But by collaborating with Frank Conrad, a "friend of a friend" who happened to be an immunologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, he was able to get to work. At first it looked as though the project would be unaffordable, with universities offering the required skills and equipment for £250,000. Simple though it sounds, his "cell-level typography" technique was far from easy. For the job – a cover piece for Creative Review magazine – he grew live cells in a mould, shaping them into the required letter. Typographer Craig Ward of New York media agency Grey has taken an organic approach to his latest commission – he's grown the work in a culture dish. The pterosaur models will take centre stage in June, welcoming visitors to the Royal Society's 2010 Festival of Science and Arts, which runs at the Southbank Centre, London, from the 25 June to 4 July. Recently discoveries have revealed that pterosaurs would have been covered in hair-like fibres, and this "fuzz" was incorporated into the models. They were based on fossil records, but details such as colour and eyes were a little more difficult, requiring educated "leaps of faith", says Witton. The replicas have been made at the University of Portsmouth, UK, under the guidance of palaeobiologists Dave Martill, Mark Witton and Bob Loveridge. Pterosaurs dominated the skies at the time of the dinosaurs, from the late Triassic period to the end of the Cretaceous (220 to 65.5 million years ago). Five life-size models of the flying giants have been made for the event, the largest with a wingspan of more than 9 metres. Pterosaurs are on their way to London to welcome visitors to the Royal Society's 2010 Festival of Science and Arts.
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