THE FOSSIL LABORATORY IN AUSTIN: A HISTORY OF PREPARATION AND CONSERVATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS

Much of our knowledge of vertebrate paleontology has been shaped through the processes of laboratory preparation and conservation. The holdings of the University of Texas at Austin (UT) Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory (VPL) represent specimens that have been collected and prepared over more than 125 years. Laboratory methods can variably illuminate or obscure scientific information- an understanding of past techniques and materials applied to fossil data can help distinguish between these and other outcomes.

While early fossil collections associated with UT must have received preparation treatments before study, the first record of official facilities dates to the 1930s. Exhibits were created for the Texas Centennial celebration, and shortly thereafter laboratory facilities were constructed under the Bureau of Economic Geology for the Work Projects Administration Statewide Geological/Paleontological Survey of Texas. Thousands of specimens were collected and prepared for research between 1939 and 1941, and though reduced in output, this work continued throughout World War II. Many of the specimens prepared during this time were mounted for exhibit at the Texas Memorial Museum. After the war, UT vertebrate fossil collections were consolidated into the newly created VPL. Laboratory preparation continued as new methods and equipment were implemented over the subsequent decades, and a large number of students and professional preparators were trained in these techniques. The laboratory remains a hub for paleontological research at UT, and as lines of inquiry in paleontology become more specialized, the role of the laboratory grows ever more important.

The legacy of laboratory preparation at UT persists indefinitely. Public understanding of the history of life (specifically the paleontological history of Texas) has been broadened through research and display of fossils that remain on exhibit decades later. The collections are composed of specimens acquired from Federal, State, municipal, and private land, all of which must be conserved in the public trust. The historical context for how and why specimens have been treated in the past is critical to the care and study of them into the future.