Prepping the vertebrae was relatively easy. Then I sort of hit a snag. There is a phase of prep work that I refer to as "Some Assembly Required". Past vertabra 10 up at the pelvis end everything was pretty shattered and scattered, so it got a bit more vague to my volunteer's eyes. I removed bones and cleaned them up and lined them up in boxes.
About the time I caught up on the 3D photos, Henry Tsai (a visiting researcher) arrived at the Tate and was given space in the annex to work. He had a 3D of a Haplocanthosaurus from the Cleveland Museum and was given permission to share it with me. This really helped me understand the lattice-like structure of the pelvis area.
I had pieced together part of the ilium by matching the texture of the edge- up until piece 5 where I got stuck. Once I understood the lattice nature I realized the piece went vertically. It was part of a strut! I am good at jigsaws but I needed to see it in 3D. I also found out that a piece of my Vertebra 9 was actually a part of the ilium. I did a new 3D of the assembled ilium, but not Vertebra 9. I use this dupicate piece to help position the bones in virtual space.
Cleveland Museum Haplo Pelvis area – including Neural Spines. © Cleveland Museum.