Preparing Dinosaurs by Wylie Caitlin Donahue;

Author:Wylie, Caitlin Donahue; [Wylie, Caitlin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2021-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

The Symbiosis of Researchers and Preparators

Researchers do not reject CT outright; most interviewees told me that CT should be used alongside specimens in a mixed-methods approach. According to Sam, the most “fruitful” research method is a combination of “CT and the human eye, an expert eye,” on a physical fossil. By highlighting the limitations of CT, researchers show their preference for the flexibility and reliability of “expert” eyes.

So whose eyes are expert? Research workers recognize and appreciate each other’s trained judgment, not just researchers’. For example, like Brochu, Maurice doubts that CT can replace the information a preparator learns about specimens while preparing them: “I know lots of examples of preparators discovering things in fossils, just by virtue of the fact that they’re so intimately involved with the specimen. And they might say, ‘Do you want this cleaned out?’ And it’s like, ‘What is that? I never saw that before’ [laughs]. And that kind of thing happens a lot, so it’s hard to imagine not having that anymore.” Maurice’s appreciation for preparators’ input reflects the symbiosis of the many kinds of fossil work and workers. Researchers depend on preparators’ work, which depends on researchers’ funding, all of which rely on the care and organization of specimens by conservators and collection managers (Wylie 2019b).

Perhaps because of this interdependence, preparator Bill framed his answer to whether CT can replace preparation in terms of people: “You do need to see the fossil and have a CT scan at the same time. I don’t think we’ll ever really be able to get rid of preparators. Might be able to cut back on the number you need, but I think there always will be a need for them as long as there’s paleontology—paleontologists.” Based on his own interests—preserving his job—as well as researchers’ need to see the fossil, Bill justifies why preparators and researchers are inseparable. When he changed his response from paleontology to paleontologists, Bill indicated an underlying connection specifically between these kinds of workers rather than between preparators and fossil research. Workers define their work and roles relative to each other, as opposed to relative to a process of research or specimen care. If CT were to replace preparation and thus preparators, this network of social roles and divided labor in labs would collapse. As merely an additional tool, however, CT does not threaten the status quo.

By rejecting CT as a panacea for fossil research, research workers reinforce the technology’s perceived role as exterior to the fossil lab community. They worry about adding another field to the work of preparing and studying fossils, perhaps in the interest of preserving their current community. CT, after all, requires different skills, training, and tools than a prep lab can provide. Preparator Steve views this as a significant disadvantage of CT: “You’ve got to have someone to understand all the information you’re getting out. You don’t just get a lovely three-dimensional image, you have to take all that information and then merge it all together and decide on the resolution, how much you’re going to have a contrast between the bone and the rock.

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