Figure 6 in An XXL-CT-scan of an XXL Tyrannosaurus rex skull

Figure 6 (left) shows a 3D-rendering of the same dataset. To distinguish the different materials a false-color representation based on the different absorption values of the materials were used. The virtually removed sideways uncovers the wrapping around the skull and sandstone block as well as the additional wooden supporting structures. Figure 6 (right) cuts through the crate in lateral direction and shows the interior of the skull and sandstone block. The white colored structure marks the bone fragments. The next step was to virtually excavate the skull. The good material contrast made it possible to mask out the bulk of the sandstone matrix and the supporting structures by setting appropriate thresholds. High absorption parts like the screws as well as noise particles had to be removed manually. The result of this segmentation can be seen in figure 7. At this stage the segmented skull is still represented by three dimensional pixels (Voxels) with a specific absorption value. To allow for further processing in CAD software e.g. for 3D-printing preparation the segmented skull was converted to a triangular surface mesh in the stl Format.