Friday, January 2, 2015

Sauropods!!

So I got home, settled in, started school... and found myself with a project. A rather.... large project. A last minute, large project that was going on display in less than two weeks.

6 articulated sauropod vertebrae in hard rock.

Awesome. Because I'd rather put more than 30 hours into prep work than homework anyway. 
My home museum, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, had a travelling exhibit coming that we were providing some of the fossils for. Aptly named "World's Largest Dinosaurs," it's about what can be learned from fossils of sauropods, ranging from how they walked to how they breathed and ate and worked physiologically. And of course how they were excavated and cleaned, hence a stop motion video of us working on the vertebrae.

In the part about fossil preparation, I also came across an ischium (part of their unfused hip bones) that I held with before I left for Nebraska. Great to finally see the finished product!!

 Fun fact; sauropods are full of holes! No, really, their bones have seemingly random air pockets everywhere that would have allowed their skeletons to be light enough to avoid collapsing under gravity. Likely they also breathed in a similar way to birds in order to be efficient. In birds, the air actually enter air pockets during one inhale/exhale and the lungs in another, taking twice as long to cycle through the body than in mammals and thus being more efficient and making the animal lighter. And it also happens to be one factor that caused the birds at Ashfall to die so quickly.

 Hm...that brings up interesting questions...

 Anyway, enjoy a video of how they walked and us prepping out the fossils! I'll be back when school allows!!





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My Story (Very briefly...)

Lots of people claim that they wanted to be paleontologists at the age of 3. So did I. The problem is, I never really grew out of it. My third birthday party had dinosaurs. Everywhere. I grew up digging in fossil dirt from Aurora, NC, looking for coral and shark teeth. I practically lived at my local science museums (and still do, only now I get to do research, fossil preparation, and work in collections!) When local paleontologists discovered a dinosaur with a "fossilized heart" (no longer considered such) when I was little, I got to meet the man who led the work. And then, years later a dinosaur bone with soft tissue turned up. I was officially hooked.
No longer was I dreaming about dinosaurs. I was actively pursuing the science behind prehistoric creatures. I didn't want to read about it, I wanted in on the action. So I started working at the museum, and finally going on my own adventures. And thus, I needed a place to share them and maybe inspire others the way I was inspired. I have gone from watching fossils be prepared from one side of the glass at the museum to working on them on the inside of the glass. I am a student working toward my goal. I can finally start to call myself a paleontologist.