RAM Fossil Preparation

Gallery of Specimens and Lab Pictures
Gallery

Reconstruction of a... This four foot long fossil fish specimen was damaged while in shipment transit. This once beautiful specimen came out of the shipment container looking like a basket case and the owner was looking at the...
Fill A Natural... These pictures illustrate the technique of using the natural impression that a fossil can leave in the rock matrix. This Isotelus trilobite shown below is about 8 inches long and is from the George Stone...
Reconstruction photos of... Reconstruction photos of a dinosaur caudal vertebra. Vertebra was accidentally dropped by the owner but owner collected all the broken pieces and sent them to Robert.Robert was able to reconstruct the anterior and posterior...
A rare fish... Sorbinichthys elusivo, rare fossil clupeomorph fish from the Cretaceous of Lebanon. Prepared for owner of private fish collection. Comparative pictures of same specimen showing before and after preparartion....
Slicing a dinosaur... Using the wet saw Robert cut a portion of bone off the distal end of a partial dinosaur femur. The cut-off portion was sliced into very thin sections which were then highly polished and used...
More Than Just... Robert was part of a team of preparators at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago who worked for two years preparing "SUE," the largest and most complete T. rex yet discovered. Preparation of...
Chicago’s tyrant lizard... SUE was unveiled at the Field Museum in 2000. Besides rapidly becoming a Chicago icon, the specimen has proven extremely valuable to research on tyrannosaur body size, growth rates, and locomotion....
Where the magic... An overview of the RAM fossil prep lab....
Getting down to... The air-abrasion set-up, using a standard Wild Heerbrugg M6 microscope. Air-abrasion is used to prepare fish specimens from the Green River Fm. of Wyoming. This technique, if used carefully, can be used to lightly clean...
Ready for their... The Leica Apochromatic S8 microscope that Robert uses for close-up, fine preparation. On the bench to the right of the microscope are the air scribes and pinvises used in fossil preparation....
Ready to start... Robert A. Masek (President of RAM Fossil Preparation) getting ready to start on another fossil...
Multiple trilobite slab... Multiple trilobite slab called “Crossed Swords” from the collection of Janet Stone, prepared by Robert....