Ashfall Fossil Beds
Beginning an internship in the excavation, documentation, and preservation of Miocene vertebrate fossils, alongside museum operations and public outreach.
Fossil preparation, collections, field geology
R. Lucas Jackson
I am a geoscientist and fossil preparator based in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and I go by Luke. I graduated from West Chester University in spring 2026 with a B.S. in Geoscience. I have prepared Columbian mammoth material for the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, guided collectors through a Green River Formation quarry for In-Stone Fossils, and this August I begin an internship excavating Miocene vertebrates at Ashfall Fossil Beds.
Paraloid B-72
Air scribe
Air abrasion
Plaster jackets
Cavity mounts
Micropicking
Prepared
2026B.S. Geoscience, WCUPA
4museums, quarries & collections
6specimens documented here
2current Red Cross certifications
Selected preparation work
Before the bench, and after
Hover a specimen to see how it arrived and how it finished. The complete record, including the treatments used, is on the prep portfolio page.
Where the work has been
Museums, quarries, and collections
In-Stone Fossils
Led fossil tours at a Green River Formation quarry, teaching guests how to collect properly and identify what they found, and prepared quarry specimens with air scribes.
The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs
Preparation, micropicking, and cataloging of Columbian mammoth material, plus teaching classes for museum visitors.
Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel
Volunteered in collections, organizing and cataloging vertebrate paleontology specimens.
At the bench
Tools and methods
- Consolidation Paraloid B-72 for joins and stabilization
- Matrix removal Air scribe, air abrasive, X-Acto and hand tools
- Housing Plaster support jackets and carved cavity mounts
- Screening Micropicking of sediment concentrate
- Collections Cataloging and specimen records
- Lithology Cutting and preparing gabbro and basalt for study
- Field Brunton compass, section measuring, field notes