A Story, Of An Urban Excavation Of A Fossil Gray Whale Named Raquel

[PRK]

All of the posterior bones of this whale were bulldozed away. Luckily, we only had to contend with only the ribcage, pectoral girdles, arm bones, the flippers, and skull. So to answer your question directly those pelvae bones , like so many other fine fossils, are in the fill dirt used to build up the freeway ramps.

Edited July 8, 2013 by PRK

[RichW9090]

Ah, ok, i wasn't sure how much of the posterior end of the animal was missing.

[PRK]

This is the only jacketing sequence that was saved. Since there are more than a few pics, I probably can't get them all in one post, so here goes.

The left scapula has been exposed and is now ready to be jacketed for removal. First the fossil to be jacketed, is wrapped directly on the bone surface, in a medium that the plaster cannot penetrate, ie: news paper, tissue paper, or aluminum foil. We used newspaper in the beggining but when the word got out that aluminum foil would work best, dozens of rolls were donated.

Next strips of burlap are rolled /soaked in the "pancake batter consistency plaster" . Then the soaked strips are wrapped around the the pre covered bones until completely encasing it. This process is repeated until the desired thickness is attained, hopefully thick enough to immobilize the rock encased within.

The jacketed bone is then carefully rolled over and the process repeated on the matrix side, so the bone is entirely encased. Even the scapula was heavy enough to require some extra support incorporated right into the jacket itself. A couple of 2x4s scrounged from the dump.

BTW: this technique was first used byCharles Sternberg, back in the late 1870s. He came up with the idea of the jacketing technique developed for fossils in the Cretaceous chalk beds, and as I've mentioned before, he was an icon of mine

By the second scapula we had the foil!

Edited March 29, 2013 by PRK

[PRK]

Nope, these didnt fit. Ill try em here!

Edited March 29, 2013 by PRK

[PRK]

ONE- more - time !!

Since the jacket itself is usually just a blob looking from the outside, it needs to be numbered and identified by writing on the outside of the jacket. Joe cocke and I discuss labeling the jacket.

The jacketed scapula ready to roll out of the way. The right scapula has yet to be discovered

Edited February 26, 2014 by PRK

[PRK]

We are now ready to jacket the other scapula, and with foil this time!

Edited March 27, 2013 by PRK

[RichW9090]

Sternberg used rice flour and paper in his jackets. Apparently the use of plaster and burlap was invented in 1897 by J. L. Wortman in the US and at the same time by some of the Belgian paleontologists in Europe. Barnum Brown also claimed to have been using a plaster and burlap technique at the same time as Wortman, independently developed.

[jpc]

Sternberg also did somethong different in the KS chalk. He'd expose the skeleton then build a frame around it then fill the whole thing with plaster and somehow move this huge mass to wherever it was going, where they would prep it from the bottom. A lot of Sternberg's KS fossils are embedded in plaster.

But I digress.... been loving this tale.

[PRK]

Hi again JPC---- as you, I prepared professionally for museum displays, and had built a reputation for preparation, including crinoids. Quite a number of years after my whale experience I was honored when LACM asked if I would come down from oregon and prepare a slab of Uintacrinus( about 3x4 ft), Charles Sternberg himself had collected back near the turn of the 20th century. This large jacket had been laying in storage for decades. Charles himself even signed and numbered the jacket. Last I saw this lovely specimen it was on display near the stairs at LACM.

BTW JPC- this specimen was collected with the same Sternberg techniques you mention. Very honored

Edited March 29, 2013 by PRK

[mako-mama]

Very interesting--thank you for sharing.

[lissa318]

I enjoyed reading this and have to add how wonderful it is that you have all of these pictures!!! Really helps tell the story and put things into perspective (in a BIG way, lol). Thanks for sharing your experience and your amazing find!

[Ludwigia]

And there's More to this saga!! Anybody interested in more?

You bet!

[jpc]

And there's More to this saga!! Anybody interested in more?

Heck, yeah. The Uintacrinus tale was a nice little aside. Thanks. Yes, honored you should be. Impressed we should be.

Edited March 21, 2013 by jpc

[lissa318]

I'm ready for more...

[squali]

Hey PRK keep it coming. Note the thread views are over 2200.

The story is coming together and there is still a lot to tell.

[Missourian]

This story reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark. There is action and excitement as the whale is found and excavated, but then it gets carted off to the warehouse....

