Hunting Animals of the Past (1950s)

[Music] the man who hunts animals of the past uses a panda Havas act as his honey movement he walks endless miles searching for the remains of prehistoric creatures he makes large excavations called quartz in which he spends many toilsome hours shoveling earth sand and gravel he carefully exposes the fragile fossil bones with small hand tools and the reward for his care is new knowledge about animals of the past during the vast span of prehistoric time countless numbers of animals lived and died occasionally the skeletons of these animals remained undisturbed by Nature and were buried in the earth by sediment carried by floods and muddy rivers then while the climate varied from Hewett conditions to Harriet dust storms the securely buried bones became fossilized by the minerals present in the underground water ages later erosion began slowly cutting valleys and the formations above the fossil bones and today along the valleys and canyons where the rock and earth had been weathered away the remains of animals of the past can often be found few fossils would be discovered were it not for erosion but once a layer of Bones has been located the fossil hunters can open quarries by removing the earth and rock above the layer and asbestos can be unearthed fossil hunters are called paleontologists they are trained in our universities colleges and Natural History Museum's where the remains of animals of the past are on exhibit and are seen by thousands of visitors each year for example many museums have skeletons of the huge mammoths which roamed North America during the great Ice Age and then became extinct President Thomas Jefferson thought that there might be some of these animals still living when he sent the Lewis and Clark expedition westward in 1804 also from ice age deposits is this skeleton of a giant camel which if a lie of today could easily look into the upstairs window of a house this is the skeleton of a ground slope it has claws on its feet and round peg like teeth during the middle part of the Ice Age giant bison having the huge horns shown at the bottom of this exhibit migrated to North America from Asia then the Bison became smaller instead of growing larger as time went on which was the usual process near the end of the Ice Age man made his appearance in North America we know this because his flint implements tools and the ashes of his campfires have been found associated with extinct animals such as this Ice Age bison moving backward in time more than a million years to the Pliocene age we see the skeleton of a long jawed master daunt a type of elephant which lived in North America in large numbers still earlier in Maya seen times lived this giant hog distantly related to the swine of today earlier yet live many small gazelle camels about the same time that these tiny beaver lived unlike the modern water-loving beaver these which existed about 15 million years ago lived in burrows in the ground this small saber-tooth cat is at least 25 million years old the skeleton shown thus far are all from the age of mammals the preceding era was the age of reptiles when the great dinosaurs lay many museums have skeletons of dinosaurs and here we see technicians assembling the skeleton of Stegosaurus a dinosaur which lived 150 million years ago finding fossils is not a matter of chance the museum men who direct the activities the field parties planned the work on the basis of previous experience they then give instructions to the men who are to lead the collecting parties to be sent out for the summer this year there will be a large party of men at Cambridge near the kansas-nebraska boundary the fossil yielding deposits near Cambridge are applying aged over a million years old a party of four men will explore an area at Harrisburg near the Wyoming Nebraska border here there are large Pliocene exposures which have not been searched extensively the smallest party consisting of three men will collect fossils northwest of Crawford in the Nebraska Badlands the Badlands are of Oligocene age approximately twenty to forty million years old the party leaders have all had training in vertebrate paleontology they will be in charge of college students who wish to spend the summer learning how fossils are found and collected choice the field equipment is the result of long experience tents cots cooking utensils and excavating tools are all of a rugged type which is proved best for use in the field west of Harrisburg where the four-man party will work the extensive deposits of sedimentary rock have been greatly cut away by erosion this ranch is the destination of the harrisburg party ranchers and farmers who have discovered fossil material on their property have often enabled paleontologists to make important discoveries this ranch owner has written the museum about fragments of bone which he has found on his land he gives the men permission to set up camp and explore and tells them how to get to the area where he has found bone fragments the best campsites are away from the gullies where there is danger of flash floods during rains and yet not so high on the hillsides as to be exposed to heavy winds here's a promising spot in fact a Goodwin with the gently sloping stretch of prairie grass it doesn't take long to set up camp all equipment is compact and designed to be put together quickly over by the cook tent the stoves are assembled for the first outdoor meal of the season in the morning it's wise to get an early start for one thing a meal has to be prepared and also the cool morning air makes the work more pleasant a convenient Rock holds a mirror for shaving while important business goes on in the cook tent individual equipment for hunting animals of the past is light a small pick a haversack some hand tools and the canteen of water are all that's needed the work must be started uphill where the rocks are exposed each man gets a definite assignment to a group with eroded spots to be explored for signs of bone there may be fascinating secrets in the rocks and standing between the men and those secrets are many hours of patient search each eroded spot must be examined thoroughly the ground must be gone over slowly and carefully it may take several days to explore a few miles of exposures even the rocks which a rolled downhill must be checked there are certain hazards in this type of work this young man is about to meet with an unwelcome surprise in the form of a prairie rattlesnake on the other hand exploring has many pleasures a cactus in bloom a typical Great Plains Thunderhead a bird of prey soaring through the sky this man has found something these bone fragments look promising they are well preserved and the fact they are numerous indicates that their source may be a rather large deposit of fossil bones perhaps it was at this very spot that a variety of animals came to a watering hole a million years ago to the bone hunter this is indicated by the soft loose sand which was probably in the bed of some ancient River and so full of excitement