Unearthing a Fossil: Giant Turtle Edition

We're often asked what it takes to get a fossil out of the ground and ready for research and museum display. The answer: it can take weeks, months or even years worth of work.

In this short time-lapse video, Burke Museum fossil preparator Bruce Crowley walks us through the process with our giant turtle fossil—from digging it out of the ground and wrapping it in a jacket, to chipping away tiny bits of rock with a series of miniature jack hammers.



When we first introduced you to our giant turtle a few months ago, Bruce and a team of volunteers were just starting to carefully chip away at the rock here in our lab. Now, after a lot of work, nearly half of the fossil is exposed...including a complete skull!

The only known complete skull for this species.

Our "giant turtle" is now known to be a softshell turtle of the genus Axestemys belonging to the family Trionychidae, and is estimated to be about 49 million years old.

This fossil is unique because it contains the only known complete skull for this species, along with several complete limbs. Plus, it's giant! Based on what we can tell about its size at this point, it may be the largest fossil turtle in our collection.

So what's next for the turtle? Bruce's team will start chipping away rock from the other side of the fossil. To do this, they'll apply another side of the jacket (aluminum foil and toilet paper covered in a layer of plaster) to protect the exposed fossil and gently flip the turtle over.

Eventually, the fossil will be available for turtle paleontologists and other researchers to study, and could even be on display here at the Burke Museum.

Science News Roundup: Mega crocs, mega fires and enamel-sporting crayfish!

Does this mean crayfish should brush?

A University of Iowa scientist has announced the discovery of the largest "true crocodile" in East Africa. At 27 feet long, Crocodylus thorbjarnarsoni probably could have swallowed the 4-foot tall humans who lived alongside (but not too close!).

Analysis of a genetic database of horses indicates that domestic horses originated in the steppes of modern-day Ukraine, southwest Russia and west Kazakhstan and expanded out from there around 160,000 years ago. The herds were repeatedly restocked with wild horses as they spread across Eurasia, possibly by taking mares from the wild.

1,500 years of tree ring and fire data from the southwest US suggest that "today's megafires are truly unusual." A team of scientists (fire anthropology!) compared the record of fires when the climate was hotter and drier to when it was cooler and wetter and found that climate alone doesn't explain today's "megafires" - which "routinely destroy millions of acres of forest." Their findings suggest that human activity in addition to the modern climate cause these huge fires.

An international team of scientists have found that freshwater crayfish have a layer of enamel-like material on their teeth. Enamel covers the softer layers of vertebrates' teeth - but crayfish are invertebrates. This makes the discovery of an enamel-like layer on their teeth "astonishing." Stay tuned for more exciting crayfish news...

Science News Roundup: (Mostly) archaeology edition

Some highlights from science news in the past couple weeks:

Penguin from space.

Scientists count penguins from space: Scientists have completed the first count of emperor penguins from space by estimating the number of birds using Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite images of Antarctica and collaborating the counts with ground and aerial counts. (Note that these were penguins being counted from space, NOT penguins from space being counted. :-) Using satellite images allows more accurate counts of the penguins, due to their harsh environment.

DNA points to common ancestors of modern cattle: Modern cattle are probably descended from a herd of just 80 animals that lived 10,500 years ago. An international team of scientists extracted DNA from early domesticated cattle bones thanks to archaeological digs in Iran. The Near East is where cattle, goats, pigs and sheep were first domesticated, and the DNA analysis provides important clues to how and why animals were domesticated.

Human ancestors used fire 1 million years ago: In a cave in South Africa, an international team of scientists found evidence that human ancestors used fire as long as 1 million years ago. The evidence consists of "microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal bones and stone tools ... found in a layer dated to one million years."

As if the Great Pacific Garbage Patch wasn't enough: Wind pushes plastic below the ocean's surface, a University of Washington oceanographer recently noticed. Since we currently estimate how much plastic garbage is in the ocean by skimming the surface, this means there's even more garbage clogging the ocean than we thought. Instead of just floating on the surface, the oceanographer found plastic at every depth.

