HMNS Beyond Bones Podcast · Houston Museum of Natural Science

Fossil Preparation, "From the Grave to the Cradle"

·32 min·2 clips

Colin says it is “better to under-prepare rather than over-prepare” fossils.

1. HMNS Beyond Bones Podcast centers on fossil preparation using a garfish from the Green River Formation in the Morian Hall of Paleontology. 2. Johnny Hemberger hosts, and Colin Diggins serves as the paleontology laboratory manager at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 3. The episode asks what fossil prep is for, and Diggins frames it as uncovering fossils from rock while preserving information. 4. The garfish is described as 50 to 55 million years old, with articulated scales, fins, and tiny bones still in place. 5. The Green River Formation is identified as a large area across southwest Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. 6. Diggins says the formation represents a series of massive lakes, including the Fossil Butte National Monument area near Kemmerer, Wyoming. 7. The hosts compare the garfish to living garfish in Houston bayous and to gar scales from the Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation. 8. Diggins says prep work can take hundreds or thousands of hours because the scales overlap in three dimensions. 9. The fins are described as especially difficult because the bones are tiny, delicate, and easy to lose. 10. Hemberger notes that the fossil is three-dimensional and not a flat drawing on rock. 11. Diggins says feather and soft-tissue fossils can be preserved as a carbon film only microns or molecules thick. 12. He explains that air abrasion, needles, and consolidants are used to separate fragile layers without destroying them. 13. Diggins says he has not prepped feather material from the Green River Formation because he expects he would destroy it. 14. The episode describes a huge rock block found alongside a T. rex that contains two turtles and is being prepped for possible skin, plants, pollen, or diatoms. 15. Diggins says some researchers think T. rex skin may actually belong to turtles, so turtle skin could matter scientifically. 16. The hosts discuss field jackets, plaster, burlap, and the shift from heavy equipment to fine tools like dental picks and surgical scalpels. 17. Hemberger and Diggins describe fossil prep as slow, careful, and tied to the risk of losing information before future technologies can study it. 18. The conversation keeps a practical, museum-floor tone, with live explanation of specimens, tools, and workflow. 19. Listeners interested in fossil prep, museum collections, and taphonomy will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a fast general-audience survey without technical detail may skip it.

As heard by us

A patient look at the hidden craft that makes fossils visible.

Fossil preparation is a hidden craft that turns dirt-bound rock into something worth putting on display, and this conversation stays close to that careful middle ground.

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Why you'd press play

You want the fossil, but also the careful work that frees it from the rock.

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