Bambu Lab Printers Recreate a 166-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur at Blenheim Palace

Five nine-metre dinosaur skeletons are now standing on the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, and every one of them came off a desktop 3D printer.

The installation, called Dinosaurs Are Forever, features life-size Megalosaurus sculptures created by British artist Jay Jay Burridge and his studio Future Fossils. Rather than carve the enormous bones by hand or use traditional fabrication, the team turned to additive manufacturing.

A print farm on a grand scale

UK additive manufacturing firm Printpool ran 14 Bambu Lab printers over seven weeks to produce the bones in ABS-GF, an ABS filament reinforced with glass fibre. After printing, the parts went to the Future Fossils workshop for finishing and assembly.

The result is five full skeletons, each nine metres long, installed across the palace grounds. The choice of Megalosaurus is no accident. The dinosaur was the first ever to receive a scientific name, formally described by geologist William Buckland in 1824 after fossils were found in Oxfordshire. Blenheim Palace sits in the same county where that discovery happened.

Burridge worked with musculoskeletal biologist and paleontologist Dr Matt Dempsey to develop a new interpretation of Megalosaurus based on fossil evidence and comparisons with related species. The finished sculptures mix science, art, and engineering. Each skeleton sits on a lightweight movable frame, with bones that were either 3D printed or hand carved.

Why desktop printers?

The project is a practical demonstration of how a print farm can tackle large installations without industrial equipment. Printpool used standard Bambu Lab machines to produce parts that could later be assembled into sculptures far bigger than the printers themselves. That matters for anyone running a print farm or planning large-format installations on a budget.

Nadia Yaakoubi, Bambu Lab's head of PR and communications, called the project a powerful example of how modern technology can bring ancient stories to life. The exhibition runs at Blenheim Palace through the summer.