In a suburb near Houston, Texas, a remarkable craft is underway. It's a craft that transcends time, bridging the gap between the present and a world 60 million years past.
Lauren McClain, a dedicated fossil restorationist, is at the heart of this craft, working tirelessly to piece together the remnants of Earth's ancient inhabitants.
The Art of Reconstruction
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
Lauren McClain's home workshop is a portal to prehistoric times. Here, she engages in a delicate dance with history, reviving fossils that have lain dormant for eons.
Her tools are simple yet precise: a tiny drill with an air compressor, similar to a dentist's tool, and an array of glues and putties. But her task is anything but simple.
Each fossil presents its own set of challenges, often arriving in hundreds of pieces, each requiring careful study and alignment.
McClain's current project involves a Mosasaur jaw, a marine leviathan that once ruled the Cretaceous seas. The bones, though robust, bear the marks of time-nicks and gaps where the sediment has worn them away.
McClain fills these voids with a sculptor's touch, molding epoxy putty to mimic the original bone, ensuring that the final assembly is as true to the original creature as possible.
The giants McClain reconstructs are not limited to marine predators. Her expertise extends to terrestrial behemoths like the Edmontosaurus and the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex.
These creatures once roamed the land that is now the United States, from the lush swamps of Florida to the vast plains of Montana and the Dakotas, and even the sun-kissed coasts of California.
Mosasaur jaw restoration
The restoration of the Mosasaur jaw is a meticulous and fascinating process that combines the skills of a paleontologist, an artist, and a detective. Lauren McClain, the restorationist working on this project, approaches the task with a blend of scientific precision and artistic flair.
The Mosasaur jaw in question is a relic from a time when these massive marine reptiles ruled the Cretaceous seas.
The jawbone, which is over 60 million years old, arrives at McClain's workshop in fragments, each piece holding a clue to the past.
McClain begins by carefully removing the dirt that has clung to the bones for millennia using a tiny drill with an air compressor, similar to a dentist's tool.
This initial cleaning is crucial as it reveals the true surface of the bone, allowing for a more accurate reconstruction.
Once the pieces are clean, the real challenge begins. McClain must figure out how each fragment fits into the larger puzzle. Unlike a traditional puzzle, there is no reference image to guide her.
She relies on her extensive knowledge of anatomy and the subtle clues left on the edges of each piece to reconstruct the jaw.
Inevitably, some pieces are missing, lost to the ravages of time. Here, McClain's artistic skills come into play. She sculpts fillings for the gaps, carefully shaping epoxy putty to mimic the missing parts of the bone.
This not only completes the visual appearance of the jaw but also provides structural integrity.
The nicks and wear marks on the bone are addressed next. These imperfections are filled and smoothed over, ensuring that the final product is as close to the original state as possible.
The attention to detail is paramount, as even the smallest error can distort our understanding of these ancient creatures.
Finally, the restored pieces are painted to match the original color of the fossil. This step is crucial for display purposes, as it gives the jaw a uniform and authentic look.
The paint used is specially formulated to adhere to the fossil without damaging it, ensuring that the restoration will last for years to come
McClain's path to becoming a restorationist was fueled by a childhood love for dinosaurs, sparked by the film "Jurassic Park."
This passion led her to leave a career in graphic design and establish Big Sky Fossils, her own restoration venture.
Her dedication is evident in her meticulous approach, which involves not only reassembling the bones but also ensuring their stability with metal rods, cleaning them with care, and painting the restored parts to match the original fossils.
Recently, McClain has been working on the cranial dome of a Pachycephalosaurus, a dinosaur known for its thick, bony skull.
The fossil, belonging to a Texas museum, is a testament to the diversity of prehistoric life and the complexity of the restoration process.
McClain's work is not just about assembling bones; it's about reconstructing a lost world, one fossil at a time.
In her garage, a Hadrosaurid femur nearly as tall as McClain herself stands as a work in progress. The process is laborious: inserting a metal rod for stability, cleaning, gluing, filling gaps with epoxy putty, and finally, painting.
But for McClain, each step is a labor of love-a love for science, for art, and for the ancient creatures that once walked our planet
