Welcome reader to an exciting journey which will travel through a historical discovery of prehistoric proportions!
Hello there! My name is Sara Wootton. My friend and colleague Jodie Visker and I are currently undertaking an amazing project with the careful guidance of Rick Hunter (our resident paleontologist) here in the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah.
Jodie and I started as staff/volunteer preparators in the paleontology lab on November 3rd 2016. It was unclear to us what lay in store, but we were excited to be a part of something on the other side of the viewing glass!
Rick gave us a detailed walk through of the lab, pointing out medical terminology charts and other artifacts we could use for reference materials. He showed us proper care of our tools, and gave us safety precautions and procedures.
We were then acquainted with the air scribes, learning to plug them in correctly and ensure that they would not drop to the floor, and set to our first task of cleaning off bone fragments.
Our first fragments were coated in a thin layer of matrix (rock and loose sediment which encapsulates the bone fragments). The air scribes are powered by compressed air which remove layers of matrix bit by bit, often grain by grain.
On November 10th 2016 Rick assigned us to a new block. The above jacket contains some of the vertebra of a barosaurus. Rick is giving us some pointers and we can begin our project. We are delighted to find that initially the matrix has been removing with relative ease.
Now that we have had a chance to acquaint ourselves with the adhesives and accelerating agents which are common to the trade, we are ready to tackle this project with enthusiasm.
The following images are of my first uninterrupted session with the air scribe today. Around 3 hours worth of work.
9:37am November 16th 2016
12:40pm November 16th 2016
THANK WikiPedia!! Below is a bit of information about our resident captive dinosaur!
Barosaurus (/ˌbæroʊˈsɔːrəs/ barr-o-sawr-əs) was a giant, long-tailed, long-necked, plant-eating dinosaur closely related to the more familiar Diplodocus. Remains have been found in the Morrison Formation from the Upper Jurassic Period of Utah and South Dakota (and possibly the Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania). It is present in stratigraphic zones 2-5.[1]
The composite term Barosaurus comes from the Greek words barys (βαρυς) meaning "heavy" and sauros (σαυρος) meaning "lizard"; thus "heavy lizard".
Stay tuned for more great things from the PaleoLab!
