Information for Preparation

Petrified Forest National Park is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. It was established as a National Monument in 1906 by Teddy Roosevelt specifically for its Triassic resources. Research has been going on here most that time, but suprisingly, the park didn't have a paleontologist. Bill Parker was hired about four years ago to fill that role, and with his research came a great field program and a new prep lab. Bill was given first a picnic table to prep on, then, a facility to start a lab in. The lab is intended to be temporary, as it occupies an historic laundry room. The park headquarters complex is the last example of architects Richard Neutra and Robert Alexander's work for the NPS Mission 66 campaign, and thus is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The complex was designed to be a self sufficient community for park staff, including a school for children of employees. It is fun, and not too difficult, to imagine the compound as the vision of modernist, Americanized Bauhaus architecture that it was intended in the early 60's.

These days, we work pretty hard in this lab to allow people to visualize the past. The prep staff is composed of myself, a handful of dedicated volunteers, grad students and park staff. Most of the fossils that come across the prep table are Triassic vertebrates, primarily phytosaurs, aetosaurs, and some metoposaurs. Occasionally a plant will make its way through the door, but they don't stick around long. We have also been finding new good coelophysid material, but it requires quite a bit of acid prep to clean it up, which we don't quite have the facilities for on a large scale.

Many of the fixtures and equipment were installed by Pete Reser, my predecessor, who was the first preparator in the park. He did a great job of rounding up work tables, cabinetry, microscopes, and the best sink I've ever met. I think his greatest achievement (certainly what I appreciate most) was running compressed air and electric outside the lab. Life doesn't get much better than pulverizing sandstone in the shade on a sunny afternoon. Equipment-wise, we use 2 Microjack #6's, a Chicago Pnuematic, and an ARO with Charlie Magovern's great Microtip. The optics are pretty good as well, including a Wild M7 scope. I have never met a Wild I didn't like.