COMPARISON OF DIGITAL AND 3D PRINTED ROBOTIC MODELS OF THE ELBOW OF THE SAUROPOD DINOSAUR DREADNOUGHTUS SCHRANI (Invited Presentation)

Physical and digital models of extinct organisms are each valuable tools for paleontologists, but these techniques are often conducted alone rather than in tandem. Additionally, models of extinct organisms often suffer from lack of validation studies to demonstrate accurate representation of the biological system being modeled. Validation is inherently difficult in paleontology as the subject being modeled is no longer alive to compare to and extinct organisms may also exhibit significant anatomical differences from any extant organism. We present the methods and comparisons of our case study, which addresses several of the above factors, on the articular cartilage of the elbow of the giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani from Patagonia, Argentina. This dinosaur has been estimated to have weighed 65 tons and, as a member of Titanosauria, Dreadnoughtus also possessed wide-gauge posture, a stance unique to this clade. Therefore, no extant organism offers a close functional analog to Dreadnoughtus, making validation of biomechanical models difficult. To address this challenge, we have built both a digital and a physical, 3D-printed model of the elbow of Dreadnoughtus. The simultaneous construction of these models fostered mutual feedback which improved each model independently. The flexibility and speed of rapid prototyping was essential to iteratively construct a physical model in pace with the digital model. Also, since physical models have agency (i.e. physical forces such as gravity and friction affect the model because it exists), our real-world model can partially validate the digital model. This dual modeling methodology has allowed us to thoroughly compare various soft tissue arrangements for the elbow of Dreadnoughtus in attempt to discern the probable condition in this giant dinosaur.