Travis Nolan, SMU paleontology student, likes to hang in the basement of Southern Methodist University鈥檚 Heroy Hall. When he鈥檚 there, he鈥檚 his element; surrounded by fossils in the university鈥檚 Shuler Museum of Paleontology.
He鈥檚 been obsessed with dinosaurs since he was barely able to talk. One recent summer day in that very basement, he arranged a few items on the table before him. The fossilized vertebrae of a Plesiosaur, thin pieces of specially treated paper, and ancient animals no larger than Nolan鈥檚 hand. 鈥� most are smaller.
鈥淭hey were monsters. You know, crazy animals, but they were real. Like, dragons are cool,鈥� Nolan said, 鈥渂ut as far as we know, not a real thing. Dinosaurs? Just as bad-ass, but they were really stomping around.鈥�
The crazy beasts on the table were designed and folded by him and are accurate to scale; and represent small masterpieces of his art, his origami.
鈥淭his is a Dimetrodon, a Microraptor, a Therizinosaurus and a Triceratops,鈥� he said as he pointed out each creation.
Nolan is an international prize-winning, paper-folder. In last year鈥檚 , he took gold in the original design category for his , a 500 million year-old predatory shrimp. His 5th place overall finish helped the U.S. rank third out of 60 participants in the 2021 Olympiad, America鈥檚 highest finish to date.
SMU paleontology student Travis Nolan has won gold in the International Origami Internet Olympiad for his paper creation of an Anomalocaris. A what? It's a 500 million year old predatory shrimp. I'll have more soon
— BILL ZEEBLE (@bzeeble)
From trains to dinosaurs to award-winning origami
His origami art grew out of his devotion to dinosaurs. He was 3 when it all started.
鈥淢y dad bought me a dinosaur puppet and I don't know if it was anything special about that puppet, but I thought it was kind of cool. And then I thought it was really cool, and then it was all dinosaurs all the time,鈥� Nolan said.
Well, almost all the time. While most kids his age got caught up in baseball or basketball, cars or kazoos, he only got sidetracked once, briefly.
鈥淭here was a transition period,鈥� recalled Nolan, 鈥渨here we went from trains, to dinosaurs on trains, to dinosaurs eating trains, to just dinosaurs.鈥�
By the time he was 8, Nolan had joined the Dallas Paleontological Society and started working on digs. At 13, the family was on a trip and stopped in tiny Seymour, southwest of Wichita Falls.
鈥淎nd here's a 100-foot mural of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that was new,鈥� recalled Nolan, 鈥渁nd all of this commotion. So we pulled over 鈥� it's a real small town - and there's a big sign on the door that says Under Construction, Future Museum, do not enter. And so we walked right in and met Chris Flis.鈥�
Christopher Flis is a paleontologist and director of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History in Seymour, Texas.
He soon claimed a new volunteer in Travis Nolan, who learned as much as he could from Flis, the Whiteside director, while working on nearby digs.
Flis has watched the youngster grow up. He鈥檚 impressed that the young man鈥檚 dinosaur obsession has persisted into college, while evolving creatively.
鈥淎nd so when he takes a Dimetrodon skeleton, or a dinosaur skeleton, and he turns it into this incredible work of paper art that is anatomically correct, it just blows your mind,鈥� Flis said.
Origami itself didn鈥檛 blow Nolan鈥檚 mind at first. Folding a paper airplane didn鈥檛 send him soaring, On the other hand, his imagination took flight when he considered turning some ancient beast 鈥� say, the Anomalocaris - that predatory shrimp 鈥� into origami.
鈥淭hat was just the only path that I could see,鈥� said Nolan. 鈥淐an I fold a T-Rex? Can I fold Triceratops? Can I fold something more obscure?" Nolan wondered. 鈥淒o they have an Acrocanthosaurus? Do I have to come up with one? You know? It was really just a game for a long time, but I had a lot of fun with it.鈥�
Along the way, he learned a lot, said Dale Winkler, director of SMU鈥檚 Shuler Paleontology Museum
鈥淗e really uses the origami as a way, as a means, to learn more about the animals you know, the details of their structure and their anatomy and so forth,鈥� said Winkler.
At the same time, said Flis, Nolan鈥檚 art can bring long-extinct animals closer to us.
鈥淚t definitely helped him to visualize what these animals should look like in life,鈥� Flis said. 鈥淭ravis does that very easily. He can take a skeleton and he can turn it into something that looks like they were here yesterday.鈥�
Today though, Travis Nolan is an SMU undergraduate student. Eventually, he hopes to learn and fold his way toward a PhD in paleontology.
More about Travis Nolan: He co-founded with Catherine O鈥橫ary. Adroit is a Dallas-based group of origami enthusiasts.
SMU tells us Nolan also uses his paper-folding skill for good. He volunteers with , a Dallas nonprofit that creates origami ornaments to raise money to fund water and sanitation projects worldwide.
