LJ R. Lucas Jackson Fossil Preparation & Geoscience
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. My primary career goal is to work in the field of paleontology, with particular interests in vertebrate paleontology and fossil preparation. I have gained hands-on experience through positions with organizations like The Mammoth Site in SD, In-Stone Fossils in WY, and Ashfall Fossil Beds in NE.

See preparation work Read the resume
Paraloid B-72 Air scribe Air abrasion Plaster jackets Cavity mounts Micropicking
Luke inside the Hubbard Rhino Barn at Ashfall Fossil Beds, the ash bed behind him with numbered skeletons still lying where they were buried In the ash bed
Inside the Hubbard Rhino Barn Ashfall Fossil Beds
2026B.S. Geoscience, WCUPA
4museums, quarries & collections
9specimens documented here
2current Red Cross certifications
Selected preparation work

Before the bench, and after

Hover a specimen to see how it finished. The full record, with the treatments used, is on the prep portfolio page.

Closed plaster field jacket on a lab bench The finished equid vertebra hover for result
Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska

Miocene equid vertebra

A plaster field jacket opened on the bench, the vertebra inside worked free of volcanic ash and cataloged for the University of Nebraska State Museum.
Mammoth rib fragments as received in a specimen tray Mammoth rib after preparation hover for result
The Mammoth Site, Hot Springs SD

Mammuthus columbi rib

A rib that arrived broken into a tray of fragments, rejoined with Paraloid B-72 and housed in a plaster support jacket.
Diplomystus fossil fish still covered by matrix Diplomystus fossil fish after preparation hover for result
Green River Formation

Diplomystus dentatus

An Eocene fish taken out of the matrix by hand with an X-Acto blade until the fin rays came up clean.
Slab with no visible fossil before preparation Flexicalymene trilobite exposed after preparation hover for result
Air abrasion and scribe

Flexicalymene retrorsa

A slab that showed nothing at all on the surface, worked down until the trilobite underneath was fully exposed.
Where the work has been

Museums, quarries, and collections

August 2026

Ashfall Fossil Beds

Excavation, documentation, and preservation of Miocene vertebrate fossils, with specimens prepared and cataloged for the University of Nebraska State Museum, alongside museum operations and public outreach.

Summer 2026

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.

Summer 2025

The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs

Preparation, micropicking, and cataloging of Columbian mammoth material, plus teaching classes for museum visitors.

Spring 2026

Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel

Volunteered in collections, organizing and cataloging vertebrate paleontology specimens.

Luke in a sun hat and quarry shirt holding work gloves, a quarry wall behind him
R. Lucas Jackson
Field and lab

In the field and at the bench

Excavation in the Ashfall ash bed, splitting and collecting at a Green River Formation quarry, bench work at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, and the public side of a museum. Filter the photographs by place.

See the field and lab photographs
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