In the Prep Lab

My name is Helen Hoff and I am a volunteer preperator at the Tate Geological Museum. It's my job to unpack, clean, identify, document and (if possible) re-assemble the bones. You start by removing parts of the jacket, then dig around the bones much like pedestalling in the field. I pulled each bone to clean it up separately, then put them back for the 3D prep. I started with the ribs and then worked by way up from the end of the tail, numbering the bones as I went. Technically, you number down from the pelvis not up. At this point in prep, though, that would be guessing. I did not know I had part of the pelvis at this point.

Muffin 4/21/17
This is me at the start of prep in April 2017 together with Muffin in its jacket from the field.
Prep 6/20/17
June 2017, the jacket is opened and a mini-excavation is undertaken in the prep lab.

Video showing a 3D model of the cleaned and numbered bones in the prep lab, February 2019.