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A note about Science News Roundups: these short blurbs are based on press releases and, therefore, represent one perspective on a news item. If you're interested in a story, be sure to look for more news pieces that feature a variety of sources, including experts who were involved in the work as well as experts in the same field who weren't.

SCIENCE!!! Comics - Episode Seven: We heart WILD River Otters!

This week's comic goes out to all of nature's cute critters that we love and adore and want to take home with us. Still, most animals are better off in their natural habitats. It's better for us to love and appreciate them for what they are—wild animals.

You can see wild river otters around Washington state. Try spotting them from a high lookout (like a bridge or the top of a hill) near their feeding areas. Learn more about river otters and how to live with them if you find them as your neighbors (hint: don't let them den under your porch). If you see an otter (or other wildlife) that looks like it might need help, contact PAWS.

Science News Roundup

Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas

A Burke Blog post on the highlights of recent natural history and cultural news:

Chemists at the University of California at Berkeley have found the chemical fingerprint of fertilizer in the increase of nitrous oxide—a greenhouse gas—in the atmosphere; the rise of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere can now be linked to increased fertilizer use.

A partial foot discovered in Ethiopia provides evidence of another human-like species that lived at the same time as Lucy, 3 million years ago in northern Africa. Unlike Lucy's foot, the new foot has an opposable big toe bone.

The "classic" magma chamber diagram

New research on volcanoes has turned up surprises about the location of magma chambers (which are often drawn as a little bubble under a volcano but in reality are very difficult to map) that could help predict large eruptions.

The building blocks of proteins, RNA and DNA, and cellular membranes probably emerged from our young solar system, according to scientists at NASA and the University of Chicago. Turns out, the secret to life is really just a natural consequence of particle dynamics in the initial stage of planet formation ;-) (I apologize for butchering that quote, Dr. Ciesla, but it was all light-hearted fun.)

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A note about Science News Roundups: these short blurbs are based on press releases and, therefore, represent one perspective on a news item. If you're interested in a story, be sure to look for more news pieces that feature a variety of sources, including experts who were involved in the work as well as experts in the same field who weren't.

Posted By: Winifred Kehl, Communications

SCIENCE!!! Comics - Episode 6: When is a scalloped hammerhead not a scalloped hammerhead?

This week! When is a scalloped hammerhead not a scalloped hammerhead? (or: A tail of two sharks)

This week's comic is based on a press release from Nova Southeastern University. Several news sites have covered this story, including Discovery News and Live Science.

Learn what makes one species different from another from UC Berkeley - it's a harder and more interesting question than you might think!

You can find out more about shark finning, and find out how shark fin soup alters the ecosystem. Shark finning is now banned in the US, but shark products that result from shark fishing can still be bought here.

Short Take: Recovering Northwest Coastal Indian Food Traditions

Last month, traditional foods educator Elise Krohn joined nine other food experts to give a short talk as part of the Burke Museum's "Short Takes on What the World Eats" at the Neptune Theater. She spoke about individuals and organizations working to restore traditional Native knowledge of the tending, harvesting, preserving, and preparing traditional northwest Native foods. Other speakers discussed topics from wild food foraging to eating bugs.

If you missed Elise Krohn's talk, you can watch it below, and check out our YouTube channel for more Short Takes.



If you enjoyed Elise Krohn's talk, come to the Burke this weekend! On Saturday, March 31st, join traditional food experts for a day of activities and demonstrations of northwest Native foods and diets at the Burke Museum. In addition to seeing how to boil water with rocks and having the chance to sample traditional northwest Native foods, visitors will have the chance to hear from those leading the revival of Native food traditions. The day of events compliments the Hungry Planet and Salish Bounty exhibits currently on display at the Burke, both of which invite reflection and discussion on what the world eats and what we eat.

Posted By: Winifred Kehl, Communications