- [Pete] What we're gonna do is we're gonna use this
really cool machine over here.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] Believe it or not this is going to go really fast
because this is, again,
this is the magic wand of paleontology.
- [Coyote] Okay.
(machine air hissing)
- [Crew Member] Whoa. I see rocks flying.
(egg breaking)
(dramatic theme music)
(adventurous music)
- [Coyote narrating] The crew and I spent an entire day
working alongside renowned paleontologist, Pete Larson,
(hammering)
where we explored a vast stretch of remote Badlands.
This unforgiving terrain
was the perfect place to find fossils
that dated back more than 25,000,000 years.
- [Coyote] Oh. my goodness.
- [Coyote Narrating] Collectively we found we found
a handful of mammal bones, and skull fragments.
But the prize specimen of the day was a small turtle shell
that we safely extracted from the parched earth.
Pete felt this was the perfect fossil to bring back
from the field and into the lab
for presentation preparation.
So, today we are returning to The Black Hills Institute
where we are going to learn how to properly clean up
our prehistoric treasure.
- All right, guys, we are back from the field
with our turtle.
Now what we're going to do today is show you guys
how these fossils get prepared for museum presentation.
And the first thing we need to do is unwrap our turtle
to make sure that it made it back here
to the lab in one piece.
Now, Pete's gonna walk us through that process
and at the end you're gonna see a perfectly preserved,
presentable turtle shell.
- [Pete] Okay, so as you remember there's actually
one major piece and then some smaller pieces.
This is the label, we need to save this label,
because that's part of the history of this specimen.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] That tells us where it was found and the day
and all that.
Okay, so here are the pieces. - [Coyote] Okay.
- And here's the main mass.
- [Coyote] So, guys, this is carapace and plastron
together here.
- [Pete] Right, and again because part of it
was weathered out there are little pieces
that have fallen down the bag,
but you may recognize this now.
- [Coyote] Yep.
- [Pete] So this is the way it was found.
- [Coyote] Yep.
- [Pete] There were little lumps of dirt on here.
And this is the butt end of the turtle,
this is a turtle butt,
and this is where the front end would be.
You can see that the top of the carapace
is just beautiful here, with the marginals all intact,
it's nicely inflated,
it's a really, really nice specimen.
And most of the pieces, I know we found
one piece for the front of the plastron here.
- [Coyote] Mmm-hmm, let's try and open this up.
- [Pete] Yep, we can open that up.
- [Coyote] So all these little tiny chips in here
could have bone in them.
- [Pete] Could have bone in them.
That one certainly does.
That's in fact the very middle one, so this one for sure.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] We'll make two little piles,
one that for sure has bone, and one that may be bone.
This is actually part of the front of that one, I remember.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] And this probably is not,
because you see this whole top surface here,
looks like it's all here.
- [Coyote] Right.
- [Pete] This is a turtle rib, and the ribs are all here,
so there was, kind of, spare change.
But that's definitely from this turtle.
And there may be some more pieces of the turtle,
and there's a few crumbs in here we'll go through.
We usually use a screen and wash those.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] But for the time being we're going to
go for the gusto here.
We're gonna take this nice turtle
and we're going to do a little cleaning.
So, there's a little bit of glue there,
otherwise there's really not much for glue on that guy.
- [Coyote] Wow. So you're telling me
this is going to clean up and really
look like a turtle shell.
- [Pete] It's gonna look like a turtle shell.
And what we use here is the paleontologist's magic wand,
and when you see it you're going to say,
"Merlon's beard, that's awesome!"
- Okay
(laughter)
Well, this is pretty awesome just like this,
to see the carapace and the plastron
safely back here in the lab.
And the next step is to start cleaning it.
- [Pete] Let's start cleaning it.
What we're gonna do is we're gonna do
is use this really cool machine over here.
- Okay, come on over here, guys.
- [Pete] What we are basically gonna do is
throw fine particles of dust at this turtle,
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] at high speeds, at high pressure.
We're using upwards of 200 PSI.
We'll probably only use about 80 PSI,
pounds per square inch, - [Coyote] Okay.
- so fairly high pressure.
- And I'll do a little test, and then we'll let you do
much of the cleaning.
And believe it or not this is going to go really fast
because again, this is the magic wand of paleontology.
- Okay. All right.
- [Pete] So, here's the noisy part. (machine humming)
Maybe not too bad.
- [crew member] It's not horrible.
- Could be worse.
- [Pete] Maybe live through that.
- [Coyote] We'll talk loud.
- [Pete] Then I'm gonna turn this guy on.
I turned the pressure way down to 30 PSI.
- Okay.
- I just don't want to hurt this little guy.
So, sodium bicarbonate has a hardness of about two,
bone has a hardness of 3.5.
That's on a scale of one to ten,
with talcum powder being the softest, number one,
and diamonds being the hardest.
So, you never want to use something
that's harder than the bone in this machine.
So, I'm gonna go from a long ways away first,
and you'll see something real magical real quick.
(air hissing)
- [Coyote] Whoa! - [Pete] Check that out.
- [Coyote] That was pretty cool!
(air hissing)
- [Pete] I'm just gonna clean a little spot,
and you can kind of... - [Coyote] I see that.
- [Pete] Use intermittent, okay.
There's a little foot pedal down here I'm using
with my foot to turn it on.
- [Coyote] Almost like a sewing machine?
- [Pete] Yep, like a sewing machine.
Okay, there you go. - [Coyote] That's cool!