[Ludwigia]

That's it eh?

Are you part Canajun or are you just starting to pick up on our linguistic habits? Murricans say huh...

[xonenine]

it has been an exceptional presentation, and I am sure many others, like myself, would like to see and hear the rest of the tale

Edited March 23, 2013 by xonenine

[Fossildude19]

I'm interested too.

However, due to the nature of this, (just like any other) forum, fewer people post in a thread than actually read it.

Almost 2500 views in 13 days is not too shabby.

Isn't that enough of an audience?

A story isn't finished until it is completely told.

Please, continue.

Regards,

[Uncle Siphuncle]

aye... continue please

[PRK]

Stay tuned---------------------------------

[PRK]

PART 2---- CONTINUED SAGA OF RAQUEL

That first 5 days of this story was done with the efforts of an amatur rookie team of students, teachers and other interested parties that had no training or experiance whatsoever with removal of a project like this. The local institutions were given first notice of this find clear back in December. And I was told " yes my boy, there are lots of whale fossils in the area, we are notified about fossil whale bones almost everyday, sorry were just not able to follow up on all the bone reports." So see ya later!

At the time this sounded pretty far fetched, but in their defense, no one knew what was REALLY in store, and I now know that parts and pieces of fossil whales are pretty common in the immediate area, so to travel and look at every reported whale fossil would lead to a lot of dead ends and waisted time

So with that information in hand(head), I went back to my class in school and gathered some interested friends and acquaintances to return to the site, to help dig this cool fossil out, on our own,

We got as far as exposing the ribcage and left scapula before the "experts" got wind of this massive and impressive find, remember, it was in all the local newspapers and even on many television news broadcasts. And without EXPERT Help this project could NOT have been completed with such a good outcome.

This worked out ok, because at that particular time, we were beggining to get bogged down with legalities and "red tape" issues, that LACM and our assemblyman Vincent Thomas were thankfully able to smooth over.

One of our main problems was we were digging on a hillside that was adjacent to some of those large oil storage tanks. Since the weather reports had been calling for rain, the oil facility officials wanted security that the large hole we had been digging, and would be digging, would not enlarge, creating a a small canyon that could enlarge with rainwater and endanger their storage units.

So, LACM backed or put up a $5000 insurance bond, to insure this could not, will not happen. Which was no small sum in1971, keep in mind gold was less than $100 per ounce at that time. This problem was so serious we could not have continued without the heavy influence of LACM.

This main problem was pretty far fetched, as the angle of this pic and a telephoto lens, made the tank look much more precarious than it actually was. It was over 100 yards back beyond the dig site. Im guessing the oil company simply wanted to flex their muscles

Edited April 9, 2013 by PRK

[PRK]

The dig was suspended for a couple days while these problems were smoothed over, however this actually gave us time to catch our rookie breath, gather our wits and do some strategic planning and coordinating of the dig. And we still kept a 24 hour surveillance camp on site even while we could not dig, to protect the exposed bones. I'm pretty sure the heavy hitters appealed to the oil company, about their loss of credibility in the community if there was a shutdown of this fabulous fossil dig. And as we all know, oil companies need all the positive publicity they can get! Even back then! Actually, especially back then.

Upon continuing the dig, our next goal was the removal of overburden from the skull, to expose it to be jacketed and removed. So with the major problems behind us we all undertook this task, by hand. And, since the dig was halted for a while we were ALL more than a little ready to get back to it.

Since the weather reports called for rain, we didnt want to slop in the mud, or damage the already exposed skeleton, so we made the decision to build a lattice type frame above the exposed fossil, using boards we found in the dump. It was held up above the fossil by about 3 foot stilts (legs)that held the makeshift structure above and over the whale fossil, Even if it did rain, the lattice was covered over with canvass tarps creating a " roof like" covering. So we could work even while under the tarps

At the same time we could begin the removal of the skull overburden, the tarp would insure no chunks or pieces of the overburden would fall on or damage the exposed bone.. A sort of two birds with one stone----------- however---------

Edited April 14, 2013 by PRK

[PRK]

It never did rain---- yay!

Edited March 26, 2013 by PRK

[RickNC]

Keep em coming PRK. I bet a lot of us eagerly await each installment of this story, we're just reading instead of posting but we are all interested in more.