How Technology Helps Paleontologists to Accurately Fill in Missing Bones When Reconstructing Dinosaurs

In a fascinating essay for Vox, host Kimberly Mas explains the history of dinosaur reconstruction, the different processes that sometimes resulted in rather big mistakes and how modern technology allows paleontologists to more accurately fill in the missing bones than ever before. One example of such modern reconstruction is the baby T-Rex built by the American Museum of Natural History.

When paleontologists uncover a dinosaur they usually only find part of the animal, but when we walk through a museum we see exhibits that paint a full picture – so how do they fill in all those blank spaces? In the early 1900s artists used to hand carve the pieces, but we’ve come a long way in the past century – both technologically and scientifically.