Greetings everyone!

So, as I have promised, I have photos for you this week. My mommy came to visit this weekend and dropped off my camera. Now, for the important stuff (let's hope she doesn't read this).

I will discuss my week at PRI and then go into more of a generalized description of the fossils (and other goodies) I have gotten. I've been very very patient in keeping a few secrets until I got my camera. So here it goes!

This Tuesday was a pretty stressful one. It's a good thing I didn't sleep in this time, that would have been the straw on the camel's back! I was at the bus stop where I noticed a couple of old guys drinking beer. They seemed to be having an argument with someone and I wanted little to do with them. So, just my luck, they happened to be on my bus and they sat down right across the aisle from me. I tried to seem involved in my math studying so they wouldn't bother me. That did NOT work. One guy asked what I was studying and I had to respond to him (I'm not just gonna ignore him!). And so commenced a 40 minute conversation about calculus with two drunk men. They were quite repetitive and slurred their words. They told me how they were legends and everyone in Ithaca told stories about the two crazy guys (I am currently conforming to that claim). The younger one, Carmen, kept winking at me. It was creepy. The following is an excerpt from my conversation. Craig, the older one, did make some good points.

Craig: "Think of something you'd do for free, and go get paid for it. That's the thing about jobs."

Me: "Yeah, I volunteer at the museum of the earth."

Craig: "good girl. you gotta start early."

*skip to 5 Minutes later*

Craig:" So what do you want to become?"

Me:"A paleontologist"

Craig: "Oh you should visit over there [points to museum of earth]"

Me: "the museum of the earth? [mental sigh]"

Craig: "Yeah!"

Me: "Yeah... I work there"

Craig: "Oh good for you!"

So after that ordeal, I get off the bus and walk to PRI as I contemplate alternate modes of transportation. I get there, stop in the room and say hello to everyone and go down to the lab to get started. Here's my fishy (this is before tuesday's work. I forgot to take a picture of afterwards)

 

 

 

anyone have any idea of the species yet?

And for the much awaited pictures of the lab. I just got news two days ago that the lab will be upgraded (the actual location, not the equipment) starting February. Yee-Haw! I'm wondering where all the stuff will be when it's under construction and if it will be available for use.

It's funny, because my last name is Tompkins. Hehehehehe.

 

From left-to right: there's the cabinet where all the Green River Formation stuff is kept. The bigger fossils are displayed on the shelf. The SEM is in the corner behind the yellow springy air intake. The off-white contraption is an old dust collector or compressor (i forget which) that we no longer use.

 

 

sorry it's hard to fit everything in the picture! I had to take it from outside the door! In the photo below, from left to right: air abrasive unit and the box thingy to work in.

 

 

I will post pictures of the museum in general next week because this is already a long post.

Close up of some fossils

The dreaded hadrosaur mess I've discussed earlier

 

 

A partial ceratopsian skull and a cave bear skull. These have been prepped a long time a go and are just there for display for visitors.

 

 

 

So that's the lab. I'll get more angles and a view from the outside later.

My day wasn't super eventful. I worked on the fish for about an hour. Then I went up to PRI and just did some basic database entry stuff. I copies locality numbers onto the computer and made sure there weren't repeats. I had to leave earlier than usual because I had a calc exam that evening which went ok....

So now onto the exciting stuff. I recently purchased some antique prints from 1900 from the series of Tiere der Urwelt in germany. I think the prints came with cocoa boxes? I'm not sure. But they are stunning and they were moderately priced. All of the text is in german. They're from Fossilshack.com, but you can get them cheaper on ebay, but some prints come with tiny fossil pieces of the species depicted. I got three, and an extra one for being a good customer

So here they are:

Megolosaurus vs. iguanodon. I love this piece because it reminds me of how science evolves more rapidly than the species it studies. came with iguanodon bone. nothing too special

 

 

Machairodus neogaeus, cool saber-toothed cat, came with a little bit of bone from a saber-toothed cat, i'm not sure of the species

 

 

przewaltski horses (this was the bonus one i got for free!) this one is from 1910 I believe.

 

 

and, my favorite, the iconic archaeopteryx. ( I think I snagged the only one in stock only 15 of each of these prints were ever made and the fossil shack only has a few)

 

 

Now what is that little black thing at the bottom of the photo you might ask?

ARCHAEOPTERYX BONE. You read correctly. I've been exchanging emails with the owner of Fossilshack.com ever since he asked if everything had shipped ok. I asked about how he got his hands on the bone, and he replied with this:

 

I am glad you are happy.

The archaeopteryx bone is one of the most rare pieces I have in my collection. I had three small pieces that I aquired from a friend in exchange for some restoration work. He has a quarry in Solenhofen and had several partial skeletons. I essentially sculpted the missing pieces so you could identify the actual bone but see what the entire animal would have looked like.

In payment, he gave me three pieces of bone. I have one mounted with my archaeopteryx print, one in a display case, and I decided to offer the third with this print because I knew that it would make a tremendous piece that could be displayed with the print. The bone is probably worth more than the print but it makes it more special.

Thanks again.

[name of fossil shack dude here]"

 

 

I believe his story and that's good enough for me. The bone is now my favorite fossil in my collection for obvious reasons. I'm also invited for discounts on my next purchases hehehe

So that's probably the most exciting of my news this week. I'll maybe make a post this weekend, I'm not sure.

 

Coming up in October:

The 18th- Field Trip to Portland Point

The 28th- Museum in the Dark -I am going to volunteer at this and I'll be dressed in halloween attire. I'm not sure of my job yet. I might do tours, I might be part of a lab station and help kids identify fossils they find in buckets of shale (they get to keep them too ). I need costume Ideas!

Hopefully I'll have more time to work next week!

Here's a quote from the october newsletter the museum sent out. Volunteers don't get paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless. ~Sherry Anderson

 

They also announced me as one of the new interns. I forwarded it to my mom and she got a little teary-eyed hehe

Thanks for reading! Please subscribe

-Emily

P.S. the extra attachment below is just my failed attempt at editing. it's a duplicate