Another fossil cast I built: Ichthyornis, a bird with bite
By Todd P.May 28th, 2011

I recently finished building these two at work and thought I’d share them here. They’re resin castings of Ichthyornis, from a fossil dug up in western Kansas. My employer’s website says the molds were made from the most complete Ichthyornis skeleton ever found. It measures about 8 inches long. The website says these birds were probably similar to modern seagulls, except of course that gulls (like all other birds today) don’t have teeth.
To be honest, it would have been easier to build these things out of matchsticks. The molds were tiny, the castings difficult to trim and assemble. Plus, I’m a poor welder and so I had a hard time making the bases look decent.
Both are on their way to a new home at a museum in Korea.



Really cool to see how the hobby finds some of us some quirky jobs, eh?
Boy, Fritz, no kidding. Just three years ago I could barely get away from the computer at work long enough to go to the bathroom.