2002, Cambridge:

Talks:

• My beautiful Laudrette - preparation with tensides. Elizabeth Biber.
• A Virtual Tour of the Brunswick Museum. Michaela Forthuber.
• The preparation of a new Iguanodon found in Surrey. David Gray.
• Megafauna support versus adulteration. Nigel Larkin.
• Preparation down under! Ian Macadie
• The making of the geology map of Scotland. Vicen Carrio.

Posters:

• Reeling in a big Jurassic fish. Jeff Liston and Dave Martill.

•  What lies beneath the cat scanner digital images? part I, a technical procedure for finding and locating a hidden embryo in a dinosaur egg MONTESDEOCA, Roberto Quevedo and CALDITO, Francisco Gomez, Spain

• What lies beneath the CAT scanner digital images? Part II. The application of the technique. Structures likely to be compatible with a new dinosaur embryo discovery. Roberta Montesdeoca.

• The re-discovery of a lost holotype Stenopterygius acutirostris - its acquisition and conservation history. Sandra Chapman and Adrian Doyle.

THE RE-DISCOVERY OF A LOST HOLOTYPE STENOPTERYGIUS ACUTIROSTRIS - ITS ACQUISITION AND CONSERVATION HISTORY.

Adrian Doyle and Sandra Chapman

Richard Owen first observed this specimen BM(NH) OR 14553 in 1839 while it was on display in the Museum of the Natural History Society of Lancaster.

In the same year Owen referred the Lancaster specimen to Ichthyosaurus acutirostris   in his Report of British Fossil Reptiles. The specimen was then purchased by the British Museum in 1840 from the [estate?] of Messers Ripley. Richard Ripley was a surgeon of Whitby and the brother and partner of John Ripley. The two brothers were founding members of the Natural History Society of Lancaster, and among those who signed the Laws and Regulations drawn up at the inaugural meeting in the Town Hall on January 17th, 1823. Richard Ripley was the Hon. Secretary from 1827 until his death in 1857. The Annual Report of the Society for 1837 shows Richard Ripley, Whitby, as an Honourable Member, along with Richard Owen. Further purchases from Ripley brothers were made by the British Museum in 1841 and 1842.

In 1851 Gideon recorded this specimen in his book Petrifactions as being on display in the British Museum, Bloomsbury and labelled I. longipennis. Mantell also notes “the collection of ichthyosauri on display comprises 8 or 9 recognised species that have been rigorously examined and carefully determined by Professor Owen [!] “

The British Museum of Natural History opened on the present site in South Kensington in1881. The specimen was transferred together with all the natural history collections from the British Museum to the British Museum of Natural History prior to 1881.

The specimen was recorded as ‘probably lost’ by Chris McGowan (1974) when he revised the Longipinnate Ichthyosaurs of the Lower Jurassic of England.

           In 2001 the specimen was re-located but was found to have lost the anterior part of the rostrum and anterior most region of the ‘basal part of the left paddle’. A photograph found in an Owen archive folio shows the specimen framed but with the skull entire and a more complete basal part of the left paddle.

Subsequent searches revealed that the specimen was repaired and conserved in the Palaeontology laboratory in 1980 and the attached notes indicate that the snout was missing at that time and that part of the right paddle was dismounted and re-assembled.

Blake, 1876. In Tate & Blake ‘The Yorkshire Lias’. Pub. Van Voost, London.

Lydekker, R., 1889. Catalogue of the fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part II Containing the Orders Ichthyopterigia and Sauropterygia. London. 307 pp.

Mantell, G.A. 1851. Petrifactions and their teachings; or, a hand book to the gallery of organic remains of the British Museum. London. H.G.Bohn. 496pp.

McGowan, C., 1974. A Revision of the Longipinnate Ichthyosaursnof the Lowewr Jurassic of England, with Descriptions of Two New Species (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria). Life Sciences Contribution, Royal Ontario Museum no. 97.

Owen, R., Report on the British Fossil reptiles. Part I. Report British Association for the Advancement of Science, vol. 9, pp. 43-126.

Simpson. M., 1884 The Fossils of the Yorkshire Lias as described from Nature. Wheldon, London. p. 9.

WHAT LIES BENEATH THE CAT SCANNER DIGITAL IMAGES? PART I, A TECHNICAL PROCEDURE FOR FINDING AND LOCATING A HIDDEN EMBRYO IN A DINOSAUR EGG

MONTESDEOCA, Roberto Quevedo and CALDITO, Francisco Gomez, Spain

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A simple digital image process helps to reveal dinosaur embryonic structures from the apparently negative data coming from the CT scan of a dinosaur egg. The understanding of how this process works, will improve the work of preparators, as they will know how to better check the images obtained from such scans, and how to prepare for extraction of embryonic remains. The precise location of the bones can be determined in three dimensions. A real case is presented in which structures likely to indicate a new dinosaur embryo are shown. New technological alternatives are also presented.

WHAT LIES BENEATH THE CAT SCANNER DIGITAL IMAGES? PART II. THE APPLICATION OF THE TECHNIQUE.STRUCTURES LIKELY TO BE COMPATIBLE WITH A NEW DINOSAUR EMBRYO DISCOVERY

MONTESDEOCA Roberto Quevedo. Spain

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Using the present state of the art of digital image software, isolated structures likely to be compatible with a new dinosaur embryo discovery are shown: thoracic vertebrae, spinal apophyses and apparent cranial structures.

Digital animations in 3-D views are also used as an important tool to increase the recognition of biological patterns. False-colour digitization can be used to study growth of these fossil embryos, opening new avenues to investigate their pattern of development, using a basic anatomical rule: the more dense the organic structure, the better it is likely to have been fossilised.

THE MAKING OF THE GEOLOGY MAP OF SCOTLAND

STEVENSON, Suzie and Vicen CARRIO. Edinburgh, UK

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Throughout the latter half of 2001, boxes of rocks arrived at National Museums of Scotland for the attention of the Geology Section. These rocks had been collected by hundreds of primary school pupils with the help of their teachers and countryside rangers .Schools from all over Scotland participated in this project and supplied us with local rock samples with which to construct a geological map of Scotland. This map (divided into 6 sections) is a considerable size measuring, overall, 4 metres from the Shetland Islands to the Scottish/English border. A great deal of time was spent discussing and planning the materials and procedures to be used in the construction as well as considering the final size and weight of the map which would be displayed in the museum. Late January 2002 saw the start of practical work - cutting the rocks into slices, matching the appropriate geology and fixing the pieces to the selected areas following the coastline's many inlets and islands. The prepared rocks were laid face down on templates in order to ensure a level surf ace . Areas around the rocks, representing the sea, were filled with acrylic compound. Information panels were incorporated into the structure providing samples of the most abundant rock types found in Scotland as well as the names of the schools who participated.

The Geology Map of Scotland has been successfully completed and is displayed (adjoining the "Beginnings" gallery) in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.