Things to Make and Do, part 4: brachiosaurid cervical
December 29, 2009
Yes, you too can have your very own brachiosaurid cervical! Specifically, “Cervical P” of the as-yet unnamed brachiosaur NHM R5937, informally known as “The Archbishop”. Here is is!
The Archbishop, Cervical P, paper model in left posterodorsolateral view.
(All images of the vertebra are copyright the NHM.)
All you need is scissors, glue, and this handy cut-out-and-keep schematic. You’ll want to click through to the full-resolution version (which if I say it myself is a thing of some beauty.)
Print this out, then cut around the black lines to make the template:
Then fold downwards along all the grey lines:
Now, just glue the tabs, fold the lines at right angles, and stick the box together.
The very last tab you glue will be the most difficult to get right, because you won’t be able to press the two parts together once the box is closed. So make sure that you glue the long side of the blank base last, as it doesn’t matter so much if that’s not don’t cleanly.
And there is the final result, this time in the opposite view:
The Archbishop, Cervical P, paper model in right anterodorsolateral view.
And that’s all there is to it!
Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week 
December 29, 2009 at 11:27 am
Amazing idea! I’m preparing scissors and glue!
December 29, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I’m doing this, no joke. I’ll put a brick in there to give it sufficiant heft!
December 29, 2009 at 10:01 pm
That looks great! But can we have the rest of the bones as well please? (All to scale of course!) I’d like to surprise my wife with a life sized paper Archbishop reconstruction filling the living room when she gets home.
December 29, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Seriously, forget the paper throw that template into the 3D modelling software of your choice!
December 30, 2009 at 2:10 am
>>life sized paper Archbishop reconstruction filling the living room
This would require a rather large living room…
December 30, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Not to mention an unusually wide printer.
December 30, 2009 at 4:23 pm
This is quite possibly the nerdiest thing I’ve ever seen.
December 31, 2009 at 1:29 am
@ Andreas Johansson: I beg to differ. This is quite clearly geeky rather than nerdy.
Total geek city, this.
Now let me just turn my printer on, here…
December 31, 2009 at 8:49 am
A whole life sized paper Archbishop skeleton? That’s like ten gallons of color ink right there!
Or I could try to catch a few hundred squids and use the ink for a nice brown sepia-toned Archbishop… …which is neither geeky or nerdy, but just flat-out dorky!
BTW, this thing would make a great tissue-box cover, in the overhead view the slit between the prezygapophyses is perfect for cutting a line to let the tissues out through the top.
January 1, 2010 at 7:51 am
The gift wrapping is awesome, but what did Santaposeidon put inside the box? ;)
January 1, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Hopefully dinosaur DNA to clone a real Archbishop!
January 4, 2010 at 8:29 am
Just curious as to what size paper you would recommend printing on to? I don’t want to make it “fit to size” and end up with a tiny reproduction of something I want to highlight the size of..
January 4, 2010 at 5:48 pm
I printed on normal A4, because that’s what my printer does. But if you have access to an A0 printer, that would certainly get you closer to the real thing.
January 6, 2010 at 11:15 am
This is awesome! What a great idea!
Now to do some skulls PPPPPLLLLLLEASSSSE!! LOTS of scope there..
One could box up all one’s Christmas gifts this way next year and thus save on discarded packaging.. the boxes would be the best bit!
Meanwhile this would be a cool thing to leave on one’s coffee table or say in a waiting room. Any kind of waiting room.
But you can bet there is some saddo out there who would look at that dorsal view and guffaw obscenely, making comments about ‘nice BOX!’ and ‘boner!’.. Some people just have that kind of mind..
January 6, 2010 at 11:27 am
I will just add that (which is another nicely seasonal touch) the anterior view looks uncommonly like a cooked chicken.
January 6, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Oh dear. Graham said the S-word.
January 7, 2010 at 12:07 am
Two things:
1. This is awesome. Weapons-grade geeky, but also awesome.
2. The finished product looks like a Kleenex box. The next version needs to be a diplodocid or camarasaur with a cleft neural spine, so you can pull facial tissues out of its metapophyseal cleft.
January 12, 2010 at 9:41 am
I’m too inept for the assembly, but such hi-res photos are wonderful. Thanks!
January 12, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Hey, MfO, good to hear from you! It feels like it’s been a while — have you been away? Anyway, welcome back to SV-POW! world. I think you could manage assembly just fine.
January 14, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Yes, I may have embarassed myself, but.. what?
Lots of S-words there..
skulls.. scope.. save.. say.. some.. saddo.. Some (again).. seasonal..
???
Oh. (realization dawns) THAT S-word.
But I didn’t even say it!
Just alluded to it..
January 14, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Graham, I meant “skull”. (I’m not sure what you thought I meant!)
January 14, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Sorry Mike. Couldn’t just leave this sorry attempt at a paper-cut cervical unanswered. THIS is a paper-cut cervical: http://www.drip.de/?p=542
If the tissue-box version is weapons grade geeky, I’m afraid to think of what I’ve just outed myself as. :-)
January 14, 2010 at 10:37 pm
direct link: http://www.drip.de/stuff/sauropodCervical_SVPOW.pdf
January 27, 2010 at 10:36 am
A word of warning about that linked pdf: a better version is underway. Easier to build, more satisfying in result (larger).