#troodontid

Ghostwatch

Art Print | RedBubble Shop

I must confess, while this dinosaur had left quite an impression on me ever since I first gazed into the illustrations of its large, glassy eyes, I was never aware about the debate surrounding its genus. So while I came into this painting with the name 'Troodon' in mine, after doing some more bouts of reading, it is possible that this could very well be Stenonychosaurus, really.

Here's a Troodontid braincase I recently completed preparing using small air scribes, carbowax techniques, and air abrasion under high magnification microscopes. Every square millimeter of this paper-thin hydroxyapatite wants to shatter like tempered glass.

There are probably fewer than 10 Troodontid braincases in the world, and most are squashed flat. This new specimen is preserved in 3D so it'll be put it in a micro-CT scanner to see the inside of the brain cavity. I purposely left matrix inside the cavity because it could have data that the CT scanner could let us see and acts as a support for the brittle bone.