Royal Tyrrell Museum palaeontologists use 3D printing to replicate fragile fossils

When a fossil is discovered it’s typically encased in rock.   After surviving for millions of years, technicians at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology painstakingly remove that rock with fine instruments. Once the specimen is revealed it can become brittle, especially when it's only one or two millimetres thick. Many of the fossils at the Royal Tyrrell are too fragile to be put on display, so for decades, they've sat protected on shelves in the museum. But now those rare bones c