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DEENA:
How did they get you to
New York City?
PROTO ANDY: First they excavated me. Of course, I was buried
so I couldn't see what was going on, but they took a lot of
pictures.
My skeleton is quite fragile, and the paleontologists didn't
want to damage me. So, they put glue on me and cleared away
the sand near me using picks, chisels, dental tools, and some
brushes. It
didn't hurt a bit.
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DEENA:
Did they remove you from rocks in the desert?
PROTO ANDY: Nah, that would have taken too much time. Plus, they
could have damaged my lovely bones. What they did instead was use
a large knife to carve out a large chunk of rock around my skeleton.
Then they put a jacket on me.
DEENA:
Were you cold?
PROTO ANDY: No, a different kind of jacket. In paleontology, a "jacket"
is the name for the hard stuff they wrapped around me to keep me
safe. They put toilet paper over me to protect my bones. Then, they
wrapped me up with bandages and plaster. I looked like a mummy.
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DEENA:
Then, what happened?
PROTO
ANDY: They put a number on my plaster jacket, wrote notes
in their field book, then put me in a large box. Next, they
stuck me on a truck, then a train, and finally a boat. During
the trip, my fossilized bones were packed with sawdust and
straw to prevent any damage. They took such good care of me!
DEENA:
That was in the 1920s. Is the same method used these days?
PROTO ANDY: Pretty much. Although some of the very special
fossils get sent to New York by airplane rather than by boat.
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