In addition to the interpretive displays, dioramas and other installations at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, several of our exhibits are the result of a multi-step process that involves digging, preparing, researching, and casting the fossils that have been excavated. Understanding this process — and even participating in it — can give visitors a better appreciation of the work involved in researching our planet’s history.

Digging

Finding and digging up fossils is the first step of the paleontological process. Warm Springs Ranch, where the Wyoming Dinosaur Center dig sites arelocated, holds over 80 identified dig sites in a 500-acre area.

Most of the fossil-bearing sediments on the ranch are part of the Morrison Formation from the Late Jurassic—over 140 million years old! These hold many of the most famous dinosaurs: Allosaurus, Apatosaurus (also known as Brontosaurus), Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus. Fossils are also found in the even older Sundance Formation, which was deposited when a vast sea covered the North American interior, including Wyoming. Here one can find fossil shells, squid “pencaps”, and occasionally bones from marine reptiles.

At the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, you can learn more about our dig sites on a Dig Site Tour, or even do some digging yourself by signing up for one of our programs, such as Dig For a Day. You could find a dinosaur!

Preparing

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center holds one of the best preparation labs in the West. Visitors to the museum can view the preparation lab. Technicians can often be seen removing rock from ancient fossils.

Preparing the fossilized bone properly is time-consuming. The lab technician must use extreme care. Each facet, structure, and hole on the bone may provide important information.

Preparation work is hard work. It can take hundreds of hours to stabilize a single bone well enough for regular handling. The bone is usually weak and fragile, while the rock around the bone can be harder than cement.

After preparation, a fossil may be scientifically researched, replicated, and/or put on display.

Research

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center has a number of research projects currently underway.

Molding and Casting

The molding and casting facility at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center allows our staff to create detailed reproductions of the fossils using materials that are lighter and more stable than the original bone. Many fossils are quite fragile and fragmentary upon discovery, and more often than not, dinosaur skeletons are incomplete due to erosion, decay, scavenging, and how the much of the animal was buried. Molding and casting allows WDC personnel to “fill in the gaps” when we are mounting a specimen for display.

The molds are made out silicone which has been poured around the external surface of the bone. The silicone conforms to the shape of the bone and picks up the surface detail of the fossil. For small fossils, top and bottom molds are made around the specimen and then the bone is removed. The halves of the mold are then fit together with a spout left open for pouring the cast material into the empty mold. For larger molds, hard plastic overmolds hold the silicone around the shape of the fossil.

The Wyoming Dinosaur Center uses plastic and expanding plastic foam to create our casts from the silicone molds. The plastic is light, strong, and shapeable; all three of these properties help when we are mounting a dinosaur that is missing portions of the skeleton. The smaller bones are poured in solid plastic, and the larger pieces are poured using expanding plastic foam. This reduces the weight of the larger pieces, while reproducing the exact shape and surface of the fossil.

Aside from producing large casts for mounted specimens, our molding and casting facility also produces individual reproductions of the unique and interesting specimens that we have discovered at our dig sites. Teeth, claws, toes and skull elements from several species, as well as other reproductions, are available for purchase at the WDC gift shop and at our online store. Please inquire if interested.

Displays

The final step in the process is to put our findings on display so that visitors to the Center can learn about the history of our planet and the creatures that once roamed it … right here in Wyoming! Learn more about our current exhibits here.