Interactive museum exhibit shows how paleontologists study the past

A recent paleontology exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History put fossils and scientists on full display. The exhibit featured a live laboratory in which paleontologists and volunteers cleaned and prepared specimens from Montbrook, a nearby fossil site with animal remains that have been preserved for 5.5 million years.

Visitors overwhelmingly enjoyed the live laboratory, and a new study published in the University of Florida Journal of Undergraduate Research shows that participants working in the lab were equally as excited about the experience.

Elizabeth Riotto, the study’s lead author and a senior majoring in anthropology and education science, said some of the scientists and volunteers in the lab were initially leery of being in the spotlight.

“Some people hinted at the fact that they were hesitant to be working in a public space. But at the end, people across the board were saying this is exactly what we should be doing.”

This type of personalized museum exhibit is an outlier. Scientists usually do all their work behind the scenes, and museum visitors only learn of their discoveries second-hand by reading information displayed on placards and props.

“It was exciting to turn things inside out,” said Jonathan Bloch, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum. “There’s a perception that real, genuine experiences are walled off in museums, that we keep many of our most interesting and unique specimens behind closed doors. This exhibit let us break down those barriers so people could ask questions and interact with scientists and volunteers.”

The exhibit ran from April 2, 2022 through January 2, 2023 at Powell Hall on the University of Florida campus and included a variety of animal and plant fossils. The lab space was nestled in a back corner of the exhibit behind imposing replicas of a Triceratops and Albertosaurus. These were the largest objects in the room and foremost on everyone’s mind as they navigated the maze of prehistoric life.

“Many people wanted to talk about dinosaurs,” said Jason Bourque, a fossil preparator at the Florida Museum who primarily studies the ancestors of modern turtles and tortoises.

With the exception of the centerpiece, most of the fossils that filled the hall were from Montbrook or other fossil sites in Florida, which are famously devoid of dinosaurs. Most of the Florida peninsula remained submerged beneath the Atlantic Ocean until roughly 20 million years ago, long after dinosaurs had gone extinct.

But what Florida lacks in dinosaurs, it abundantly makes up for in just about everything else. The state has an exceptionally rich fossil record because its bedrock is primarily composed of limestone, which readily dissolves in water. The region’s warm, wet climate has hollowed out a warren of caves, subterranean streams, sponge-like aquifers, freshwater springs, and even a river that dips underground, where it’s filtered through rocks formed along an ancient shoreline before resurfacing at a distance of three miles.

Limestone is also prone to the formation of sinkholes, which Florida has no shortage of. Animals unlucky enough to fall in are often uniquely preserved in their entirety, yielding a palimpsest of strange animals that came and went throughout the early eons of Florida’s history.

By navigating around a thick slab of skull from a terror pig and six-foot tubes of calcium made by predatory clams, visitors could watch paleontologists chip away at large plaster cases, called jackets, that resembled misshapen eggs. The plaster is added to keep fossils safe during transport from the Montbrook site. Many of them contained the bones of extinct rhinoceroses that were once common in North America.

As they worked, participants in the live lab described the process of excavating and cleaning fossils and answered questions from visitors. Some fell into an easy and natural cadence as they explained the ins and outs of Florida’s fossil history while others went through a more extensive learning process before hitting their stride.

“Some of our folks felt that they were underprepared for talking to the public,” said Megan Ennes, senior author on the study and curator of museum education at the Florida Museum.

Some scientists and volunteers also felt overwhelmed by the breadth and scope of things people wanted to know about. “Our visitors weren’t just asking about what the scientists were doing. They asked questions about everything that was in the exhibit space,” Ennes said.

Specimens on display ranged in age from a few thousand years old to some that were preserved over 500 million years ago, which meant even the seasoned paleontologists were unable to answer every question directed at them.

The unease quickly wore away, however, as the researchers and volunteers continued to interact with the public. Some participants picked up on communication strategies and content by listening to their peers field questions and describe fossils.

Riotto and Ennes used the results of their study to create a detailed report, complete with recommendations on the best ways to prepare participants for working in the live lab and strategies for bolstering their communication with visitors. Museum staff incorporated these recommendations in a subsequent exhibit on insects that also featured a live lab. “We suggested better supporting those who might not work in the discipline for which they’re sharing knowledge, so they can communicate openly about those subjects,” Riotto said.

Participants were also pleasantly caught off guard by the level of excitement from visitors. Many seemed unaware that paleontology was a career they could pursue. Bloch, who got his start in paleontology while volunteering at the La Brae tar pits in Los Angeles, unexpectedly found that he had come full circle.

“That was a formative experience that put me on the road to being a paleontologist. I wanted people to have similar experiences at the Florida Museum. The live lab was almost like a manifestation of that dream.”

And Bourque, who found himself talking about dinosaurs more than he’d anticipated, also managed to spark zeal for turtle paleontology here and there. He recalled a prolonged encounter with a mother and her son who “didn’t want to leave. They just wanted to watch what we were doing, hang out and occasionally ask a question. Those were magical moments where I know if I was a kid and had that experience, it would have changed my life.”

The majority of participants surveyed agreed that the exhibit had been worth the effort and said they’d recommend the experience to others. During interviews conducted for the study, one participant said “This is exactly the type of activity the museum should be doing all the time.” Another responded by saying “Let’s do it again.”

Melanie Giangreco of the University of Florida is also a co-author of the study.

Visit the exhibit’s page to learn more and take a virtual tour.

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