SD Mines graduate
students Julie Driebergen and Shannon Harrel place fossils in the new
plesiosaur display at the Adams Museum in Deadwood.
A team of graduate students from
the South Dakota School
of Mines & Technology have installed a new 360-degree plesiosaur
display in Deadwood’s Adams
Museum. The fossil was first discovered near the town of Whitewood,
SD, more than 80 years ago by Charles Haas and his son, Arthur, who donated it to
the Adams Museum in 1934. The new display showcases the plesiosaur in the rock
in which it was originally discovered.
SD Mines paleontology graduate
students Julie Driebergen,
Shannon Harrel and Megan Norr collaborated
on the project as part of their Museum Exhibits class taught by Sally Shelton, associate
director of the Museum of Geology at SD Mines. The plesiosaur is one part of
the new exhibit at the Adams Museum called Riches
and Responsibilities: A Natural History of the Black Hills, with an entire room devoted to the geology of the area
including rocks, minerals and fossils. “The plesiosaur is the center of
attention in this new room,” says Norr.
The
students first mapped, catalogued and labeled the 168 plesiosaur fossilized
bones in its previous display. They then moved the fossil to its new location
and placed in anatomically correct order. “We really wanted to make this look
like it was part of a dig site,” says Harrel. “We placed it in the death
position,” adds Driebergen. This allows the public to view the fossil in the
same way it was preserved for millions of years after it died. The team also
searched the Adams Museum’s collection of fossils and selected age-appropriate specimens
to go along with the plesiosaur.
The Adams
Museum Plesiosaur is a unique species; the only one of its kind ever found.
Paleontologist and Mines alumnus Bruce
Schumacher identified, prepared and named the fossil Pahasapasaurus haasi in reference to both the Lakota name for the
Black Hills and the Haas family.
The media
is invited to a special private opening for the new exhibit on the evening of
Nov. 7. Those who worked on this project will be on hand for interviews. Media
who wish to attend should RSVP with Deadwood History, Inc. Communications
Director Rose Speirs, at 605-722-4800. The
exhibit is open to the public on Nov. 8.