With the aid of a magnifier, Dominique carefully removes
matrix from a jacket containing Suchomimus fossils.
The magnifier allows her to work close to the bone without
nicking it.
Photo E. Schroeter

It took Stephanie, me, and another preparator named Ray two hours to cut the jacket open. I tried my best to make sure that I didn’t go further than the layers of the jacket as I was cutting it with the grinder. When we finally got it open, I thought it was gorgeous. Messy, but gorgeous. The bone was covered in rich, ruby red rock.

After we cleaned it off a bit, Stephanie, Ray, and everyone else inside the lab went into their weekly meeting, so I just cleaned it off a bit more and gave it a closer look. It looked sturdy and strong—strong enough to be in such an amazing condition after 110 million years.

When the meeting was over, it was time for me to go. I wanted so bad to work on the skull myself, but I was expected to be reassigned to the Suchomimus jacket the next day I was there.

Two days later, I walked into the lab expecting to work on the Suchomimus jacket. But instead, Stephanie asked me if I wanted to work on the Suchomimus or the SuperCroc jacket. Inside, I was jumping up and down, screaming, “SuperCroc! SuperCroc! SuperCroc! SuperCroc!” Meanwhile, on the outside, I was stalling for two seconds looking back and forth between the two, humming indecisiveness. Then I said calmly, “SuperCroc.”

Dominique poses in her dust mask. The mask keeps Dominique
from breathing in dust and plaster particles that are floating
in the air of the lab.
Photo E. Schroeter

For those last three days of my internship, I got to work on the SuperCroc skull. I tried to get as much done as I could without damaging the bone. And the more I worked on it, the more I didn’t want to leave. The more bone I uncovered, the more I wanted to see. But when the clock struck twelve, I had to get my things together and leave.

For the past two years, I’ve been telling people that paleontology is what I want to do when I grow up, but I was almost never 100% sure. There was always that little part of me that questioned the words that came from my mouth. But as I was walking towards the door, looking over my shoulder at that large skull, with that large full snout, covered in that rich, ruby red rock, that part of me, all of me, knew that that was what I wanted to do with my life.

DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DOMINIQUE, FOSSIL PREPARATOR

7.20.2006
Today we started by cutting the edges off the Suchomimus jacket, which took about an hour and fifteen minutes. It kept my mind pretty engaged—it was kind of therapeutic. I was comfortable doing it, I guess because I do a lot of cutting in shop at school. After that we used the air scribes to cut away at the matrix around the Suchomimus fossil. Again, it kept my mind engaged but I liked doing that better for some reason. And when 12 o’clock came along, I didn’t want to stop.

7.21.2006
Today we just removed the matrix from the Suchomimus fossil with the air scribe. It wasn’t long before I got into my “zone.” After an hour or two my eyes started to get tired, but it didn’t distract me much. While Elena was taking pictures of us, I didn’t even know she was there until she tapped me on the shoulder. There’s still a lot of matrix on the fossil, but bone is starting to pop up in more areas. After a while, I got so used to looking at the rock I had to look at the bone to remind myself of the difference. But I’m getting more confident in my paleontological abilities as time goes on.

7.24.2006
I was the only intern who came today. I’m still working on the Suchomimus jacket. There was about four to six times when I found something that looked like rock but looked like bone too, so I asked Stephanie whether or not it was bone because I didn’t want to just hack away. She said I was doing a good job, but when my arm got tired I let it lay down for a bit, and a piece of bone broke off and I felt horrible. Stephanie showed me how to mix and use epoxy to fix it. After that I found another piece of bone, then moved on to another area and found another piece of bone.

