Scanning Project Enhances Access to Forest Service Fossils

If you've been to see our new exhibit, Dinosaurs from the Mountain, you already know that Idaho has some amazing dinosaur fossils.

All of Idaho's Cretaceous dinosaurs come from a small area of land between Soda Springs and Idaho Falls, and all of them (every single one!) comes from lands administered by the Caribou National Forest.

To celebrate this and to help ensure data safety as well as enhance our education and outreach around US Forest Service fossils, the Museum partnered with the Caribou National Forest to undertake a digital scanning project. This ambitious project will take advantage of the Museum's status as the state's repository for natural history and our unique capabilities in the state with our Idaho Virtualization Lab (IVL).

All of Idaho's Cretaceous-aged fossils, from 100 million years ago, are being laser scanned and digitized in the IVL. These scans help provide data security for the physical specimens, and will allow Museum educators to use these 3D scans in education and outreach projects. In fact, the first 3D prints of Oryctodromeus have already started to be used in classrooms around southeastern Idaho and full Bison Box education kits will be available for teachers across the state in 2024.

Once all the scanning has been completed we will be updating our Dinosaurs from the Mountain exhibit with a new, more accurate Oryctodromeus skeleton based on these scans and supported by our USFS partnership.