervical Vertebra – Collected by Kai Bailey and painstakingly cleaned and restored by Fossil Preparator Gary Blackwell.
Calcite-rich permineralised dinosaur bone, from a red mudstone bed of the Wessex Formation approximately 120 million years old. Now on display at the Dinosaur Expeditions Centre at the Dinosaur Farm, Isle of Wight.
With the first pair of Cervical (neck) spines done, I decided to base the next pair of (slightly bigger than half scale spines) on a plaster cast of a fossil Polacanthus spine rather than some small black and white photographs.
With the outline of the template marked out on the foam, I cut out one of the spines and started carving. A couple of hours later I had finished the left spine.
Before starting the opposite spine I thought it would be a good idea to mount the spine on the Minimi model to see how it looks. I temporarily attached the foam spine to the fibreglass model with a small piece of modelling putty
So far so good. Next I added the first cervical (neck) spine to check the effect of both spines together.
Obviously to finish the model they will need to be blended to fit when finally mounting them but the overall impression seems great.
An hour later I had carved the opposite spine.
So I mounted the pair of spines on the model.
Not too bad for a few hours work! Next I will look at a reconstruction of the Polacanthid Gastonia and sculpt a pair of ‘solid-based’ scapula-coracoid spines.
