Museum Project


 

 Over the past month I've been working at the prehistoric museum in Price ever Monday as a part of my internship. And I just completed my first project at the museum this week.

Back in June I was given a fossil that was completely encased in a protective jacket and was asked to open the jacket up and remove the fossil inside from the surrounding rock that it had been encased in. As well as glue back any pieces of the fossil that were broken off.

Here's what the fossil looked like when I was initially given it.

Before


And here's what it looked like when I was finished.

After

This fossil was a neck vertebra from an animal called a Polycotylidae.

This animal was a marine reptile that lived along side the dinosaurs, although it was not a dinosaur itself.

What's interesting about Polycotylidae was that it falls into a group of marine reptiles called the Plesiosaurs, who are iconic for having very long slender necks (kind of like reptilian swans).

Meet the plesiosaur: a gigantic aquatic reptile – Improbable Ventures

But for some reason Polycotylidae itself instead had a very short neck. Which has earned it the nick-name: 'Short-Necked Plesiosaurs'

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