Dominique and Stephanie examine a map of the jacket
containing Suchomimus. This map shows where all
the bones in the jacket are expected to be and where
preparators should be more cautious. As new bones are found,
they are added to the map.
Photo E. Schroeter

7.27.2006
I found a lot of bone today. I was in an area I had been working on for more than an hour or two, so I assumed there wouldn’t be any bone there, so I went a little faster and ended up finding bone pretty quickly and I kept up the pace and found more bone but I ended up nicking that. So, I went much slower, slower than usual. I didn’t damage any more bone but as I moved to a different area, I found loose fragments— soft areas with loose pieces of dirt and sand. I keep finding bone often and unexpectedly. I’ve got to be more careful, even when it seems unnecessary.

8.3.2006
I started by going through more matrix today with the bigger air scribe. Before I began, Stephanie asked me how confident I was with the air scribe. I said, “I need a little work.” I was a little bit tense because there was so much revealed bone that I didn’t want to mess up. Then I moved to an area closer to the bone with the smaller air scribe, but it was going too slow so I moved back to the big one. After a while, I stopped and filled in cracks with glue, and before that I used hardener because bits and pieces of a bone kept coming off whenever I brushed it. Then I moved on by chipping away at rock with the small air scribe.

8.8.2006
I spent most of my shift going through matrix. I started with the small air scribe. But the rock was so hard and so tough to break through. So, I asked Stephanie what I should do. She said that I could use the bigger air scribe. I looked unsure. She said, “I trust you.” So I guess if she trusted me, I might be able to do it, even though I was very close to the bone. I used the scribe very slowly on a much slower mode than usual, to the point where it was like the smaller air scribe but better. Stephanie said that I should move on to working on the bone. What she had me do was scrape the matrix off of some bone with a tool that I don’t know the name of. I found it more interesting than working with the air scribe. I only worked on it for about half an hour before I had to start cleaning up. When Stephanie came over to check on me, she said I did a pretty good job, not too many scratches on the bone, very rapid! I thought it was good, too. She had told me instead of using the sharp tip, try using the side which worked out pretty well. On Thursday, when I come back, I want to continue working on that.

8.10.2006
I was pretty focused today. It was because Stephanie had me do a lot more than usual. Instead of just working with the air scribe, I used the pin vice to scratch matrix off the bone, used acetone to soften the matrix, glue to put some pieces back together, and hardener to make sure parts of the bone didn’t fall apart. The last thing I did was try to glue a piece back together, but I got super glue on my finger. Stephanie had to help me get it off with acetone. It was embarrassing, but funny.

Stephanie and Dominique plan where to work in the jacket next.
Photo E. Schroeter

8.13.2006
We cut open the SuperCroc jacket, which took about two hours. When we opened it, I thought it was beautiful—messy, but beautiful. Most of the bone is covered in this rich, bloody red rock. It is the first Supe Croc specimen with a whole snout. It looked like it was pretty strong, not fragile like I thought it would be.  I cleaned off the SuperCroc skull a little more and just looked around at other people’s specimens. It made me wish this internship program was longer than five and a half weeks—a lot longer.

8.17.2006
Today, I removed matrix from the SuperCroc jacket. Before I worked on it, if you took a quick glance at it, it would look like the bone was just red. But while I was working on it, I saw that a lot of the bone is this creamy, tan color. Now, I think that the red is just matrix that weathered itself to the bone. I was surprised that I was allowed to work on it, since this is the only SuperCroc specimen with a complete snout. But when Stephanie asked me if I wanted to work on the Suchomimus fossil (which I had been working on last Thrusday) or on the unique SuperCroc specimen, I had no doubt about what I wanted to work on. And though the rock was very hard to get through, I tried my best not to touch the bone with the air scribe needle.

8.21.2006
Today, I continued to work on the SuperCroc jacket. I cleared a lot of matrix off its left nostril. The part that I worked on looks good. I feel comfortable working on it and would love to continue doing that.

8.22.2006
Today was my last day. I worked on the SuperCroc jacket. The first hour was okay, the second seemed to go by slow, and the third went by too fast. I tried to get as much done as I could. I’m going to miss working here, because it’s relaxing and engaging. Stephanie did a great job of supervising and I would like to work with her again if I can. But if I were to say anything about this internship, I would say that six weeks is not enough

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