News Release

Talk with a Paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park!

Left image: Paleontologist Diana Boudreau works on carefully padding fossils of a phytosaur skeleton. Right image: Paleontologist Phil Varela uses a microscope and small scraping tools to remove matrix from part of a fossilized metoposaur breast plate.

NPS

News Release Date: September 23, 2020

Contact: Sarah Herve, 928-524-6228 x245

Petrified Forest National Park is excited to announce that park visitors can, once again, have the unique experience of talking with a park paleontologist while they work on fossils in the demonstration fossil laboratory. The laboratory is currently viewable Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 am to 3 pm. To ensure safety and social distancing, two-way radios are used for communication back and forth while the paleontologists and fossils are viewable through the laboratory window. “The work that goes on inside the laboratory can be very exciting!” says paleontologist Diana Boudreau, “The fossils come to us covered in rock, called matrix, so as we remove the matrix we are revealing the bones of an animal, or animals, that haven’t been seen for millions of years”. 

Current projects in the laboratory include making sure each fossil is padded and carefully stored in the museum collection and cleaning and preparing fossils for study and display.  

The laboratory will also be open Wednesday, October 14^th for National Fossil Day! 

Caption for image 1. Paleontologist Diana Boudreau works on carefully padding fossils of a phytosaur skeleton. 

Caption for image number 2. Paleontologist Phil Varela uses a microscope and small scraping tools to remove matrix from part of a fossilized metoposaur breast plate.