Little surface cleaning for your Sunday.

Preparators go through multiple steps when cleaning fossils from the field. You much rather bring back a ton of rock encasing the fossil to the lab – because let’s face it – these guys have survived for 65.5+ mya; they’ll be fine in the rock until you can get back to a proper facility to then remove them from the surrounding matrix.

These, though, are surface fossils known as “float”. You literally trip over them in the field because the rock/landscape has been eroded and these guys are just chilling on the surface. Easy, right? Well, sometimes. Depending on the specimen (this being of the Diplodocidae family), you can continue finding bits and pieces for years to come every season. Thousands of shards just resting on the surface.

Since most/all of the rock has been eroded, these shards are easier to clean, but piecing them back together is tough when you’re dealing with so many different shapes, colours, sizes, textures, etc.

These were three bits found in one of the documented bags by a volunteer, who then notified me to confirm the match, and have them glued together.

Before photos: The fossils slightly cleaned by a volunteer once she found they matched.

After photos: Further cleaned by myself and then photographed right before I bonded them together.

“Piecing” fragments of fossils can be very frustrating because these have been morphed, moved around, shattered, etc. Sometimes you know two pieces are from one rib, but you’re missing about two inches worth of fossil. Sometimes you never find that missing piece, thus we will use special putty to fill it in, or leave notes for future volunteers and staff to keep searching for the missing link.

Even though the pieces have been bonded together, I will continue to shine it up a bit more, but it’s looking good so far. It’s the ten thousand other pieces that need some more attention now!

Dakotaraptor illustration by Emily Willoughby.

amberredfield:

Indominus rex could be just right around the curve…

➾ Amber Redfield • Portfolio • Social Media

huffingtonpost:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the world’s first BASE jumping, wingsuit-wearing dog. See the full video of this brave pup soar the skies here. 

Losing Dean Potter was a huge loss to the community. Found this in my drafts; amazing human.

So I used to make a lot of graphics a long way back and I miss it terribly. I also couldn’t find shirts I wanted to buy online, so I started designing some. With that said, I decided to open up a Society6 account after a few friends suggested it.

You can get cell phone cases, shirts, tote bags, bed covers, pillows, wall clocks, art prints (framed, non-framed, and canvases), etc. It’s pretty awesome how many options Society6 has!

I’ll be adding new designs as I have time to make them, but a lot of what I’ll have available will be science and fandom related, so I wanted to pass along the info to you guys!

So far I just have this one Jurassic Park design up. Let me know what you think of it!

x

Dreadnoughtus Day: Saturday September 20th.

Everyone’s been asking if we will have Dreadnoughtus on display for the public, and luckily it is coming true this Saturday! If you’re in the Philadelphia area, come visit The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University for a day full of titanosaur epicness. Here is the day’s breakdown:

Auditorium

The Discovery of Dreadnoughtus
11 a.m.

Join Drexel University paleontologist Ken Lacovara for a tremendous talk on his discovery ofDreadnoughtus.

Life in the Field
2:30 p.m.  

Meet Jason Poole, the Academy’s own dinosaur hall coordinator, artist, and fossil preparator. Poole was part of the team in Argentina that discovered Dreadnoughtus. He leads the team in the Fossil Prep Lab—the experts who prepared fossils of Dreadnoughtus right here at the museum.

At Science Live 
Ongoing, all day

Actual fossil specimens from Dreadnoughtus, a massive plant-eater will be on display at the museum for one day only at Science Live! Talk to team members who were on the dig in Argentina, as well as the experts who helped prepare the fossil in the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Fossil Prep Lab.

North American Hall

Learn more about sauropods, titanosaurs, and how paleontologists find fossils at a discovery station in North American Hall. Touch specimens, do experiments, and see how long Dreadnoughtus really was! Hint: way longer than the Academy’s T. rex!

Dinosaur Hall

Measuring up to 42 feet in length and weighing in at an estimated 7.5 tons, Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the largest predators to ever walk the Earth. This impressive animal is one of many dinosaurs and other Mesozoic creatures you’ll encounter in Dinosaur Hall. More than 30 species are represented, about half of which are full skeletal mounts, including Avaceratops, Chasmosaurus, Corythosaurus, Deinonychus, Pachycephalosaurus, Tenontosaurus, and Tylosaurus.

Fossil Prep Lab

If you want to see paleontology in action, check out the Academy’s Fossil Prep Lab. You can watch as our staff, volunteers, and other skilled workers prepare fossils for study by scientists from other research institutions.

It’s going to be an awesome day!

latimes:

The newly discovered Dreadnoughtus dinosaur weighed as much as 7 T-Rexes, and more than a Boeing 737.