Professor Creates Bronze Reincarnations of Ancient Creatures and Modern Insects

By
Jas Cilas
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Image by dadrummond/Instagram

Professor D. Allan Drummond, who teaches biochemistry, molecular biology, and human genetics at the University of Chicago, was dedicated to researching fossils of ancient and prehistoric creatures for the better part of his academic career. A few years ago, he decided to use his research and knowledge into something tangible.

Drummond started turning the fossils into detailed computer renderings which he would then print out using a 3D printer and create bronze reincarnations of these ancient creatures. Most of the professor’s works revolve around creatures like Trilobite, which are extinct for more than 200 years, but he occasionally also does sculptures of modern insects like spiders or praying mantises.

You can check out some of his intriguing works below.

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Cryptolithus Dissection, 2018. ✨ My complete reconstruction of the Ordovician trilobite Cryptolithus bellulus. This reconstruction is held together with rare-earth magnets, permitting removal and examination of all soft tissues. (Sound on for satisfying clangs.) The latter include walking legs (endopods, bronze), gills or filter-feeding apparatus (exopods, bronze), and digestive system (bronze-infiltrated stainless steel). 🔬 We’re still not sure why Cryptolithus and her relatives have that striking mantle (she’s sometimes called the lace-collar trilobite). Although early researchers through it might be for filter feeding, more recent work suggests it may have served as a sensory apparatus. ✨ Sculpted from scratch from multiple lines of fossil evidence, including modern tomography studies, soft-tissue specimens unearthed beginning in 1895, and scientific reconstructions from multiple researchers beginning in 1920. 🔬 Displayed on a piece of Ordovician shale from the bed where the first soft-tissue Cryptolithus specimens were unearthed in the 1890’s. The shale is from my dig with @goldbugsofficial (Markus Martin), whose scientific scholarship has helped bring these incredible creatures into new light. Swipe to the end to see a figure from his 2009 paper (Farrell, Martin, Hagadorn & Briggs, Lethaia 2009) showing an actual soft-tissue Cryptolithus specimen from this location. 🔬 This piece is available at Roq La Rue Gallery; contact @roqlarue with inquiries. ✨ #trilobite #paleontology #fossil #sculpture #cryptolithus #science #lacecollar

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Scenicus, 2018. ✨ The zebra jumping spider Salticus scenicus in bronze with black glass eyes. Swipe to see her from all around — she’s all inquisitive up top, all business underneath. And she’s not small. 🕷 She’s just starting her curious exploration in search of prey and mates, looking out for danger by giving the world permanent side-eye. 😏 She’s covered in setae, not so much fur as plumage, more than 2,500 “feathers” of it, all bronze. ✨ Her species patrols my windowsill much of the year, looking around avidly at everything including me. They don’t build webs, instead using their incredible vision to hunt. Incredible is not too strong a word: although her huge front-facing eyes are fixed in position, her retinas move inside her head, scanning in characteristic patterns to build up her picture of what’s around her. A bit like you, if you wore permanent sunglasses. 😎 And she’s called scenicus (“theatrical”) not just for her stripes — if you wave at her species-mates, they will look at you and on occasion wave back with fuzzy pedipalps in a little performance. 👋🏻 Here she’s giving us a curious look, a fleeting moment of cross-species connection before she resumes her hunt. I love her. 🖤 On display at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle until Jan. 6; edition of three, only one left! Link in my profile or DM the gallery @roqlarue. ✨ #spider #jumpingspider #arachnid #sculpture #bronzesculpture #beautifulbizarre #hunter #naturalhistory #spidersofinstagram #details #lookup

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Shop opening Sunday 12/16, 12pm noon CST (link in profile). ✨ Many months ago, I temporarily closed my shop to prepare for my first show. Little did I realize how all-consuming the show would become. So many of you have been so understanding as I turtled up — thank you. 🖤 With the show successfully up @roqlarue, I’ve had just enough time to make a tiny swarm of my most-requested wearable arthropods: a scarab, a sphinx moth, and a trilobite shell. ✨ The insects will be available in bronze and silver; the trilobite shell is bronze (no legs or antennae here). Orders received by Tuesday 12/19 will ship USPS priority mail by Thursday, which for most US addresses means expected arrival just in time for Christmas (can’t guarantee, however). International orders will ship in the new year. ✨ I hope at least some of you who’ve reached out to me can get a piece. Forgive me for not being able to make more — I make each one with these patina-blackened hands, there are no elves! More photos to come…the silver pieces look lovely. Hope to see you tomorrow. ✨ #flashopening #dadrummond #shop #moth #trilobite #scarab #jewelry #bronze #silver #wearable #arthropods #pendants

