Fossil Prep Methods - South Dakota (session 1)

The Museum of Geology at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology will be hosting a fossil preparation summer camp. The camp will be led by the museum’s Fossil Preparator and Lab Manager, Sam Wright, and will take place in the state-of-the-art Foster Preparation Lab. The Museum of Geology has a large collection (~500,000) of fossils from South Dakota and surrounding states ranging across a large portion of geological time. The fossils in our collection include those from the Ice Age (Pleistocene), White River Badlands, Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway, and Cretaceous and Jurassic Terrestrial deposits which include dinosaurs. Students attending this camp will get hands-on experience with fossil preparation including use of hand tools such as pin vices and dental tools, and pneumatic tools such as air scribes and air abrasion units. The camp will also include learning about and using consolidants and adhesives to repair and stabilize fossils. Making storage containers or “housing” for fossils is a big part of what we do for the specimens in our care at the Museum of Geology, so students will learn the standard practices of making cavity mounts and archival jackets for fossils being stored in collections.