Prep portfolio

Preparation record

Six specimens, documented the way the work actually went: how each one arrived, what was done to it, and how it finished. The first two were prepared during an internship at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota. The rest were prepared independently. Click any photograph to enlarge it.

Columbian Mammoth Rib (Mammuthus columbi)

Prepared for the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota. Catalog number MSL 2855 arrived as a tray of broken fragments. The pieces were joined with Paraloid B-72 and held upright in a sand tray so each join could cure without stress on the bone. Too much of the middle section was missing to close the gap honestly, so that portion was left unglued rather than forced into a false fit. The finished rib was housed in a custom plaster support jacket.

Mammoth rib fragments in a specimen tray before preparation

Rib sections standing in a sand tray while adhesive cures

Reassembled mammoth rib on the preparation bench

Finished mammoth rib resting in its plaster support jacket

Columbian Mammoth Vertebra, Cavity Mount (Mammuthus columbi)

Made for the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota. A cavity mount carved to the shape of this vertebra so the specimen sits in full contact with its support and can be handled and stored without pressure on the processes.

Mammoth vertebra seated in a custom-carved cavity mount

Knightia (Knightia eocaena)

Prepared independently with an X-Acto knife. An Eocene fish from the Green River Formation that came out of the quarry with much of the body still buried. The limestone above it was lifted a flake at a time until the head, body, and fins were all clear of matrix.

Knightia fossil fish partly covered by limestone matrix

Fully exposed Knightia fossil fish after preparation

Diplomystus (Diplomystus dentatus)

Prepared independently with an X-Acto knife. Only part of the fish showed on the split surface. Hand preparation brought up the whole animal, including the deep body outline and the fin rays, which are thin enough that a slip takes them off the slab for good.

Diplomystus fossil fish before preparation

Olenellus (Olenellus getzi)

Prepared independently, cleaned and glued. A Cambrian trilobite collected from broken shale in the field. The fragments were cleaned and rejoined into a single stable block that presents the specimen the way it sat in the rock.

Broken shale containing an Olenellus trilobite in the field

Cleaned and reassembled Olenellus specimen block

Flexicalymene (Flexicalymene retrorsa)

Prepared independently with air abrasion and a scribe. Nothing was visible on the surface of this slab when work started. Air abrasion and scribe work took the overburden down in stages until an Ordovician trilobite came up intact, sitting just below the face of the rock.

Slab with no fossil visible at the surface before preparation

Flexicalymene trilobite exposed on the slab after preparation