For a Trex to roam over museum visitors or a Triceratops to showcase its colossal horns, dinosaur fossils need to be meticulously reconstructed - cleaned, assembled, and even painted.
American restorer Lauren
McClain likens this process to assembling a three-dimensional giant puzzle.
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| Unraveling-the-Mysteries-of-60-Million-Year-Old-Dinosaur-Fossils |
McClain's first step in the process involves delicately
cleaning debris stuck to the 60-million-year-old remains using a small drill
powered by a compressed air compressor, much like a dentist's tool, in her home
workshop outside Houston, Texas.
Next, she must assemble this ancient puzzle, often with pieces
missing.
By molding fillings formed over millions of years in Megalodon teeth or Edmontosaurus femurs, she creates replacement parts, filling gaps
and smoothing notches. She has even worked on a fossil of a Eurypterid, a sea
scorpion dating back 200 million years.
According to McClain, reconstructing something consisting of
a hundred pieces requires truly examining all edges and how they fit together,
focusing on these nuances.
Many of the giants McClain has reconstructed once roamed in
what is now the United States, ranging from Florida in the southeast to
Montana, the Dakotas, and California in the north and west.
Ancient Femur Bone
McClain has been fascinated by dinosaurs since she watched
the movie "Jurassic Park" in her early years. She even got married at
the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, which hosts a series of replica
dinosaur skeletons.
Several years ago, while working as a graphic designer,
McClain started participating in fossil excavations. With the help of experienced
paleontologists who served as mentors, she founded her own restoration company,
Big Sky Fossils.
Seven months ago, she left her desk job to devote herself
full-time to her company.
In addition to working on a Pachycephalosaurus skull dome owned by a museum in Texas, McClain
is restoring a Hadrosaurid femur bone almost as big as herself in her garage
while looking for additional space to expand her workshop.
To provide stability, she first inserts a metal rod into the
massive femur bone. Then, she thoroughly cleans all the pieces before firmly
gluing them together. Next, she fills any remaining gaps left by fallen fossil
pieces with epoxy putty. McClain then applies paint to each new piece in the
same color as the original.
According to McClain, repairing missing parts of fossils is
often the most challenging part.
This is because you need to understand the anatomy of the
dinosaur accurately as well as have a reliable reference.
To do this properly, I frequently consult with
paleontologists," she continues.
According to David
Temple, the paleontology curator at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences,
movies make audiences believe that dinosaur fossils are excavated in their
entirety.
"But that's not the case in reality," he says.
Speaking in the museum's Cretaceous period section, Temple
points out that every fossil ever discovered has required some curation,
repair, and stabilization because the act of excavating from the ground is
inherently damaging.
Once the original fossils are restored, they are also used
to create lifelike reproductions and allow the same model to be displayed in
multiple locations simultaneously.
Temple notes that many paleontologists prepare their
fossils, but not all of them do. They often realize that it is a highly
specialized task for those who do this job.
Temple mentions that restorers and paleontologists sometimes
joke about creating a "new species" when mismatched bone pieces are
put together.
"Patience is crucial. Observation is crucial," he
continues.
According to Temple, restoration work requires attention above all else.