Submitted by Katherine Laidlaw on Fri, 27/09/2024 - 10:53
Maria Grace Burton (2022 cohort, Earth Sciences) recently undertook a two month internship over the summer at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (DMNS), Colorado, USA.
This internship trained Grace in a number of techniques used in the process of preparing and archiving fossils ranging between sizes of <5mm microfossils that required preparation under a microscope to large, articulated dinosaur specimens up to ~1.5m long. As part of the internship, she was also able to gain palaeontological fieldwork experience for two weeks in North Dakota in July.
While at the DMNS, Grace was also given the opportunity to gain experiences in other areas of the museum, such as 3D surface scanning fossils and processing these scans for digital preservation. She was able to participate in outreach activities such as speaking to children attending summer camps about fossils and the tools and safety equipment used to prepare them, and speaking to museum visitors of all ages at the ongoing DMNS "Discovering Teen Rex" exhibit.