The remedial conservation and support jacketing of the neotype specimen of the dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus

  The Conservation Centre, Core Research Laboratories, The Natural History Museum, London, UK
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.3130v1
Published
Accepted
Subject Areas
Paleontology
Keywords
Dinosaur, Conservation, Fossil, Restorage
Copyright
© 2017 Graham
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Graham MR. 2017. The remedial conservation and support jacketing of the neotype specimen of the dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus . PeerJ Preprints 5:e3130v1

Abstract

In March 2017 the neotype specimen of the Early Jurassic South African prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus was appraised and condition reported at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Johannesburg, in readiness for remedial conservation and re-storage. The work was necessitated by deterioration of the specimen, which was caused by handling over a number of years and an inadequate and failing support mount.

Formally numbered BP/1/4934, but more affectionately known to staff as ‘Big Momma’, the specimen was contained within several individual blocks on flimsy support bases and presented various conservation challenges.These included treatment of fractures and cracking across several surfaces of the fossil and the production of clam shell supports to allow for articulated display within the constraints of an existing display cabinet. Part of the brief was to facilitate safer handling and access for researchers.

This project was led by the author who also trained the curatorial and preparation staff at WITS in the methods and techniques employed. The visit was funded by the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST), the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences and The University of the Witwatersrand (WITS).

Author Comment

This is an abstract which has been accepted for the SVPCA/SPPC 2017 conference.