Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC) added even more fossils to its extensive collection after digs out in rural Wyoming and Montana this summer.
The museum partnered with Elevation Science Institute on the dig, spending a combined nine weeks in the field collecting a variety of dinosaur fossils. CMC’s team of 20 staff members and volunteers spent three weeks at four sites in Wyoming, while Elevation Science Institute’s team spent six weeks at sites in Montana.
The sites were located in remote areas of the states, in spaces exposed to the elements and far from any paved roads. The teams of paleontologists, fossil hunters and volunteers continued work that began last summer, removing tarps and dirt before using shovels, pickaxes, tile saws and jackhammers to carefully uncover bones of prehistoric creatures.
Once the fossils were found, crews would expose the fossils, still surrounded by rock, and then layer the fossils with toilet paper and tin foil before covering them in a protective field jacket made of burlap and plaster. The museum said the crews would dig underneath the fossil, lop off the rock like the top of a mushroom and carefully flip it over to cover and plaster the bottom, encasing the fossil and its surrounding rock. In its field jacket, the fossil, sometimes weighing hundreds of pounds, would be taken down the hill by hand and loaded onto a trailer.
CMC’s team collected parts belonging to a Hadrosaurus, an herbivore that could grow up to 26 feet long, including skin remains. The museum also returned with the frill of a Triceratops or similar species, along with fossilized fish remains, including fossils of a bowfin, a primitive fish species that first appeared 250 million years ago and still exists today.
Elevation Science Institute had some pretty exciting finds too, including a 4-foot femur from a young Diplodocus, a long-necked herbivore, and a sauropod skull. They also collected Allosaurus fossils and prehistoric crocodilian materials.
All found fossil material was delivered to CMC’s collections or partner institutions for preservation, research or further excavation. Visitors to CMC’s public-facing Paleo Lab in the Museum of Natural History & Science will be able to admire some of these finds as staff and volunteers work to remove the fossils from their rock matrix. The museum will also showcase some of the work in livestreams for National Fossil Day on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
Learn more about the museum’s fossil collection here.
Cincinnati Museum Center, 1301 Western Ave., West End. More info: cincymuseum.org.
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This article appears in Oct 2, 2024 – Oct 15, 2043.
