Digital Reconstruction and Analysis of a Dinosaur Skull

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Academic Project of the Year: 2016 Winner

‘Project of the Year’ is an annual contest held by Dassault Systèmes where students from around the world are invited to submit projects created with Dassault Systèmes products and software.  Winners are chosen by votes from Facebook users and an overall winner is chosen by a jury at Dassault Systèmes headquarters.

SIMULIA Senior Sales Representative, Clint Davies-Taylor, conducted the first interview below with the overall winner for this year (2016), Adam Taylor. Adam used Abaqus for his project, “Digital Reconstruction and Analysis of a Dinosaur Skull.”

Why did you choose this project?

I completed my undergraduate degree in Geography/Geology, and then chose PaleoBiology for my Masters. One of the modules was for Professor Emily Rayfield in the School of Earth Sciences and was concerned with Biomechanics and Functional Morphology. poty_dinosaurSo Professor Rayfield set the challenge for me to take forward. I was excited to be involved with the project because it is dealing with incredibly old things in a very new and modern way.

Describe how you executed the simulations.

The University has a workflow for this type of work. They have CT scan data of the fossilized skull (in China). This particular dinosaur is of the genus Psittacosaurus , species Lujiatunensis – similar to a small triceratops. Then I used a 3D segmentation program called Avizo to digitally reconstruct the skull. They then use Hypermesh to generate a model of the skull, musculature and attachments which is then run using Abaqus. Material properties are extrapolated from the closest living relatives of dinosaurs – in this case the jaw properties were from an alligator with enamel from a crocodile. They put a +/- 10% range to envelope their calculations. The goal of this project was to calculate the biting force which this species of dinosaur was capable of and then to try to disprove the evolutionary link between this species and our present day parrots.

Professor Paul O’Higgins at University of York has been using a combination of Geometric MorphoMetric (GMM) and FEA (Ansys L) for living mammals – but this is the first time that the techniques has been used for dinosaur skulls. The technique loads the FE model with many deformations and uses tracking nodes to look at shape changes due to different events. This can be used to examine overall behavior in living mammals, but is the ONLY way we can evaluate skull deformations for dinosaurs.

What were some key technical challenges you encountered?

poty-dinosaur-skullThey were with Avizo! – taking 5 of the 6 months to segment the geometry. After that the Abaqus analysis was straightforward. Model size could be an issue 800,000 nodes on linear (we think) tetrahedral elements. NB Professor Rayfield’s group has plenty of experience using Abaqus so I was able to ask for help and despite having no engineering background at all I found Abaqus reasonably intuitive and easy to use.

What were some of the advantages of using simulation?

This project would not exist without simulation. The fossilized skull is in China and being able to produce a 3D representation for accurate simulation means that the fossil is never damaged and that the researchers can correlate their work to living mammals to have a greater degree of confidence in the fidelity of their results.

Why did you choose Abaqus?

Tried and tested procedure – in an existing workflow. The group I worked with prefers Abaqus because it is more intuitive than other codes.

Has learning simulation skills provided you with an advantage in your career?

Definitely! I am currently working in a supermarket to earn money, but I have just landed a job with a medical imaging company. I have not started yet and don’t have many more details. However, without the experience I gained working on my Masters using simulation tools I would not have gotten the job.

Is there anything else we should know about the project?

The dinosaur analyzed was about 1m in length and the skull size was approx. 20cm. It has the most species of any dinosaur genus. Also, my paper has just been accepted by the journal “Anatomical Record” for publication in January.

To read the full submission of Adam’s project, click here.  

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Katie Corey

Katie is the Editor of the SIMULIA blog and also manages SIMULIA's social media and is an online communities and SEO expert. As a writer and technical communicator, she is interested in and passionate about creating an impactful user experience. Katie has a BA in English and Writing from the University of Rhode Island and a MS in Technical Communication from Northeastern University. She is also a proud SIMULIA advocate, passionate about democratizing simulation for all audiences. Katie is a native Rhode Islander and loves telling others about all it has to offer. As a self-proclaimed nerd, she enjoys a variety of hobbies including history, astronomy, science/technology, science fiction, geocaching, true crime, fashion and anything associated with nature and the outdoors. She is also mom to a 2-year old budding engineer and two crazy rescue pups.