File:The dinosaur book - the ruling reptiles and their relatives (1945) (20334109774).jpg

Title: The dinosaur book : the ruling reptiles and their relatives
Identifier: dinosauruli13colb (find matches)
Year: 1945 (1940s)
Authors: Colbert, Edwin H. (Edwin Harris), 1905-2001; Germann, John C
Subjects: Dinosaurs; Reptiles, Fossil
Publisher: New York, N. Y. : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO

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nearest railroad shipping point, and the specimen begins its trip to the museum. When one is hunting dinosaurs, which are usually found in the most out-of-the- way places possible, and which often have single bones weighing two or three hun- dred pounds, the difficult nature of the work of fossil-hunting becomes painfully apparent. But in spite of the hard and hot work, the sand and the flies, the bad water, and the many natural discomforts that flesh is heir to, the fossil-hunters love it. Take a paleontologist's field trips away from him and he is apt to get savage, or at least to acquire a rather sour outlook upon life. Collecting the fossil and sending it to the museum is only part of the story. In the
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museum the entire process that was gone through in getting the specimen out of the rock has to be reversed. First the fossil must be unpacked. Then the burlap and plaster cinches must be removed. After that there comes the long process of "preparing" it for study or exhibition. The bone must be freed completely from its rock matrix, a pro- cedure that requires skill, patience, and a great delicacy of touch. Indeed, the process of preparation is usually the longest and most tedious part of paleontological tech- nology. As the rock is chipped away from the bone, the fossil is hardened with shellac. Large bones are drilled, and steel rods are inserted into them to support their dead weight. Missing parts are filled in with plaster. Thus it may be seen that the preparation of a fossil skeleton is a long job, and when the work involves some- thing as large as a big dinosaur, the task is truly colossal, requiring the full-time efforts of several skilled men for many months, or even years. That is why only the large institutions are able to go after the big game of dinosaurs. After the fossil is fully prepared, the paleontologist at last begins his examina- tion of it. The fossil must be compared with other fossils, and identified. Perhaps it is new. Then it must be carefully studied and a description written for publication in a technical journal. For it is only through publication that a fossil collection has any real value. Unless the information gained from the collecting and preparing of fossils is made available through the printed page, the assemblage of specimens is essentially a pile of meaningless junk. The reputation of a scientist and of the institution for which he works depends largely upon his publications. Without a solid foundation of scientific publications emanating from its •^^ If the extinct animal is to be placed on exhibition, the skeleton is mounted in posi- tion. The bones may have been greatly dis- arranged when found; here they are accurately assembled and held in a natural posture by concealed supports that will be scarcely visible when the scaffolding is removed A.M.N.H. photograph

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