a story of fossilized scutes
(posted for emo_snal, who has a fascinating LJ that you should be reading if you're not already)
~~~
"Here." Jason handed me a chunk of black rock. "I think there might be some fossil in there, but I'm not sure. See what you can do with it."
The rock was lignite, which is a poor quality form of coal. Usually when you're doing fossil prep, the easiest way to progress is to dig through the rock matrix until you hit something harder than the rock, and then follow that line. And, generally speaking, there's a colour difference that also helps you figure out where the rock ends and the fossil begins.
(I am, of course, speaking in VERY general terms.)
With lignite, the fossil and the matrix are the same colour, so you depend entirely on density. I was using an air scribe, which is like a tiny air-powered jackhammer, and sure enough, I found something buried in the black rock. But it wasn't acting like a bone. It had some really odd curves to it that frankly didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
I finally surrendered and called Jason over. "I have no idea what this is."
He studied the shapes I was finding. "It looks to me like you have two scutes, one wedged inside the other." (A scute is basically a bony scale - think of the bumps on the back of an alligator. I knew they could actually get sharp enough to cut a person, but it hadn't occurred to me that they could also fossilize.)
And - alas! - it was decided that my skill set wasn't advanced enough to continue prepping this fossil, so it was given to someone with more experience.
(...I'm still a little sad about that.)
I also want to say that you'd be surprised at how much fossil preparation happens in the hands of volunteers - a great number of them are women - rather than trained scientists. There is, frankly, so much fossil material in the US waiting to be freed from the stone surrounding them that fossil prep labs are always pretty happy to take on more help. As a fossil preparator, you are very often the first person to actually see the fossil. The field crew sees just enough of their find to know that yup, it's a fossil. They will then try to take as much of the surrounding rock matrix as they can to keep their find secure and (hopefully) safe from breaking, they'll wrap it in a burlap and plaster, and then send it off to their respective museum or lab.
That's pretty exciting stuff.
(It's also pretty terrifying stuff. "AUGH I BROKE THE FOSSIL!" But that's a whole other story.)
So. If you have a natural history museum around you that has dinosaurs, and you have an interest, you should ask if they need volunteers. You'd be amazed at the possibilities available to you.
~~~
"Here." Jason handed me a chunk of black rock. "I think there might be some fossil in there, but I'm not sure. See what you can do with it."
The rock was lignite, which is a poor quality form of coal. Usually when you're doing fossil prep, the easiest way to progress is to dig through the rock matrix until you hit something harder than the rock, and then follow that line. And, generally speaking, there's a colour difference that also helps you figure out where the rock ends and the fossil begins.
(I am, of course, speaking in VERY general terms.)
With lignite, the fossil and the matrix are the same colour, so you depend entirely on density. I was using an air scribe, which is like a tiny air-powered jackhammer, and sure enough, I found something buried in the black rock. But it wasn't acting like a bone. It had some really odd curves to it that frankly didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
I finally surrendered and called Jason over. "I have no idea what this is."
He studied the shapes I was finding. "It looks to me like you have two scutes, one wedged inside the other." (A scute is basically a bony scale - think of the bumps on the back of an alligator. I knew they could actually get sharp enough to cut a person, but it hadn't occurred to me that they could also fossilize.)
And - alas! - it was decided that my skill set wasn't advanced enough to continue prepping this fossil, so it was given to someone with more experience.
(...I'm still a little sad about that.)
I also want to say that you'd be surprised at how much fossil preparation happens in the hands of volunteers - a great number of them are women - rather than trained scientists. There is, frankly, so much fossil material in the US waiting to be freed from the stone surrounding them that fossil prep labs are always pretty happy to take on more help. As a fossil preparator, you are very often the first person to actually see the fossil. The field crew sees just enough of their find to know that yup, it's a fossil. They will then try to take as much of the surrounding rock matrix as they can to keep their find secure and (hopefully) safe from breaking, they'll wrap it in a burlap and plaster, and then send it off to their respective museum or lab.
That's pretty exciting stuff.
(It's also pretty terrifying stuff. "AUGH I BROKE THE FOSSIL!" But that's a whole other story.)
So. If you have a natural history museum around you that has dinosaurs, and you have an interest, you should ask if they need volunteers. You'd be amazed at the possibilities available to you.