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REXBURG,
Idaho–The geology
department at Brigham Young University–Idaho welcomed a new edition
to its museum last week with the addition of a replica of a nanotyranus.
The
sculpture was crafted and donated by Bryce Davis, son of Sherrel and Mary Davis of Rexburg and a graduate from Madison
High School and Ricks
College. Davis, who now teaches
high school in Roosevelt, Utah,
has been sculpting dinosaurs for the last nine years.
This
one was created as a result of a request by another museum for pictures of Davis
working on a sculpture. He didn’t have any photos, so he did this
project for the purpose of chronicling it on film. With his basement
already decorated with small replicas he has done and two full-size raptors
already standing watch in his back yard, he needed somewhere to put it.
Being
a Ricks College
alumnus, he decided to donate it to his alma mater.
“My
favorite class through four years of college was “Life of the Past,”
so I thought it would be a nice gesture,” Davis
said.
The
colorful half-scale replica stands about three feet tall and six feet long.
Davis created the technique he
uses to sculpt the dinosaurs using PVC pipe, papier-mâché, epoxy and, of course, paint. Davis
said he did the nanotyranus because he had never
done one before and it is one of the lesser-known dinosaurs.
“I
like to pick dinosaurs that aren’t as common,” he said.
In
an effort to achieve accuracy when sculpting the extinct reptiles, Davis
uses fossils he has collected over the years as models for certain parts of
the animals when possible.
After
a case is made for it, the dinosaur will be on display in the Geology
Museum located in Room 156 of
the Romney Building.
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