- [Pete] Is this your first fossil preparation?
- This is my first fossil preparation,
and it's perfectly fitting that it just
also happens to be a turtle.
All right, Pete, so my hands are going into the machine,
- [Pete] Okay.
- [Coyote] I'm gonna gently pick up the turtle here.
All right, and then I just put my foot
on this little pedal down here.
- [Pete] And it should blast out some powder.
- [Coyote] Okay. (hissing air)
- [Pete] Let's see what you've got.
- [Coyote] Okay, I've got it. Wow!
- [Pete] Isn't that awesome?
- [Coyote] Merlon's beard, that's amazing!
(Pete laughs)
- Wow, it just blasts all that matrix right off of there.
Wow. Its very satisfying to see the ribs
of the turtle's carapice just appearing
out from beneath the matrix.
Look at that,
and I've got that whole section already cleared.
Now, this is the same process they use
on even dinosaur fossils to blast away little bits of rock.
- [Crew Member] Now while Coyote's doing this
what are some of the things we're looking out for, Pete.
- We're watching for fractures,
so there's a little bit of fracturing showing up.
I don't think there's anything serious.
See all that little white stuff will come off.
I can probably turn you up just a tiny bit.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] We start at a lower pressure and work our way up.
- [Coyote] Big chunk here.
Wooo, that's cool. Unbelievably satisfying.
It does take patience just like when you're digging
it out from the earth.
But, look at how you can see
that turtle shell being revealed.
- [Pete] And the plastron will clean very fast.
- [Coyote] Okay, let's take look at
- [Pete] Because it's just...
Watch how fast you can do this one.
- All right, here we go, guys.
We're about to reveal the plastron.
- [Crew Member] Whoa. I see rocks flying.
- [Pete] Yep, that' the little chunks of mud
that were stuck to the bottom.
- Got little chips of matrix just flyin' off
left and right here. The plastron is coming into view.
Whew, that's cool.
Why, you can almost see some of the coloration in the bone.
Look it, you can see the yellowish color.
That is pretty.
I'm gonna flip it back over to the carapace,
let's see if we can get off all of this extra debris.
[Crew Member] Oh, yeah.
- [Coyote] Look at that.
It's like working with a really fine-point spray paint can,
I'm just really working to get
all of this fine matrix out
from within the turtle's ribs here.
That is lookin' good.
All right, guys. I think that's about as far
as we're gonna take this turtle.
The timer has gone off, [Crew Member] Oh, yeah.
- That turtle is cooked. Or I should say, cleaned off.
(laughter) Now what started as something that looked
like a baked potato,
has now been completely cleaned up
and is nearly ready for museum presentation.
How cool is that?
- [Crew Member] That is really awesome.
I can't believe the detail that's come out.
- All right, let's bring it back over here to the table
and let Pete take a final look.
All right, guys, well, here we have it.
A perfectly cleaned turtle fossil.
There's the carapace, there's the plastron,
and Pete, how would you say I did?
- I think you did an awesome job, man, especially
for a first-time preparation, I'd say you get
an A+ for the day.
- Yes! I have passed.
Now, we know there are a couple of pieces missing,
a couple that we found in the field.
First off, is the bottom of the plastron here,
- [Pete] Yes, that's that piece.
- [Coyote] So that will need to be reattached.
- [Pete] It will go right there.
- [Coyote] Okay.
- [Pete] And then we have a bit of the turtle butt
right here, which is very important to turtles
as well as people.
And it goes right there as a marginal,
and this marginal will go right here.
- [Coyote] Nice.
- And the other piece we know that we found doesn't fit.
- [Coyote] Right.
- [Pete] Cuz it would go right here,
and it's too big, too thick.
- Well, it's always important to pick up all of the pieces
that you find in the field just in case.
So this is, I'd say about 90% complete.
Now, it's clean most of the way,
but there'll still be a little bit of touch up that is done.
But that is almost museum presentation ready.
Now I have graduated from turtles which means,
maybe we can move on to the T-Rex?
- All you need to do is find us one
and you can help clean it.
- All right, guys, well that sounds
like another adventure to be had.
Well, Pete, thank you so much for showing us today
how to clean fossils.
I'm Coyote Peterson, be brave.
Stay fossilized.
We'll see you on the next prehistoric adventure.
- [Coyote narrating] I think we've all stood in a museum
looking up with wonder at the skeleton of a dinosaur.
There's no questioning the fact that these ancient creatures
are impresseive.
Yet, what you may not realize,
is that the process of bringing them back to life
is a wonder unto it's own.
(theme music)
Through the process of finding,
extracting,
and preparing something as simple as a turtle shell,
I hope we have all found a new sense of appreciation
for the tireless work paleontologists like Pete
put into their craft.
I can only imagine how exciting the moment would be
if you found a Tyrannosauraus Rex skeleton,
to be a part of the team to safely exude it from the earth,
and to witness it's preparation and ultimate presentation
to the world.
My first turtle fossil was certainly a great place to start,
so here's to big dreams, and even bigger dinosaurs.
If you thought preparing a turtle shell for presentation
was fascinating, make sure and go back and watch
our exciting journey into The Badlands
where we found an impressive haul of prehistoric treasure.
And don't forget,
subscribe, so you can join me and the crew in this season
of Beyond Dinosaurs.
- [Paleontologist 1] I saw this and it is definitely the
largest fossil that I encountered.
- [Paleontologist 2] This is a rhino tibia, distal tibia.
(theme music)