Now that many of the teeth have been exposed along with the front portion of the skull, I am now removing rock along the sides and back to expose the bone. Even though I have removed a lot of rock from one side, there is still very little to see. Check it out.

Side view of skull with rock removal along the side

View of skull from the back (teeth can be seen in the distance)

I have been removing rock from the front of the skull now for a few days and I have uncovered a number of teeth on each side. While removing rock from around one of the teeth, I encountered a small bone that at first appeared to be a fragment. After carefully removing it, I was able to identify it as a distal caudal vertebra (a tail vertebra towards the end of the tail). It is difficult to determine at present to whom the tail vertebra belongs to or why it was at rest around a tooth. I believe the tail vertebra floated along until it settled out of the water next to one of the teeth. It would be funny though if I could prove that Tyrannosaurus like most children did not like to floss. Take a look at the following images.

Seen from the back of the skull, several teeth on both sides of the skull are pointing up.

Close up of some of the teeth. The small tail vertebra is located next to the last tooth (you can see just the tip) towards the top of the image.

Close up of tail vertebra next to tooth. Although it is difficult to see because it is still encased in rock, there is somewhat of a peculiar shape next to the tooth. Maybe if you squint hard enough it will all become clear.

At long last I have begun to expose something that is easily recognizable - THE TEETH. After removing several inches of rock I finally reached and began exposing the teeth along one side.

In order to find the teeth on the other side, I will need to remove the final section of the plaster jacket that runs along the entire right side of the skull. This will facilitate the removal of rock and exposure of the bone beneath. It will also give me an indication of the breadth of the skull and help with the identification of individual elements. Here are a few images of the teeth the were exposed and the removal of the remaining jacket.

Teeth exposed (follow the crack until you see the black points). Notice the plaster jacket that still runs along the side of the skull in the foreground.

Close up of teeth and model. The exposed teeth are located on along the front of the skull model.

Seen from the back of the skull, the remaining jacket runs the length of one side(along the left of the image).

At last the jacket has been removed (side view with removed area along bottom of image). After removing the jacket more bone was exposed along with teeth.

Here in Paleolab we are preparing the skull while other preparators are working on the rest of the skeleton in New Jersey. Samson is represented by a skull and about 50% of the rest of the body. During preparation of some of Samson's caudal (tail) vertebrae, part of the lower jaw was found and removed. A crate containing this jaw part was brought to the Paleolab from New Jersey so that it can be prepared and reunited with the rest of the lower jaw. The lower jaw is composed of about 8 separate elements. The section that sits within the crate has four of these elements still articulated together and represents the portion of the left lower jaw that forms the hinge or joint with the skull (where all the jaw opening/closing muscles are located). The rest of the elements for the lower jaw were disarticulated (separated) after death and then buried.

Crate with jaw elements wrapped

Inside view of jaw elements with the jaw joint at the far left side of photo. This side still retains a lot of rock on the surface but once it is completely prepared it should look similar to the other side (picture below).

Outside view of jaw elements with the jaw joint at left bottom of photo. Most of the rock has been removed from this surface making it much more pleasant to behold.

Well, more and more bone begins to show up as I remove the rock. It is still hard to tell exactly which bones of the skull are being uncovered. Here are a few images.

This photo was taken from the front of the skull and you can see bone (orange brown color) exposed on both sides towards the back. The Tyrannosaurus skull model resting on top of the rock illustrates the orientation of the skull with the snout in front.

From a side view, you can see bone exposed at the far left at the bottom of the picture and along the bottom. The small skull model illustrates the position of the skull with the teeth towards the right and the back of the skull at the left.

I removed a fair amount of rock to finally expose bone within the roof of the mouth. Now the going gets much slower as I use finer instruments to pick away the rock from around the bone. While removing the rock I noticed an interesting change (grain size) in the rock. The rock changes from a fine sandstone to a sandy siltsone or mudstone. It may not sound like much of a change but the character of the rock changes completely. The sandstone breaks down into sand grains as I remove it and the mudstone breaks down into layers. Check out these images and see if you can tell where this transition between the rock takes place.

Rock removed at the front of the skull (nose area). Notice the small Tyrannosaurus skull model sitting on the top of the rock. It is in the same orientation as Samson's skull at present. Similar to the model, the teeth and nose of Samson are at the front of the image but covered with rock still.

Transition between sandstone and mudstone

Rock removed from the front end of skull

Bone exposed along the margin of the skull

Samson has been turned over, all the foam has been stripped off, and the plaster and burlap jacket has been removed. Removing the plaster jacket was a major pain because of the thickness of it. In some places it was 6 to 8 inches thick and required using a sawsall and a crowbar to get it off. It required a good portion of the week to finally expose the rock underneath. All that is visible now is rock with a few small areas of bone along one side. Now I will begin the process of removing the rock and exposing the inside of the skull. The rock in some places is 6 to 8 inches thick so it will take some time before I encounter the teeth and inside of the skull.

Here are a few images of the plaster jacket being removed and some of the things that I found in the rock.

Plaster jacket (white) removed exposing rock (greenish-grey). Look at how thick the plaster jacket is

More jacket removed and rock exposed

And more...

Finally, the last bit of jacket is removed from the top.

Part of the skull was exposed (brown to black in color) once the jacket was removed

Fossil plant material was also exposed after the jacket was removed

I have now turned the skull over and begun to remove the foam and the plaster jacket to expose the rock and bone beneath.

Since the entire skull is packed within a thick polyurethane foam, we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to turn Samson over onto the top of his head so that the rock within the skull could be removed. It may sound easy but trying to rotate a 3/4 ton foam block with a priceless skull inside is not without its difficulties. I was on pins and needles during the whole process hoping all would go well and it did. We tilted the block up and then lowered it back down onto the side that we wanted it to rest on. Now begins the real work.

Here are a few images of Samson still in his crate along with the uncrating process.

Samson being unloaded after his CT scan adventure

Samson's crate being opened

Samson's crate is completely removed showing the soft pink foam center

Samson turned over and the original crate base being removed

Foam being removed to expose the plaster jacket underneath

Hey Everybody! Samson has finally returned from his long trip to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. Although the CT scanning took longer than originally expected, the images that we received are spectacular. More than 600 scans were taken at roughly 2 mm increments. I will be posting some of the CT scan images in the near future along with a 3-D image of the skull. The scan images have to now be manipulated through various software programs in order to make a 3-D image. Now that Samson is back we will turn the skull over onto the top of his head so that I can begin preparation on his teeth and the inside of his skull.