Fossil Prep Lab
If you want to see paleontology in action, check out the Fossil Prep Lab. You can watch as Academy staff, volunteers and other skilled workers prepare fossils for study by scientists from a variety of research institutions. In the photo to the right, for instance, you see preparator Jean Caton working on a vertebra (backbone) of an Apatosaurus for the Carnegie Museum.
Work in the lab can also involve other aspects of dinosaur paleontology. Jason Poole, the manager of the Fossil Prep Lab, has collaborated with one paleontologists in the discovery, excavation, preparation, analysis and publications of a new dinosaur from Egypt. He is currently working with another paleontologist on another new dinosaur from Argentina.
So come on in. It's in the back of the Main Floor, behind the staircase. Watch them work, and if you want, ask them questions. They will be glad to answer.
From the Field to the Lab and Beyond
A couple of years ago, the staff at the Fossil Prep Lab worked with Josh Smith of George Washington University in St. Louis on discovery and study of a new titanosaur dinosaur, Paralititan stromeri, from Egypt. (Titanosaurs belong to a group of sauropod dinosaurs. Unlike their more familiar relatives such as Apatosaurus, titanosaurs flourished during the Cretaceous.)
The Fossil Prep Lab is currently working with Ken Lacovara of Drexel University on another titanosaur from Argentina.
Field Work
This part of the job usually means long days and hard work in remote locations. The paleontologist will choose an area because it has the right type of rock of the right age, but they often don't know exactly where the fossils are. So, they have to prospect. They have to look over a promising place until they find the fossils. If they find something, they can start digging. If not, they have to move on and find another promising place.
Once they find a place with fossils, they can begin the excavation. But they don't just dig. They have to carefully map and photograph the site because the arrangement of the fossils and sediments can tell paleontologists many things they can't know from just looking at the bones. They have to take lots of field notes.
They also have to be careful about how they dig. You have to chip away the rock, but you don't want to damage the fossils. One common technique is to use a field jacket such as the one you see in this photo. Field jackets (or fossil jackets) are usually made of layers of burlap and plaster. They cover and protect the fossils so they can be safely transported back to the lab.
Lab Prep
After the fossils arrive from the field, the long process of preparation can begin. They have to be carefully taken out of their field jackets. Then the excess rock has to be removed. However, the fossils are often fragile and the rock is often very hard. Chemical formulations can be used to stabilize the fossils and care is taken in removing the rock. The process can be slow. It can take anywhere from 50-800 hours to prepare larger specimens. In addition, you have to make lab records. You have to know which fossil in the lab matches the fossil in the field notes and field map. You also have to record anything that happens to the fossils in the lab.
Making Sense of the Bones
Once the fossils have been safely stabilized and cleaned of rock they can be studied. Outside paleontologists usually come to the Academy to study the specimens, but the lab may also make a cast (copy) of the fossils and send them to the paleontologists. Ultimately, the fossils themselves will be returned to their country of origin.
It can be difficult to make sense of tables full of bones large and small. Do these bones belong to one individual or to many individuals? Do they belong to one species or several? Where does one bone belong in an animal that has hundreds of bones (or fragments)? Knowing a lot about bones helps. So do all the carefully made field maps, field notes and lab records.