Friday, December 19, 2014

THE JANE DIARIES, ENTRY #32

Pausing for a photo op with the cast skull of Jane, moments before leaving the collections. Stepping out the door after the final time given on a specimen is an existential moment that never fails to elicit a deep twinge in my psyche - if a descriptive detail or a measurement is found missing, there is no going back. Over the winter solstice I will be nowhere close to the Burpee Museum, and I plan to have the manuscript submitted for publication before I leave on an extended research trip to the Museum of the Rockies in January. Ahead of me are several intensive weeks of editing the manuscript and adding to it new photographic plates, so by far this will not be the last diary entry. Photograph taken by Josh Matthews.

December 17, 2014
9:02 am: Back in collections for another busy day!
10:31: I’ve started with documenting the distribution of immature bone grain on the skull bones as well as lesions. There’s still a lot to do in addition to this! I’ve only just reached the jugal.
12:16: I am done with the immature bone grain of the skull and lesions! Time for lunch.
12:18: IL will be ready for lunch in 10 minutes; I’ll measure pedal digits in the meantime.
~12.30: Leave for lunch.
1:30: Return from lunch. Time to photograph the ribs, gastralia, and the cast of Jane’s skull.
2:36: The camera batteries are running dangerously low, so I’ll keep them in the recharger for half and hour; in the meantime I’ll take any missing metatarsal and phalanx measurements.
3:05: I returned to photographing the last of the gastralia, and then the cast of the articulated skull in multiple views.
3:45: Stopped; 601 pages reached.

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