Saving the BIGGEST Thank You for Last

So many kind folks donated to our spring campaign by sponsoring a field jacket - whether it was a small jacket, medium, or large. We defined those sizes based on estimated weight - <50 lbs, ~50 - 100 lbs, >100 lbs, respectively - knowing there would be numerous jackets in each of those size ranges. It never really occurred to us that maybe we'd need another category for really big jackets, because it never really occurred to us that this season would see us create the heaviest jacket we've ever made!

 

From Wikimedia Commons

What began as a few toe elements at the end of the 2017 field season grew and grew throughout this summer and became easily one of the most complete and impressive skeletons we've ever worked on. Identified early on as a 150 million year old Stegosaur, the specimen became more special by the day. This was not only our first Stegosaur (which also happens to be my favorite dinosaur, if anyone is wondering), but also the first Stegosaur for the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia - the oldest museum in the new world! A special specimen like this had to be excavated with the greatest care, and that meant keeping most of the bones together in as few jackets as possible. And for this dinosaur, that meant making 1 huge jacket, and 1 ENORMOUS jacket!

 

The enormous jacket may not be the biggest we've ever made, but because we had to make it thicker than usual, it was certainly the heaviest - eventually it was measured to be ~2,400 lbs!! This jacket alone - not to mention the other huge jacket (~1,000 lbs) and the thousands of pounds of other jackets, bags of bones, supplies and equipment - meant that we had a new set of challenges. Not just "how are we going to get all of this home," but also "how are we even going to get these things on and off of a trailer, and oh yeah - where are we even going to get a trailer big enough to handle all of this??" (Spoiler Alert: we eventually solved each of these problems thanks to the help and generosity of friends, neighbors, and local companies through some creative and exciting solutions, like this one, and this one.)

 

And this is where I get to the 'Thank You'. There was one company who's sponsorship level matched the scale of this enormous jacket, and that was Susan Schein Automotive! This jacket took an enormous amount of time and resources - at least 15 bags of plaster and many square yards of burlap. But because of it's shear mass, it also required pallets, extra tow straps and ratchet straps, it required us to purchase a large trailer rather than renting a smaller one, and of course it required lots of extra gas to drive it safely back across the country to Philadelphia! None of this would have been possible without Susan Schein Automotive's incredible generosity and thoughtfulness. So THANK YOU to Susan Schein Automotive - we could not have done it without you! Check out the great pics below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One last message for Susan Schein Automotive: with loads like this, expected more and more every season, it may be time to start talking about a new truck . . . .