Cardboard Appalachiosaurus Skull

Appalachiosaurus (Appalachian Lizard) is a cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, that once roamed Georgia (Possibly even Atlanta), the Carolinas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama, in the Late Cretaceous Period, 80 to 70 million years ago. An adult is believed to have been 30 feet long, 8 feet tall at the hips, and weigh 2 to 3 and a half tons!

Like its cousin, T. rex, Appalachiosaurus had a powerful bite to crush bone, and teeth that could cut through flesh! Forward facing eyes and keen senses of smell and hearing, along with its jaws and teeth, and claws on its hands and feet, allowed it bring down prey like the Hadrosaurs (Duck Billed Dinosaurs) like Lophorhothon (Crested Nose) and ostrich dinosaurs. Its competition came from raptor dinosaurs, pterosaurs (flying reptiles), mosasaurs (marine monitor lizards), and Deinosuchus (Terrible Crocodile)-- a 39 foot long, dino eating alligator relative!

Using references from the reconstruction of the fragmentary skull of a juvenile from Alabama, I cut out all the pieces using electric scissors, a box cutter, and a ChompShop cardboard saw.
The nasal bone is egg carton, and the teeth are stacked, carved cardboard covered with masking tape and paper maché. I bent the pieces into shape before gluing them together with a hot glue gun. I then covered the skull with paper maché and painted it with thin layers of acrylic paint and coated it with a clear gloss glue as a varnish.