--- title: Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard description: After road construction on the Pan-American Highway revealed a mysterious whale graveyard in Chile, researchers scrambled to figure out why so many of the mammals... canonical: https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/ author: Alex Fitzpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-02-27T00:42:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:30:41.428Z article:section: Science og:title: Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard og:description: After road construction on the Pan-American Highway revealed a mysterious whale graveyard in Chile, researchers scrambled to figure out why so many of the mammals... og:url: https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard twitter:description: After road construction on the Pan-American Highway revealed a mysterious whale graveyard in Chile, researchers scrambled to figure out why so many of the mammals... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard So They Can Study It Later  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Feb 27, 2014 12:42 AM UTC  by [Alex Fitzpatrick](https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/)  ## Alex Fitzpatrick Feb 27, 2014 12:42 AM UTC After road construction on the Pan-American Highway revealed a mysterious whale graveyard in Chile, researchers scrambled to figure out why so many of the mammals died in the same spot. After ongoing construction threatened to disrupt scientific studies at the site, Smithsonian paleontologists along with its 3D Digitization Program Office used 3D scanners to take a virtual “snapshot” of the site. That snapshot — which is also being 3D-printed — is allowing researchers to continue their investigation of the site long after the fossils were moved to a local museum. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/"},"headline":"Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard So They Can Study It Later","datePublished":"2014-02-27T00:42:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:30:41.428Z","description":"After road construction on the Pan-American Highway revealed a mysterious whale graveyard in Chile, researchers scrambled to figure out why so many of the mammals...","url":"https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/","keywords":["Paleontology","3D printing","Smithsonian"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alex Fitzpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alex-fitzpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paleontology/","name":"Paleontology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/10342/3d-printing-whale-graveyard/","name":"Researchers 3D Print a Whale Graveyard So They Can Study It Later"}}]}] ```