(pictured above are Pete Makovicky and Akiko Shinya)
That’s the nickname Chief Fossil Preparator at the Chicago Field Museum, Akiko Shinya, gave to the 2,500-pound block of steel-reinforced plaster that arrived at the Field Museum September 16.
Inside the block, known as a field jacket, sits the skeleton of a large duckbilled dinosaur called Parrosaurus missouriensis. The 75-million-year-old hadrosaur is named for Missouri, the state where it was discovered and a rare site to find dinosaur bones.
Even though discoveries at the dig site in Bollinger County have been ongoing for years, it wasn’t until October, 2021 that the discovery was let out of the bag, so to speak, and the largest remains discovered so far, were excavated from the site.
Now in the Field museum’s basement, Shinya and her team will saw open the plaster casing and meticulously remove the bones from the mass of rock encasing them. The process will likely take a year.
Shinya says she’s fascinated with the latest dino haul because the bones were found in central United States, where dinosaur fossils are rarely discovered.
The discovery will help researchers understand more about the dinosaurs in the Midwest.
In the meantime, further study continues at the Bollinger County dig site, and in fact, some new finds have been discovered just recently.
The Sainte Genevieve Museum Learning Center is the Official Missouri Dinosaur Visitor Site and is the place where you’ll hear up-to-date information on the discoveries.
Stay tuned for more news on the Beast!