Making Joints – May 2015 Newsletter

MtBlanco | May 5, 2015 | 2015 to 2019, Archives - All by Date, Digs & Museum Activity, Fossil Elephants, Mastodons, Monthly Newsletter, Various Projects | No Comments

Making Joints
Archived Mt. Blanco Email Update
May 2015

The challenge of joining pieces of shattered mastodon skull

Work continues on restoring the large, shattered mastodon skull, our current big project at the museum. It was necessary to sort the hundreds of small skull bone fragments by surface, texture, and interior bone structure (which to the untrained eye looks just like foam). The surface of this skull has as many as a dozen different surface textures, such as bumps, bumps with subtle grooves, smooth with checkered pattern, fine lines, and a sandy finish.

Once these are arranged in categories, it takes hours of intense study to see if any of the fragments with similar textures can be glued back together. Sometimes the connecting points are no bigger than the size of your smallest fingernail, even on large pieces of bone. Making one good joint can take half a day, requiring a lot of patience.

Our small book, Talking Heads, helps anyone identify the type of animal and what part of bone they have. This is especially useful in identifying the bones of modern animals. What people can learn from looking at modern bones can tell them a lot about fossil bones like this incredible mastodon skull

These six pieces of the skull were very difficult to join because the surfaces were no longer clearly defined

It took several hours to find the connecting points on these thin fragile pieces of the skull. Both halves of a joint are held together by masking tape to allow glue to harden

Several hours of intense study were required to categorize these small pieces of the skull by surface texture. It took five such groupings to get all the skull parts organized

These two large pieces of bone only connected in a small, thin area of about 3/8 of an inch

Close up on the fragile joint between the two large bone pieces pictured to the left

L-R: Joe Taylor, David Rives, and Sara Bruegel

Mt. Blanco on Creation in the 21st Century TV show with David Rives

“Soft Tissue Found in Dinosaur Fossils” episode
Watch the Archive of this episode HERE

TALKING HEADS booklet by Gregg Thompson is packed with photos of animal skulls and easy to understand facts of how to identify animals from merely parts of their skulls. Excellent educational resource. Great for identifying the fossils in your backyard

$7.00 plus 3.50 shipping (in US)

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