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Preparing the Montana Dueling Dinosaurs!
Nearly 1 year was spent planning for a new preparation lab to uncover the Montana Dueling Dinosaurs. In April of 2007, a property was purchased to conduct the project on. The property contained a trailer house (CK Preparations office and dorm for visitors), and a 40' x 52' dirt floor shop. The next two months were spent turning the shop into a modern preparation lab. Today, it contains the most modern preparation equipment, an area for visitors to learn about the project and view the preparation, and the Montana Dueling Dinosaurs. A hi-definition videom camera was purchased to record the preparation process. Every minute of preparation on the meat eater has been recorded and will be available at a later date.
Journal Entry 8/6/07 (C. Morrow)
12:42am MT - Preparation continues late into the night. We are now microblasting the specimens to prepare them for photographing and molding. We expect to be ready for molding within a few weeks. Katie has been working on the ceratopsian skull and is doing an excellent job. We have opened the remaining jackets. I started preparation on the first half of ceratopsian tail. It was interesting to see the tendons attached to the vertebra. I am doing detail work on the meat eater and it is looking nice. Everything is becoming much more stable with the preparation process and the fossils are now able to be cleaned at high pressure with the microblaster in most places. I have a lot of images to show and I will add text to the right of them. Enjoy and thanks for checking in.
HIGHLIGHTS OF PREPARATION (8/6/2007)
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Here is the Ceratopsian jacket. The tip of the tail has already been opened and partially prepared. |
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Here, I am opening the jacket more to expose the chevrons. |
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I used a dental pick and a micro blaster at low pressure to remove the matrix. In most areas, the matrix separated well. |
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The Ceratopsian chest jacket was the last section that had not been started. Katie was preparing at the end of the ribs and noticed the orange layer with the clay backing. I prepared it as I had done with the hip and found what I believe is the skin impression from the chest. It is very folded and not preserved as well as the hip, but has the same features. Only two polygons can be seen. |
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Katie has been working hard on the Ceratopsian skull. After removing the debris from over the frill, she was able to expose the frill that is still in original position. It was surprising to see how thin the frill is. The exposed region is near the center of the parietal. |
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Here, you can see the occipital condyle and back of the braincase. |
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Here, you can see the first section of the tail of the Ceratopsian with the top rough matrix removed. |
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Here is a better image of the skin impression from the chest of the Ceratopsian. |
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Here is the hip area of the Ceratopsian. You can see the right ilium, ischium, and femur. |
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Here is the meat eater skull after being micro-blasted. The fossil is in amazing condition! |
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Just wanted to look at the skull right side up. |
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A close-up of the premaxilla teeth. |
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Adding Vinac to the newly exposed fossils and matrix. |
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Katie working late into the night on the Ceratopsian skull. |
More coming soon!