The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County: Archaeology Comes To Life Ryan Gibson @RyGibSports
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inside the museum. Using a mini t the Natural History jackhammer, she carved the Museum of Los Angeles fossil from its jackets and excess County, Chaffey aggregate. Granados is a biology College student Nancy Granados major with the intent to change is an intern for the paleontology her major to either anthropology department. The department is led or archeology. She is doing this by Maureen Walsh. The Natural internship to gain direction for History Museum of Los Angeles what she wants to do with her County explores three main sites: degree. Gueorgui Gueorguiev, an the Gnatalie Quarry in Utah (Late astronomy professor at Chaffey Jurassic), Beasty Wild, NM (Late College, is the faculty facilitator for Cretaceous) , and the Augusta the interns at the Natural History Mountains of Nevada (Mid Museum of Los Angeles County. Triassic). “They spent the first week During extraction, the working with the Illustration and archeologists hammer out space Digitalization Specialist, Stephanie around the fossil, which creates Ramowitz,” said Gueorguiv, “They room to form a cast around had to identify the bones from the the fossil called a “jacket.” The newly excavated site the museum jacket is composed of plaster has been working on for many and aggregate to increase its years.” The project required them strength, they then flip the fossil to record the exact placement over to safely remove the fossil and position that the bones were from the earth. Upon extraction, found in at the field site. Nancy the fossil is brought back to the and the other intern created an Natural History Museum of Los accurate image of the subject using Angeles County where its logged, Adobe Illustrator, then placed the mapped and prepared for curation. graphic onto a “master map” of the Preparation is the extraction of the excavation site. actual fossil from the jacket it was The master map is a log of extracted in. After this, fossils are the sizing, discovery location and identified, dated and curated into placement of each bone at the site. the collection. The map is not only indicative of During my visit, Granados discoveries on site, but an in-depth was preparing a sauropod fossil analysis of its topography and
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discovery history. The interns were tasked with taking the paperwork that the excavated bones come with and determining how and where to position the graphic on the master map. The newest project the team at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is taking on takes place in Antarctica. The dig team spent a number of weeks in Antarctica, recovering unique jackets to excavate, research, curate and map over the years. Granados is a biology major with the intent to change her major to either anthropology or archeology. She is doing this internship to gain direction for what she wants to do with her degree. Gueorgui Gueorguiev, an astronomy professor at Chaffey College, is the faculty facilitator for the interns at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
