‘Diplodocus’ Kirby: Preparation, mounting and research
In 2018, multiple partial diplodocid skeletons of three different individuals arrived from Switzerland in order to build a relatively complete ‘Diplodocus’ mount. In our talk, we will be discussing how the bones arrived at the Oertijdmuseum, and how they were prepared and cleaned by the volunteers using a wide array of techniques. In addition, we will discuss the mounting process, building the metal skeleton which holds the skeleton, and all other support structures which keep all bones in their place. Finally, research is ongoing to discover to which animal the bones of one of the individuals in the mount, nicknamed ‘Brösmeli’, belong. Originally, it was assumed that the bones belonged to either the famous diplodocid dinosaurs ‘Diplodocus’ or ‘Barosaurus’, however, we now know that this is not the case. Through describing the specimen, comparing the specimen to these and other Morrison sauropods, and extensive phylogenetic analyses, we are trying to find out if this is a sauropod already known, or maybe a new species.
Biography Jonathan
Jonathan Wallaard is Senior Curator of the Oertijdmuseum in Boxtel. He finished his masters in Paleobiology at Utrecht University in 2018 and has since that year been employed at the Oertijdmuseum. He supervises the preparation lab and has gained ample experience in using a wide range of preparation techniques on many different types of fossils. His paleontological research interest is also broad, as exemplified by publications ranging from fossil fish and decapod crustaceans to Pleistocene megafauna.
Biography Tom
Tom van der Linden, 25 years old, and graduated as a medical molecular biologist from the Hogeschool Utrecht in 2019. Thereafter, Tom followed a pre master in Earth Sciences in 2020 and subsequently finished the master Earth, Life, and Climate at Universiteit Utrecht with a specialization towards palaeontology in august of 2022. During Tom’s master degree, he has worked on diplodocid anatomy and phylogeny and microfossil assemblages from the Morrison Formation. Besides that, he has described and analysed the dinosaur egg assemblages from the Dutch museums for his master thesis.
