Muffin's Missing Ingredients: Dealing with Only a Piece of the Puzzle

When compared to the full skeleton of a sub adult Haplocanthosaurus utterbacki as displayed at the at the Cleveland Museum (CM879), Muffin seems incomplete indeed. Since this Tate specimen of v7172 does not have enough bones to make it worth the expense of physical mounting for display in the Tate Museum, Muffin will only ever be "mounted" in virtual space. Digital mounting involves much of the same intellectual work required for physical mounting. It is an interpretive exercise in the reassmbly of the fragments of the specimen's remains. Other, more complete, comparative specimens (like CM879) are a crucial reference for reconstructing the puzzle of more fragmented remains, like Muffin. The benefits of doing this in 3D is the ability to test out, experiment and revise possible assemblies. The second tour in this edition, Muffin's Journey, provides more details on the physical to digital process and how these digital versions can be shared and repurposed.