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Dirk the Triceratops in Leiden


LordTrilobite

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So the new museum of Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands was opened the past weekend and besides having a completely new building and a bunch of new stuff. The T. rex Trix is also back from being on tour in our new dedicated dinosaur hall. But I wanted to share something particular and I'll leave showing the rest of the new museum to others. I volunteer at the museum in the dinosaur prep lab, and over the past years the dino lab team has been prepping away at a whole bunch of Triceratops horridus specimens.

 

 

It was originally found in 2013 when the museum was looking for a T. rex. Instead they found a number of Triceratops bones in Wyoming. Still wanting a T. rex they looked on. Eventually this T. rex was to be what became the Trix specimen. One of the most complete T. rexes in the world. After getting the T. rex the museum went back to the first location to start digging up those Triceratops bones. It later turned out to be probably the biggest collection of post cranial bones of Triceratops ever found divided between two sites right next to each other. I joined the team about 3 years ago. At first we were just prepping a variety of the bones to see just what we had. It was soon decided that we'd prep one of the skeletons from the upper site and mount that in the new upcoming museum. In the upper site we only had 2 individuals so that it would be easier to distinguish between the different individuals as one of them was much smaller.

 

And now the skeleton is done and standing proud in the new museum. The specimen, now named Dirk, was named for one of the volunteers.

There's quite a few bones present. All of the remains were found disarticulated and we don't have a complete skull. We have the braincase, one brow horn, left squamosal, left quadrate, right quadratojugal, both nasals and both dentaries, left articular complex as well as the rostral beak. For the large limb bones we have almost all of them. We're only missing the coracoids and the left ulna. Most of the toe bones as missing but we have a few of the hind toe bones. We have partial vertebrae of most of the back and around half the ribs. The sacrum is missing but the rest of the pelvis has all the real bones. For the tail we only have a single vert and chevron.

Personally I've mostly worked on the skull bones such as the nasals and dentary as well as vertebrae. I also did some putty work on the arm bones.

 

All of the missing bones were 3d printed. The scans are mostly based on the Lane specimen.

Trike_Dirk01.jpg.bf659626f2805c52b393b1ef08be9be6.jpgTrike_Dirk04.jpg.d54a64b41d264aa0006488ce05530482.jpgTrike_Dirk05.jpg.431d68dc504b803301ed172b6cb42bbc.jpgTrike_Dirk06.jpg.02245ffef8b0ed9da1b7c2a56a13481b.jpgTrike_Dirk07.jpg.28e470aa5cb3855d90477810b4d76a41.jpg

 

Trike_Dirk02.thumb.jpg.a4302bf9375683a941b20c19aad72eaf.jpgTrike_Dirk03.thumb.jpg.4145cacbe6b19c2ab494416d0f6c9955.jpgTrike_Dirk08.thumb.jpg.f8a0640a1e4a4c59322df59edb936c0c.jpgTrike_Dirk09.thumb.jpg.1a8be6d2ea8d85b3dbefa83c2df4d7da.jpg

 

 

And who knows, maybe we'll have a few more Triceratops skeletons mounted in the future. But there's still a lot of prepping to do.

 

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Very nice display! It is possible (allowed) to take photos in the prep lab? It would be interesting to see some of the work behind the scenes of a specimen like this.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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I have loads of photos from the prep lab. While the museum was closed during the creation of the new building we worked behind the scenes but before that and now that the new museum is open the prep lab is open to the public. The prep lab is just a cordoned off area with a set of work stations all around where the public can walk up to a preparator and talk to them. And taking photos is also possible. I'll see if I can dig up some photos from before.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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That would be great. For those of us who would need a passport and a long flight to see the new museum, some photos of the public prep lab work stations would be nice to see as well.

 

I do ask for so much. :P

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Looks beautiful specimen and mount . How does the rest of the rebuilding? We was really hoping the last time was in Amsterdam that the museum would be open but it sadly it was not, next time. :(

 

cheers Bobby

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Just for my understanding: the mounted bones are not from one individual but are a collection of bones found together, which were completed by 3D-scanned bones from another individual, right ? 

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On 9/12/2019 at 12:43 PM, Pemphix said:

Just for my understanding: the mounted bones are not from one individual but are a collection of bones found together, which were completed by 3D-scanned bones from another individual, right ? 

No, the bones are all most likely of one single individual. Besides the 3D printed bones for the stuff we were missing, this is not a composite.

Where it was found we had 2 Triceratops bone beds a few meters apart at different levels. The lower has at least 4 or 5 individuals, but probably more. Some smaller and some quite big.

 

At the upper site, there were two individuals. There were a few bones of a smaller younger trike, and there was this skeleton, Dirk. At over 7 meters long he's a big boi but still very much growing.

Though the bones were all mostly disarticulated, there was no indication of a third individual. And luckily the other trike was considerably smaller so we were able to match which bones belonged to which animal.

 

Almost all of the bones we found were of Triceratops with only a few scattered remains of other animals. Some croc, some theropod scraps. But no hadrosaurs at all.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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On ‎14‎.‎09‎.‎2019 at 12:39 PM, LordTrilobite said:

No, the bones are all most likely of one single individual. Besides the 3D printed bones for the stuff we were missing, this is not a composite.

Where it was found we had 2 Triceratops bone beds a few meters apart at different levels. The lower has at least 4 or 5 individuals, but probably more. Some smaller and some quite big.

 

At the upper site, there were two individuals. There were a few bones of a smaller younger trike, and there was this skeleton, Dirk. At over 7 meters long he's a big boi but still very much growing.

