Dr. Grant, my dear Dr. Sattler... Welcome to Jurassic Park: My first hand adventures with a T-Rex named Tinker.

Maybe not quite Jurassic Park, but just as cool...and oh yeah includes some REAL dinosaur photos. A few years ago, when I was just starting out in my degree in archaeology, at a small community college, I came across a once in a lifetime opportunity. At the time I had no idea what "Lab Methods in Archaeo-Paleontology" even meant. How could something be half archaeology...half paleontology??? The first day of class came and I walked into a small lab, located inside a elementary school, and it was as if I had traveled back into time....the time of the dinosaurs. What surrounded me (the below photo) floored me.

There were fossils of just about anything that existed. My attention shifted to this amazing fossil of a prehistoric turtle (because I am obsessed with all things turtles...you'll see in a later post just how obsessed). The items in the lab amazed me, but I had no idea what was about to come. Once roll was called, our professor, Dr.Nicklas, backed his truck into the room and announced we were about to become famous in the paleontology world. Why? Because we were about to sort through the remains of what would become one of the first juvenile T-rex in the world. His name Tinker. His story here: http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives/57940/ . I hate to say that I don't have any pictures of this amazing experience, perhaps the shock was too much. However, what I do have is photos of more dinosaur projects that followed. So here, today, I share with you an amazing look into the world of paleontology. What it's like to work on those crazy dinosaur exhibits before their exhibits.

People who were passing by were a little worried as this looked like we were lifting a body with a lift out of the back of a truck. Like, what class could that possibly be!

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This is a smaller project I was working on. I was trying to reassemble the jawbone of what would have been a large whooly rhinocerous today, and its teeth.

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Back to the larger dinosaur. The more exciting part. This is just trying to peel back the plaster cast that had protected it during its journey from the west to the south.

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Then all the hard work of getting rid of all the surrounding dirt, with teeny tiny paintbrushes began. For weeks. Slowly and painfully. This project taught me patience. That hardwork in life DOES pay off.

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Finally it revealed itself to us. The reward was finally in sight. As you can tell by the following last photos, we managed to work our way down to the skeletal remains. Pretty impressive stuff, huh!

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After a semester of meticulous dusting of dirt, we had finally unveiled the labor of our hard work. That folks, right there...100% percent dinosaur. 100% Paleontology. After cleaning everything off, the remains were put aside for the 2nd semester of folks...who had the less than ideal..and less fun part of assembling it. While my dabble in paleontology was amazing and unforgettable and I now have THE BEST interview opener in the world, my heart belonged to archaeology (which I have even more amazing photos off my adventures).

I did manage to get a few photos of Tinker here:

And our exhibts....with Dr.Nicklas

Through the years Tinker has toured the world in endless museums and exhibits. I'm proud to say that something I worked hard on was able to be seen my thousands of people, and young kids with dreams of becoming dino-hunters.

In the end I wanted to share this amazing adventure with the world, but I also wanted to prove that dreams do come true, you just have to work hard to get them to become realities. If a part of you still would love to become a dino-hunter, I suggest you volunteer at the many digs that are offered around the world that lets you get your hands dirty.

Remember. Dream Big. Dream Dinosaurs.