Prep Lab News

Hi all! Becca here from Prep Lab!
This has been my first week working in Prep Lab, and I love it. I've been working on finding material safety data sheets on all of the fancy chemicals here in the lab, and checking out all of the nifty things here and in the rest of the museum.

Just the other day I was issued a fossil to work on in Prep Lab. I was incredibly excited about this, since I've never gotten to work on actual prep before-- I was restricted to putting education collection labels on specimens when I was last here, which is still fun but a lot less glamourous. I'm moving up! I was one of three who went through Prep Lab orientation this time around, and we've all gotten our specimens and are joining the ranks of really dedicated people working on this stuff.
To everyone out there who has worked on prepping a specimen before--- I applaud your ridiculously amazing amount of patience. It's a ton of fun getting to actually work on a specimen so that it's finished enough to actually be put on display, be used in the collection, or even just be discernible from the rock it's in, but I keep looking at this Green River fish I've taken on after a solid three or even four hours of work to find I've barely cleared a section the size of my pinky fingernail. If that. Probably less, actually. But then again, I'm just a beginner at this and I'm incredibly timid with the hand tools. I don't even dream of trying the air scribes or the really intimidating equipment.
Still. It's actually oddly relaxing? Slowly working away at this slab of limestone and watching the little details of the fish appear. You have to be so focused on everything that before you know it a few hours have passed. Kind of awesome, right? Slow, but awesome.
So, I'll probably be here for a while chipping away at my fish, every day successfully losing track of time as I desperately try to unearth at least one more itty-bitty vertebrae before the day is out.

~Becca