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Bringing Back Dinosaurs
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Locating dinosaur fossils is difficult -- the Earth is large,
and fossils are small -- but the paleontologist's labors
don't end with discovery. Getting the fossils back to the
lab and before the public is less glamorous, but every
bit as difficult as finding them in the first place.
For example, Dr. Louis L. Jacobs of Southern Methodist
University, discovered in Malawi, Africa, the nearly-
complete remains of a very important titanosaurid,
which he named Malawisaurus. (The fascinating story of
his expedition is told in Quest for the African Dinosaurs.)
Dr. Jacobs obtained permission from the government of
Malawi to take the dinosaur to the United States, where it
would be displayed and used to cast accurate models,
before being returned to the people of Malawi.
Unfortunately, the remains of a titanosaurid are larger than
a suitcase, or even several suitcases. Malawisaurus was a
moderate-sized titanosaurid, yet its fossilized bones weigh
tons. Dr. Jacobs could find no economically feasible method
of shipping its remains back to the United States, and for
more than two years after its discovery, Malawisaurus
languished in storage, awaiting transport. Fortunately, Dallas
is home to American Airlines and when they learned of
Dr. Jacob's plight, they volunteered to fly the dinosaur back
to Dallas. Malawisaurus will be studied and prepared in
Dr. Jacob's laboratory on the campus of Southern Methodist
University.
Once paleontologists have brought back fossils from the field
to the lab, they are examined in detail. If the fossils are
embedded in very hard rock, the entire rock may be cut out
of the ground and moved back to the lab. All specimens are
numbered and the position in which they were found is
carefully recorded. The rock is numbered, and the direction
that was north (when the rock was in the ground) is also been
noted. Extremely large and heavy slabs of rock resting on
wheeled frames can often be found blocking the hallways of
laboratories, where they await the careful chisels of workers.
In the lab, the fossils are freed from the rock that surrounds
them. Bit by bit, with painstaking care, the rock is chipped
away by hand or with small electric drills. Air ducts above
the workbenches vent away the inevitable dust.
As the rock is cut away, the fossils emerge. Most fossils are
rather small and fragile, which means that extreme care must be
taken in exposing them. Sometimes the fossils are the same
color as the rock that shrouds them, which makes the task even
more painstaking. At such times, ultraviolet light may help,
because sometimes the fossil fluoresces and stands out from the
rock.
Fossils recovered from rock are sorted and identified. They
may be placed in informal containers on what seem to be
cluttered tables, but the paleontologists know where everything
is, and everything gets filed. As the fossils are identified and
grouped, body structures are recreated. Vertebrae link up to
form backbones; a leg emerges from tibia, fibula, and femur;
radius, ulna, and humerus become an arm. Mineralized fossil
bones are extremely heavy. When museums recreate life-like
poses, they must first fashion a framework of iron to hold the
dinosaur bones in place. |
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