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Life Plate, 2018. ✨ My tribute to the beloved trilobite Eldredgeops rana. Four bronze animals, three with all soft tissues exposed and one perfectly enrolled, go about their lives on a slab of Devonian rock once occupied by this very species. One animal is captured breaching to right itself, exposing its ventral details—biramous legs and antennae, gnathobases, hypostome—to the curious viewer. The soft tissue reconstruction is based on the literature and, in particular, on images of soft-tissue Chotecops ferdinandi specimens from the Hunsrück slate. 🔬 The rock itself is a kind and deeply appreciated gift from the incomparable @goldbugsofficial. It features an imprint of an enrolled Eldredgeops (formerly Phacops) rana in the center of the piece, only slightly smaller than the enrolled sculpture. I had the pleasure of digging with Markus at this site this summer, unearthing many of these delightful creatures with my own hands for the first time. The rock takes me back. Thank you, Markus, for hauling this and its mates for the edition halfway across the country en route to your dig in Nevada! I am in your debt. 🙏🏻 I dedicate this piece to the memory of Riccardo Levi-Setti, my @uchicago colleague who passed just weeks ago, whose specimens at the @fieldmuseum inspired this work. While I never got to meet him, I know his joyous enthusiasm for these animals touched many lives. I hope the piece stirs something of that joy in those who see it. 🖤 On display at Roq La Rue Gallery in Seattle until Jan. 6, and available through @roqlarue, https://www.roqlarue.com/category/exhibitions/

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Huntress, 2018. ✨ The mantis Tenodera sinensis in bronze and neodymium. An adult female, fully equipped for her insatiable search for prey. Her raptorial hooks and coxa (shoulders) are articulated, held by rare-earth magnets. Her head swivels on another pair of magnets, permitting her to orient visually in a way only mantids can in the insect world. Her hips also pivot as in life. She has seen something that interests her… 🔬 Swipe to see a walkaround and views of her from all sides. Her forewing patterns mimic leaves down to the submillimeter scale, part of the pattern-breaking camouflage all over her carapace. ✨ On display @roqlarue in Seattle until January 6 — available, inquire with the gallery. There’s nothing quite like her — my pride and joy. ✨ #mantis #tenoderasinensis #chinesemantis #prayingmantis #predator #bronze #magnets #camouflage #available #hunter #insect #sculpture #jizai #jizaiokimono #naturalhistory #holdstill

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Trilobites. ✨ My dream made real: eight species of ancient marine arthropods in solid bronze, three shown twice, once as shell from above, once from below as a complete soft-tissue reconstruction. Years in the making, as longtime followers know. ✨ Echoes of the drawings of Haeckel — fans of “Aspidonia” will find a specific grinning reference here. But in this plate, every piece is a full bronze sculpture, and is just as detailed (or more) underneath. Instead of being mounted, they’re hung on specialized 3D-printed hooks, each unique, which allow each animal to be removed and inspected — swipe to see the details hidden in the upper right. 🔬Making its real-world debut tomorrow @roqlarue at the opening of my first show, “Curiosity.” The preview list is live — details in my story. This piece is an entirely different experience in person. In a sense, that’s the point. Hope to see some of you here. ✨ #trilobite #curiosity #haeckel #sculpture

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The struggle is real. ✨ Here’s one of my favorite details plucked from my larger piece honoring these lost animals. And this is more or less how I feel, with just over a week before my first show and so many things left to do. Most problems are brand new to me. But I’m not alone. ⭐️ Friends, mentors, and collaborators have shown such generosity and kindness during this process, raising the level of the work and my spirits simultaneously. I’ll be thanking them specifically later when I have a moment to do their contributions justice. For now: if you’re staring down a new challenge, seek out people who’ve done it, or something like it, and listen to them. The best ones have more than just wisdom to share when they see you’re serious. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to fall into a web of astonishingly talented artists with huge hearts. Can’t imagine navigating these dark waters without their light. ✨ Show opens Friday December 7 @roqlarue 💫 #struggle #notalone #artists #community #onyourfeet

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