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157 7 Jane, in the Flesh: The State of Life-Reconstruction in Paleoart Tyler Keillor My goal in creating a flesh reconstruction of an extinct animal is to provide the museum visitor with a sense of what the real live animal was all about. I don’t want to give the exhibit viewer a cliché, a toy, a Hollywood prop, or something that’s been seen in every kid’s dinosaur book. I want the observer to see a restoration that is unique, that shows a creature, frozen in time, that endured various life processes, and that might challenge preconceived notions about the animal and elicit questions or thought. A reconstruction requires not just artistry and imagination but also the input of the latest scientific opinions and comparative observations of extant animals. A life reconstruction is, by nature, highly speculative, and being so is of less value scientifically than artistically (as an exhibit piece for the layperson). Nevertheless, a rigorously executed reconstruction may, through its very creation, yield new insight into paleontological questions and so can be a working model and an aid to scientific understanding. I’ll let the task of bringing the Burpee Museum’s juvenile tyrannosaur “Jane” (BMR P2002.4.1) back to “life” provide a glimpse into the behindthe -scenes aspects of paleoart (the depiction of ancient beasts; see Fig. 7.1). In this reconstruction, in particular, observations of extant reptiles yielded new insights into the external appearance of Jane’s oral margin. I was fortunate enough to have been selected to complete the reconstruction of Jane’s skull in the summer of 2004. Unlike the Field Museum’s “Sue” (FMNH PR 2081), the skull of Jane was not preserved in one piece; rather, it was disarticulated and missing perhaps 40 percent of the cranium and jaws. By the time I became involved, the fossil skull bones had been fully prepared, molded, and cast by the Burpee Museum’s team, and the cast parts were glued together to start building the skull model. To guide my progress as I sculpted the missing skull anatomy, the Burpee arranged for a panel of paleontologists to review my work. In addition to Jane’s lead investigator, Michael Henderson, I consulted with Thomas Carr, Philip Currie, and Michael Parrish. The Burpee’s chief preparator and collections manager, Scott Williams, served as facilitator to the process as well. The skull reconstruction was fairly straightforward, keeping in mind that it involved restoring an incomplete skull of a 66 million-year-old dinosaur (Fig. 7.1). For bones that were missing from one side of the skull, Introduction Restoring Jane’s skull Tyler Keillor 158 I sculpted the mirror image of the bones that existed for the opposite side. It can be difficult to create a reversed bone without a guide, so I made the job easier with a trip to Kinko’s (a photocopying shop). By printing out a reversed photocopy of the disarticulated casts (laid directly on the copier glass), I created an image of exactly what any missing bone should look like from different angles. A cast of the Cleveland Museum’s tyrannosaur skull (CMNH 7541), as well as various casts from other tyrannosaur specimens , served as guides for sculpting anatomy that was missing completely. I used epoxy putty (Apoxie Sculpt) to sculpt the bones and more putty to hold them together as the skull took form. The putty starts soft and clay-like, then becomes firmer over several hours until it is hard enough to file or sand. Having been restored with epoxy, the finished skull model was strong and durable for handling and shipping. The length of the preserved teeth is one aspect of a skull that proves to be a variable from specimen to specimen. Not only do teeth show different lengths as a result of the tooth-replacement process in the living animal, but postmortem decomposition loosens teeth, allowing them to slide partially or completely out of their sockets. In Jane, none of the premaxillary or anteriormost dentary teeth were preserved in their sockets. Most of the teeth were also absent from the entire left dentary. By contrast, both maxillae, as well as the right dentary, retained most of their teeth in place. The majority of the teeth that had fallen out were recovered with the specimen. In all likelihood, the animal died with a full mouthful of teeth, some of which subsequently fell out after death. The fact that some teeth fell out while others...

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