jfnowell

After quickly dabbling in all of the different departments of the Natural History Museum, I was faced with the one department I was actually dreading. Collections is adjacent to the lab but has a completely different vibe. Imagine a very serious librarian that is in charge of thousands of 4.5 million-year-old bones- yeah, it looked intense. Collections is in charge of the database, labeling all of the bones from the Gray Fossil Site, and labeling all of the bones from the Saltville Site (which I worked on a few weeks ago). The room is very white, quiet, and climate controlled. Needless to say, I was deeply intimidated. There are only two people that work in Collections, a graduate student studying ancient salamanders and the director, Brett. On Tuesday I walked in and immediately the graduate student taught me my job- to label the bones from the Saltville site. Many of the chunks are unidentifiable which is why they are being put into the archives. During my week in Collections, I learned a lot about how bones are labeled and that music is a very valuable resource.

  

The process of labeling the bones consists of five steps that are supposed to take a total of three days to finish.

1. Use a Q-tip to smear on a layer of glue (Butvar 78) on a flat area of the fossil.
2. Paint a small white square onto the glue
3. Paint over the small white square with more paint
4. Take a fine point collections pin and write the ETMNH # on the white square
5. Finally, take another bit of the Butvar to seal up the whole process

  

The process is time-consuming but the result is a label that will not be worn away by time or humidity. The attitude that everyone has towards the fossils is really inspiring to be around. I loved the passion that everyone had in each department that helped teach me a ton about paleontology. For a field that I had little to no interaction with beforehand, I have found a deeper appreciation for the work. Paleontology is hard work and really requires a variety of people working together to preserve natural history for later generations. While a week working in silence was difficult for a talker like me, I would not trade a moment of it.

Last week, I got to discover the educational branch of the Natural History museum. The director of this section is actually a fellow History major and it was cool to see another non-paleontologist in the building. My duties were split between two branches within the educational department. During the summer, the museum always hosts elementary age Paleontology Camp where kids get to dig, plaster cast, and learn about the site. I’ve been looking forward to the camp because kids are right up my alley.

  

The group of 19 kids were really excited to learn and talk even when they weren’t supposed to. College is really the only time in life you can entirely escape children and jumping back into the rhythm of youth education was a little difficult but ultimately rewarding. I taught them a lot of little games to try and burn energy between activities (and I’m really proud that they enjoyed them so much)

  

The top group is playing war while the bottom two kids are playing ultimate Rock Paper Scissors. Seeing how the research that the lab and field are gathering can be applied and taught to children really shows the impact the museum is making. Now for the second half of the education wing, I helped with summer day camp groups that came to tour the site. The general set up for a group is to split the kids (generally a group of 70) into three groups. One group goes on a traditional tour, one group goes through the exhibit, and the final group gets to participate in a picking activity.

   

We had a group come through every day last week and I helped guide them through the activities depending on the group. Generally, the groups were well behaved and apt to learn but some groups were just wild. I really enjoyed participating in this part of the museum as well because the education department really seems to be the branch that makes the work going on in the museum accessible to the public, which I think is endlessly important.

The Natural History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site realistically has four section that all work together to fuel a cohesive unit. The first is operations (which I did my first week with the museum), the second is lab and field work which really fuels the whole operation because without fossils the site would not exist, the third is the education section that really helps connect with the community, and the third is collections which are where the bones are stored for future research. This past week I really dug into the meat of the museum. Shawn Haugrud manages both the field and lab sections of the museum. He is extremely passionate about his work and really took the time to teach me more about the exciting things happening out in the field. Being a history and literature person, I don’t have an extensive knowledge of paleontology but I learned more than I could have imagined this week. The first half of the week was out in the field digging and water screening. Water screening is an extensive process that the grad students (whom I shadowed) take part in every day from 9-12.

While in the field in the black sediment, the paleontologists in training put every spec of dirt they chip away into yellow bags to eventually water screen for micro-fossils. This process is long and an extremely intense arm workout but leads to many new species being discovered in the lab. Let me just tell you, my arms were worn out after this experience a few days in a row. After a lunch break the team then heads out to the pit to start the search for fossils.

