RCI was commissioned by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) to disassemble, consolidate and remount many of their fossil specimens for the newly constructed east Crystal in the Temerty Galleries. The dream was for the centerpiece of the new dinosaur hall to be a sauropod (long necked, long tailed, quadrapedal dinosaur). Upon investigation for a specimen to fill this requirement, fate stepped in and almost by accident, it was discovered that the ROM had 50% of a Barosaurus in their collection that had not been catalogued but was identified by Jack McIntosh, in the early 1980’s.
In mid-October, the ROM approached RCI to take on this enormous and exciting project. Normally, mounting a specimen of this size (90 feet long) requires several months of work but in this scenario, RCI was given a timeline of only 8 weeks to bring the Barosaurus to life for the opening ceremonies in the new dinosaur hall at the ROM, on December 12th 2007.
The RCI staff worked tirelessly preparing, consolidating, reconstructing, building armatures and assembling the skeleton. Owner of RCI, Peter May, worked closely with Paleontologist Dr. David Evans assuring size and articulation of fossil and sculpted elements.
RCI came shining through by completing the skeleton, in record breaking time. It was delivered, and mounted in time for the opening day ceremonies. The Barosaurus is currently on display, in all its grandeur, at the Royal Ontario Museum.