Bringing in a Dinosaur

We’re in a laboratory and in front of us embedded in a 350 pound slab of rock, is the skeleton of a creature that’s over 200 million years old. I’m Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Nesbitt: So we have an early dinosaur skeleton just taken from the field a year ago.

Paleobiologist Sterling Nesbitt is an Assistant Professor in Geosciences at Virginia Tech.

Nesbitt : What I’m looking at right now is almost a complete skeleton of an early carnivorous dinosaur. This specimen is about 212 million years old. This animal is one of the most complete early dinosaurs ever discovered from North America. Early carnivorous dinosaurs are very rare. This skeleton right here is incredible. Most of the time, we just find isolated bones, but here we have both legs folded under, we have almost the complete pelvis area, and we have a bunch of vertebrae and ribs. So, it’s a very complete specimen. So, I’m really glad we covered this in plaster as soon as we found it in the field so we didn’t damage any of the bones because it’s really easy to do when you’re out in uncontrolled conditions.

When we find these specimens, we cover the top with plaster. Then, once that’s dry, we dig into the sides and add a little bit more plaster underneath. After that plaster has dried, a bunch of us flip over the specimen as quickly as possible. And then we cover that side with plaster. So, that flipping process is very tense if it all goes wrong, it will go wrong there. But, in this case, everything was perfectly okay, and the specimen’s nice and safe in the lab now.

We’ll hear more about paleobiology and dinosaurs in future programs. I’m JIm Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Bringing in a Dinosaur

Bringing a dinosaur skeleton from the field to the lab is a tricky process.

Air Date:06/30/2017

Scientist:

Transcript:

Bringing in a Dinosaur

We're in a laboratory and in front of us embedded in a 350 pound slab of rock, is the skeleton of a creature that's over 200 million years old. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.

Nesbitt: So we have an early dinosaur skeleton just taken from the field a year ago.

Paleobiologist Sterling Nesbitt is an Assistant Professor in Geosciences at Virginia Tech.

Nesbitt : What I'm looking at right now is almost a complete skeleton of an early carnivorous dinosaur. This specimen is about 212 million years old. This animal is one of the most complete early dinosaurs ever discovered from North America. Early carnivorous dinosaurs are very rare. This skeleton right here is incredible. Most of the time, we just find isolated bones, but here we have both legs folded under, we have almost the complete pelvis area, and we have a bunch of vertebrae and ribs. So, it's a very complete specimen. So, I'm really glad we covered this in plaster as soon as we found it in the field so we didn't damage any of the bones because it's really easy to do when you're out in uncontrolled conditions.

When we find these specimens, we cover the top with plaster. Then, once that's dry, we dig into the sides and add a little bit more plaster underneath. After that plaster has dried, a bunch of us flip over the specimen as quickly as possible. And then we cover that side with plaster. So, that flipping process is very tense if it all goes wrong, it will go wrong there. But, in this case, everything was perfectly okay, and the specimen's nice and safe in the lab now.

We'll hear more about paleobiology and dinosaurs in future programs. I'm JIm Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.