Alex West's Summer 2002 Paleontological Independent Study

This picture, taken in Shell Wyoming, shows the five-member Smithsonian team and two volunteers. From right is SI property control manager Vincent “Skip” Lyles, vertebrate paleontologist and museum specialist Dr. Mike Brett-Surman, museum specialists Steve Jabo and Pete Kroehler, research scientist specializing in child psychology Dr. Ken Gadow, museum technician Jen Young, and myself (Mary Washington College geology major Alex West).

For two summers now I've had the good fortune to work with Smithsonian Institution (SI) paleontologist Dr. Mike Brett-Surman. The fact that we met at all is thanks entirely to the Boy Scouts of America, who arranged our introduction per my achievement of the rank of Eagle in the fall of 1999. I'd always wanted to pursue paleontology as a career and I was eager to learn all that I could from Mike. With that in mind I volunteered under him in the summer of 2001, categorizing and organizing by formation and taxon portions of the fossil library of vertebrates at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. In the summer of 2002, I was invited to leave the back rooms of the museum and instead accompany Mike and a team from the Smithsonian on an excavation of a Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen in the Hell Creek formation of eastern Montana. Very few people in the world can say that they personally aided the excavation of a T. rex, and fewer still have the opportunity to cut their teeth on one as their first excursion into the field. I am very fortunate in that I carry both distinctions, and in doing so experienced the opportunity of a lifetime.

The specimen we excavated was originally discovered in the summer of 2001 as part of the Hell Creek Project. Led by paleontologist Jack Horner of the Museum of the Rockies at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, the five-year project has already contributed several new T. rex specimens to the science of paleontology. This particular specimen and the site from which it was recovered are called N. rex after the discoverer, Nathan Myrvold, former head of research at Microsoft and sponsor of the project. Our Smithsonian team was invited to work alongside Jack and the Hell Creek project team to excavate this specimen, as the Smithsonian does not otherwise have a T. rex of its own for display. From June 6th to July 20th we worked to free the specimen from its 65 million year old resting place of bentonite and mudstone. We ultimately recovered the lower right quarter of the animal to include the femur and the tibia, all 16 bones of the foot including the toes, a partial pubis, a partial illium, several caudal vertebrae, and a whole mess of ribs. Upon inspection in the field, the preservation of the specimen looks to be of good enough condition for display in the dinosaur hall at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C., which is itself slated for renovation over the next 10 years.

While in the field in eastern Montana I happened upon a chance meeting with another paleontologist, who had graduated from Mary Washington College about X years ago with a degree in Geology. George “Geb” Bennet of the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum (SVDM) in Winchester VA, took some of the same geology classes at MWC as I am currently taking, under the same professors. We got to talking and I volunteered to come in and help prep some of the specimens Geb had collected (mostly triceratops) over his last two seasons in Montana, on a ranch not far from the Hell Creek Project. Geb studied under Jack Horner at MSU after graduating from MWC and is currently acting as my sponsor in an internship at SVDM. My responsibilities thus far have been the preparation of various specimens including a Triceratops femur, horn core, scapula, and vertebral fragments. I will soon begin work on the categorization and organization of specimens in the collection at SVDM by formation and taxon, as well as on the data entry of new specimens into the SVDM database. The collection is quite expansive, including large Triceratops skeletal structures, turtle, snake, amphibian, crocodilian, fish, and champsosaur material, as well as various other fragmented dinosaur bones, teeth and coprolites from the Hell Creek formation. Studying the “micro-site” material like the turtle, snake, and fish specimens in addition to “macro-site” material like Triceratops specimens gives us a better understanding of the paleo-ecology of the Hell Creek region as it was 65 million years ago. Through working with Geb I am learning not only the physical processes and trademarks of paleontological preparation and preservation, but how to look at the big picture; to think scientifically and thus how to describe an ancient environment. I will be accompanying Geb into the field this summer to help collect additional specimens of the type that I've prepped over this semester. I'm looking forward to it and many more expeditions to come in my paleontological career after graduating from MWC.

The topography in the Hell Creek region of eastern Montana is very rugged, and is a very beautiful backdrop to paleontological discovery.

To protect the fossils in transit they're covered in several layers of plaster-soaked burlap. Once the plaster dries, it hardens into a protective shell, buffering the fossils therein. This is a picture of my first attempt at the plastering process, where I am covering the illium in the first layers of burlap separated from the fossil itself by several more layers of moistened paper towels.

The first dinosaur specimens I ever excavated and jacketed are these two ribs from N. rex. This specimen was flipped after the top layer of plaster and burlap was applied exposing the matrix underneath. That matrix was kept intact for extra protection of the specimen after the bottom layer of plaster was applied.

The Smithsonian crew at N. rex, from left, Jen Young, Pete Kroehler, Skip Lyles, and Alex West. The femur and tibia of this animal take center shot while the humans are working to free it from its 65 million year old resting place.

With temperatures that approached 120 degrees F during the day later in the season, we took to erecting a shade tarp over the site in the afternoon. This picture, taken by Ken Gadow, shows the majority of the team working under that tarp. From left Pete Kroehler, Skip Lyles, Steve Jabo, Mike Brett-Surman, Jen Young, and Alex West work amongst the fossils, thus demonstrating just how big the specimens really are in comparison to human beings.

These two pictures (above and below) show the extent of our excavation. We dug down to within 2 or 3 feet of the bone layer, depicted here as that area under the tarp, removing an 18 foot cube of the overlying matrix in the process.

The crown jewel at N. rex, the foot. All 16 bones of the foot in this specimen were recovered including the four claws. This is an important find because the bones of the most distal extremities like hands and feet are often lost during the fossilization process, making them very rare. Studying them can tell us a lot about how this animal moved around, the environment it lived in, how fast it ran, and even how it went about acquiring food.

The excavation process is quite intricate in and amongst the “bone layer.” Removing the matrix from and around the fossil itself is done primarily through the use of dental picks and paintbrushes. This picture shows the proper administration of a paintbrush to the excavation of dinosaur bone.