Sue - Fossil Preparation 2

It took 12 people 30,000 person-hours to do this project in several laboratories, both here at Field Museum and down at Disney World in Orlando. First we had to take the rock off with an impact tool, which is sort of like a miniature jackhammer. Once we got close to the bone we used a...basically a miniature sandblaster to wear away that last veneer of rock. But instead of using sand, which would damage the bone, we used baking soda which is soft enough to wear away the rock but not wear away the bone. We double-checked this by looking at a little bone sample under a scanning electron microscope to see if we had damaged the bone surface, and it was fine.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Sue
• Fossil
• t.
• rex
• Tyrannosaurus
• mount
• fossil