Hey every body, its Sami here from the
Perot Museum of Nature and Science and
it's Paleo Week this week, so I thought
what could be cooler than going on a
fossil excavation together where none of
us even have to leave our homes. So, I've
got my field hat on. Go grab yours and
let's get started! Since we can't really
get into the field, we're gonna have to
use our imagination. So, I want everyone
to close their eyes. Imagine a postcard
landscape where together, we're gonna
look for fossils. Whoa! What's that over
there? You spot something sticking out of
the side of those rocks? Could it be? It is! It's a fossil! Okay, now open your eyes.
Yeah, I know, not what you were picturing.
But it's always nice to have a
scientific excuse to bake some cookies!
Our cookie is our rock, or the outcrop.
The chocolate chips--those are the
fossils and we have to get them out.
Now, Paleontologists, such as ourselves, use a number of tools to get fossils out of
the Earth. What do you think about this
one? My rock hammer. What about this
sledgehammer? How about these chisels? Yeah, you're right. Probably not the best
tools for the job. Now these look a lot
better! Remember we don't want to crush
our fossils. Now, paleontologists like our team at the
Perot Museum of Nature and Science -- they use all sorts of amazing tools to get
fossils back from the field, prepped in
our paleo lab, and then put on display
for all of you to admire. Some of these
tools can even get pretty silly like
porcupine quills or sticks to hold the
jacket together. No, not that kind of
jacket. A field jacket, or a plaster
support that helps keep fossils
protected while they're transported out
of the field and back to our prep labs.
Some of these field jackets can weigh
hundreds of pounds and it's pretty
dangerous work to get them out of the
field. As you can see. I hope you all had
some fun excavating our imaginary
fossils together. I think I'll call mine
Chocosaurus! See you next time when we
get to amaze our brains together at home.
 
