And this is where the fossil bones end up, and here the preparateurs continue the process of excavation, this time using delicate tools and cleaning away the last of the hard sediment, revealing the bone itself. It’s here in the dino lab that the dinosaurs really start to come back to life. 

 

So Luis, is this one of the specimens from Utah?

 

Yes, it is.

 

It looks like it’s taking ages to extract this from the stony matrix that these bones built around it. 

 

Well, Erica’s been working on this bone for several weeks. It will definitely take years for the entire skeleton to be prepared to be cleaned up. 

 

Do you have an idea at the moment what species of dinosaur this might be from?

 

Not entirely in terms of the species, but we know it’s a camarasaurus. 

 

Camarasaurus were a family of long-necked dinosaurs. We currently know 4 different species of them. But Luis is hopeful that he might have found a fifth. 

 

So what features will you be looking at as their bones are cleaned up to help you refine your identification?

 

Well, you’ll be looking at the shape of the centrum here, the configuration of the different processes, the structs, these pines of the vertebrate. They are in general very diagnostic. They’re very telling.

 

You must have to be an amazing anatomist. So you must have to know the anatomy of so many different dinosaurs to be able to work out what it is you’re looking at. 

 

Yes, but sometimes it’s difficult. For example, here, we have two bones of one dinosaur. Can you figure out what they are?

 

Well, I’m a human anatomist, so this is stretching my expertise so more as to identify dinosaur bones. 

 

And these ones are not very well preserved, I’m sorry.