 

Luckily the museum supplied tents which keep the summer heat extremely manageable or I would have melted in the sun. From 12:30-5 (with a short popsicle break around 3) the group dug carefully for fossils. I found a few unrecognizable pieces but the coolest find was an arm bone from a tapir. I realized that I don’t exactly have the patience for this kind of work but I really have a deep respect for those who are passionate about it. On a side note, if you are looking for D&D Masters, look no farther than paleontologists because over half of this group was certified. After being outside in the sweltering heat, Shawn let me go into the lab to see what the preservation and microfossil picking was all about.

The picture on the left is one of the volunteers picking/identifying bone fragments while the picture above on the right is a progress picture of my baby that I worked on for my whole time in the lab. I cleaned a huge chunk of mastodon tusk in preparation to seal and preserve it. In the lab, I also learned how to make the special glue that they use to both bond fossils and seal them. While the field part was very fast paced, I really enjoyed the lab because of all the specific skills that I acquired. Without these two functions of the museum, there would be no need for the rest of the building or employees. Every single day the grad students are finding major pieces of bones that will be studied for years and years. It was very satisfying to be part of this section for the week and I have a newfound respect for paleontologists and museum volunteers alike.

Week two at the Natural History Museum marks the beginning of field work. This week I will be outside digging for bones (and other fossils) in the heat. To begin the week of sweat and slow work, I signed up to be part of the dig in Saltville, VA.

This particular site is an Ice Age site, full of fun creatures from mastodons to mammoths with a particular emphasis this summer on bear teeth. The Saltville site is situated off of a walking path in the middle of the small town.

The site is one of the oldest in America and even Thomas Jefferson had ties to the Saltville site. For approximately three weeks every summer the Gray Fossil Site team (made up mostly of graduate students) treks the hour and a half to dig in the mud. It is a mud pit that has to be drained out every morning before the digging can begin.

I arrived around 8:00 am to the site and the pump was already hard at work. The four other people on the dig were two graduate students, one recently named “official” paleontologist, and a software engineer that has a knack for digs. I was the only one with zero experience so they gave me a crash course in how to effectively dig for hours. Which is what we proceeded to do for the rest of the day, five people working in a mud pit slowly chipping away at the site. After three and a half hours of work one of the graduate students found the first and only find of the day- a tooth. The lead paleontologist, who was not there today, is the one who received funding for the project and has decided that our focus is bear teeth so that he can being to experiment with DNA testing. The work was slow and very detail oriented and I do not see this for the rest of my future but I am excited to see if there is more to be found at the Gray Fossil Site.

Welcome to the Miocene, a time when East Tennessee was full of alligators, red pandas, and elephants. The Miocene dates back to 4.5 million years ago and the landscape would have been unrecognizable to the current inhabitants. Back in 2000, road construction began in the space right next to Daniel Boone High School to try and stop some of the accidents that were occurring regularly. Soon into the new road project, TDOT workers found the jawbone of what was thought to be part of a mammoth. Since the mammoth is Ice Age era, the state of Tennessee was going to continue with construction because of the plethora of Ice Age information paleontologists already have. Luckily, they did decide to dig for a few more days until the skull of an alligator was found. This was huge news for the site because the alligator obviously did not come from the Ice Age, but actually predated the era. Through relative dating, paleontologists (led by my now boss- Dr. Stephen Wallace) determined the site to be a part of the Miocene. Evidence has also shown the team and volunteers that behind the museum use to be a huge watering hole that drew all sorts of animals. The site is so abundant that every single day there are new fossils uncovered. Seven years after the initial discovery the Natural History Museum at the Gray Fossil Site was founded as a branch of the ETSU newly founded Paleontology Department.

For the month of June, I will be taking part of all different elements of the museum. Since the museum is ultimately half an active dig site and half a traditional museum, I believe this will be an interesting immersion into the world of paleontology. The first three days of my internship were labeled by my boss as “Operations” but I have ultimately been sitting at the front desk reading about the history of the museum. Since the museum also likes to give a tour every hour on the hour, but only have one employee that has the time and experience to do them, I am also being trained to be a tour guide. Every day so far we have had summer camp groups come through to see the site.

The kids have been excited about learning and ask a lot of questions about why there are no dinosaurs on our site. Ultimately, the tour route is interesting and I am excited to be set on my own to lead a tour group next week! This first week of work has been challenging but extremely informative. The employees are open to teach me about the museum and I can not wait to see where this experience will take me.