Though the bones were all mostly disarticulated, there was no indication of a third individual. And luckily the other trike was considerably smaller so we were able to match which bones belonged to which animal.

 

Almost all of the bones we found were of Triceratops with only a few scattered remains of other animals. Some croc, some theropod scraps. But no hadrosaurs at all.

Thank you for clarification ! :thumbsu:

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  • 3 months later...

I am literally right now at the Museum taking a coffee break for now and wow is this awesome to see in real life. :)

 

20200115_103314-1.thumb.jpg.ddfcd54a589b94e3526b23d11cd1956b.jpg

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Missed you initial post very nice photos and a great experience to be associated with this mount.  Thanks for the photos a wonderful skeleton.  Is Dirk an adult, the horns say no.?  What is happening to the other skeletons that were found?

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7 hours ago, Troodon said:

Missed you initial post very nice photos and a great experience to be associated with this mount.  Thanks for the photos a wonderful skeleton.  Is Dirk an adult, the horns say no.?  What is happening to the other skeletons that were found?

It's a subadult individual. A little over 7 meters long if I remember correctly.

 

The Trikes are from 2 distinct sites that were right next to each other. One a few meters higher. Dirk is from the above site. There were at likely at least 3 individuals at that site.

Right now we're prepping the bones from the below site where we have at least 6 individuals. We're still figuring out exactly how many individuals we have there. But the plan is to see which are suitable for mounts and we want a bunch more skeletons in the museum eventually.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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38 minutes ago, LordTrilobite said:

It's a subadult individual. A little over 7 meters long if I remember correctly.

 

The Trikes are from 2 distinct sites that were right next to each other. One a few meters higher. Dirk is from the above site. There were at likely at least 3 individuals at that site.

Right now we're prepping the bones from the below site where we have at least 6 individuals. We're still figuring out exactly how many individuals we have there. But the plan is to see which are suitable for mounts and we want a bunch more skeletons in the museum eventually.

Sounds exciting.    Do you have Skulls for the other at least 6 individuals and are they similar in size?  Has anyone done a study on what happened at the sites.  I know that our hadro bonebed was in a stream and it was a flood event that killed them.

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12 minutes ago, Troodon said:

Sounds exciting.    Do you have Skulls for the other at least 6 individuals and are they similar in size?  Has anyone done a study on what happened at the sites.  I know that our hadro bonebed was in a stream and it was a flood event that killed them.

There was one gigantic block packed with bones where there looked to be at least one articulated skull. Most of the skull bones are disarticulated like all the other bones. We have Trikes of different sizes. Some quite big ones and some smaller ones as well. I don't think we have any really tiny ones though.

 

They died in a riverbed. But we don't exactly know how they died yet. And yes there are some studies in the works.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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Nice work.  I like that the modeled bones are a different color from the actual bones.   

 

So, were you part of the crew that came here to collect these trikes?  

 

 

 

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16 minutes ago, jpc said:

Nice work.  I like that the modeled bones are a different color from the actual bones.   

 

So, were you part of the crew that came here to collect these trikes? 

Yes, I was on one of the five digs. That was back in 2017. A smaller team finished up last summer in 2019 to get the last of the trike bones before we went with the whole team on the Jurassic Mile dig.

Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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I have a question:

Are the triangular spikes on the rim of neck shield individual bones that later fuse together? The reason I am asking is that I have a small fragment of a neck shield in my collection and there it seems to be one single bone.

 

 

saurier027.JPG

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3 hours ago, LordTrilobite said:

Yes, I was on one of the five digs. That was back in 2017. A smaller team finished up last summer in 2019 to get the last of the trike bones before we went with the whole team on the Jurassic Mile dig.

Cool.  I was hoping the Jurassic Mile team could come visit the Tate while you were here.  Maybe next year.  Are you planning on summer 2020 in WY?

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1 hour ago, Flx said:

I have a question:

Are the triangular spikes on the rim of neck shield individual bones that later fuse together? The reason I am asking is that I have a small fragment of a neck shield in my collection and there it seems to be one single bone.

 

 

saurier027.JPG

Yes, they are separate bones that fuse to the parietal and squamosals.  They are called epoccipitals.  Yours has two of them there.  

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10 hours ago, Flx said:

I have a question:

Are the triangular spikes on the rim of neck shield individual bones that later fuse together? The reason I am asking is that I have a small fragment of a neck shield in my collection and there it seems to be one single bone.

saurier027.JPG

Those are the episquamosals and epiparietals. On older adults they fuse with the squamosal and parietal bones respectively. Younger animals will have them more pointy and as separate bones. Once they get older they fuse and get flatter and flatter. In really old adults they reduce to vague bumps, making the frill mostly smooth on the edges.

8 hours ago, jpc said:

Cool.  I was hoping the Jurassic Mile team could come visit the Tate while you were here.  Maybe next year.  Are you planning on summer 2020 in WY?

We only had one free day and went to Yellowstone National Park. Tate is quite a ways away if I'm not mistaking as we were located near Cody. And I think the plan is to go again this year. But I haven't heard anything definitive yet. But I'd love to visit if the opportunity arises.

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Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite

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8 hours ago, LordTrilobite said:

 

We only had one free day and went to Yellowstone National Park. Tate is quite a ways away if I'm not mistaking as we were located near Cody. And I think the plan is to go again this year. But I haven't heard anything definitive yet. But I'd love to visit if the opportunity arises.

I had talked to the English folks you were with and convinced them to come to Casper (3hrs from Cody) on a rain day.  But I guess it was nice for the whole expedition.  Anyway, hope you get to come out again this summer.  

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