at the thought of discovering some strange new creature the bone hunter begins to open us almost immediately he begins finding bones lying in place in the sand this is something to bring to the attention of the party leader the leader has instructed the men to call him whenever they find something important there's a rhinoceros toe bone part of a deer jaw and some horse teeth the leader identifies them immediately this pot needs to be investigated thoroughly but only two of the men begin enlarging the pit while the others continued the work of exploring as previously planned a few days later exploration shows that the prospective quarry is the best possibility the men must remove the soil and sand above the bone layer with pick-and-shovel near the bone layer they use small hand tools and brushes fossil bones have the same structure as when they were a part of the living animal over long periods of time however the original bone tissue is replaced by minerals and the petrified bone becomes brittle and easily broken therefore great care must be used in taking them from the earth and a special technique has been developed for this phase of the work first when a bone has been partly uncovered several coats of diluted shellac are applied and allowed to dry a coating of damp paper is put on next to protect the bone from the plaster of Paris jacket which it is to have then the bone is covered snugly with burlap strips which have been dipped in a mixture of plaster of Paris and water in a few minutes the plaster is hardened and the cast can be tipped over with the bone held securely inside the remaining exposed side is covered with additional strips and the contents are marked the party leader makes an entry in his field book and the number is placed on the cast small well-preserved bones can often be removed without the use of plaster they are shellacked numbered and wrapped and are ready to be packed for shipment after three weeks the quarry has yielded over 200 specimens consisting mostly of rhinoceros and camel bones but with a number of dog capped antelope rodent insectivore and Mastodon bones at this time the party receives a visit from the senior field director of the museum who has come to see the new quarry and to determine the geologic age of the formation in which the quarry is located the director measures the exposures near the quarry using a small instrument called a hand level the party leader records the measurements on a sketch of the profile of the exposures by comparing this sketch with others made of deposits whose geologic age has been determined the age of the Harrisburg quarry can be established getting the fossils ready for shipment to the museum is an important part of the work the cast's are carefully packed in hay or straw and are securely boxed for travel at the Cambridge quarry work was begun immediately for this is the fifth season at this locality because of a thick layer of overburden here small charges of dynamite are used to loosen the earth and rock overlying the bone layer a bulldozer pushes the loosened material aside above the bone layers shovels are used the bones themselves are exposed with hand tools and brushes the cambridge quarry has yielded the remains of master dots camels rhinoceroses dogs cats deer rodents and insectivores the prized discovery at the Cambridge party is this skull of a huge saber-tooth capped of a type hitherto unknown it is shown here after it had been prepared in the museum north of Crawford the third field party has begun working in the picturesque badlands each morning the short trip from camp takes the party to a new location working in the Badlands is a different type of fossil hunting since few quarries are found instead the fossils are scattered throughout the exposures of clay and sandstone and the bone hunters must go over the entire area thoroughly the men are trained to discard worthless fragments and seek instead skulls jaws and skeletal parts which have a definite scientific value equipment and supplies must be carried by hand or the bare exposures when a discovery is made the fossil must be removed in a block of the hard clay a hot job under the Blazing Sun this bone hunter is not loafing he has found a spot where there is a pocket of very small fossil bones rats mice shrews and rabbits live during Oligocene times preparing a record of fossils collected in the Badlands requires considerable care there are many straighter which presented changed appearance in different exposures but year after year as erosion continues the Badlands are a dependable source of fossil material during the summer shipments of packed and crated specimens arrive at the museum because of the large numbers of rhinoceros bones found at Harrisburg during the summer the laboratory workers are going to prepare the rhinoceros material immediately if enough material is available it will be assembled as a skeleton and placed on exhibition in the museum as the specimens are placed in storage their numbers are recorded then by referring to the field records sent in by the party leader preparers can select the cast's which contain rhinoceros bones in the laboratory the cast's are cut open on the side away from the portion first exposed in the quarry the plaster lid comes off easily and the bone can be cleaned during preparation the bones are given several applications of Al var or of diluted shellac which pardons and strengthens the bone the plaster cast is gradually cut away when the material has been partially prepared and it's evident there is enough for a skeleton all the bones are laid out for selection of well matched skeletal parts some of the income bones needed for the skeleton must be restored by the use of reinforcing wire and plaster the restored portions may later be colored to simulate bone foot bones are assembled on a wire framework limb bones are carefully pierced to permit the insertion of steel rods the steel rods are heated and bent to fit each set of limb bones it takes several months to prepare the material and mount the skeleton while the bones are being given their final cleaning the preparator builds a strong base on which the skeleton will stand in mounting the skeleton on the base the limb bones go on first supported by the steel rods placed inside them next the huge pelvis goes in place held up temporarily by extra steel rods then the vertebrae ribs and shades the tremendous skull of the rhinoceros is attached next last of all the massive jaws go in place the rhinoceros skeleton is now complete it is made up but the bones of several different individuals which roamed the plains nearly a million years ago the preparator takes the skeleton apart and reassembles it in its exhibit case the visible supporting steel rods are removed at this time coloring the restored portions of the skeleton is them thus the giant rhinoceros one of the largest ever found in the Western Hemisphere has joined the procession of fossil animals in the museum to become a new addition to the fascinating science of hunting animal [Music]