Mindy Householder

Before and after image of a Champsosaur undergoing conservation for pyrite oxidation.

Close-up of an area with active pyrite oxidation

Close-up of pyrite formation on a fossil

Old gap fillers and active pyrite oxidation on a fossil

#Fossilfriday This poor Champsosaur is suffering from pyrite oxidation.This can be devastating to a fossil specimen.

I have been clearing sulfuric acid and old, poorly placed gap fillers by carefully taking this specimen a part.

It’s rewarding to see its cute little face finally coming together!

Not the kind of person you want to coauthor with or accept funding from...

Logo for the Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology Annual Meeting depicting and Edmontosaurus walking across the state of North Dakota

For all of my fossil prep friends out there, come join us for the annual Association for Materials and Methods in Paleontology meeting right here in Bismarck on April 14-18th!

Even if you just want an excuse to see Dakota the dinomummy up close!

www.paleomethods.org/Annual-Meeting

A fossil preparator stands with the cast of a dinosaur skull

A fossil preparator glues pieces of bone back together

A fossil preparator uses a pneumatic to remove rock from a fossil

A special Throwback Thursday!

Since Jane became a holotype today, here's some old photos from 2003/2004 when I got to help prep her.

My annual it gets cold here in North Dakota in January post.

That's -20°F which is about -28°C which is not as cold as I've seen it here in the past.

Christmas tree with plastic dinosaur lights.

O dinosaur tree, O dinosaur tree. How lovely are thy teeth.

Stephanie, Clint, and Mindy standing around a dead cow in a field, taking pictures

Oh no! Paleontologizing caught @boydpaleo.bsky.social, @mhouseholder.bsky.social, and me being super normal about a rotting cow on the SVP field trip. #taphonomy

A fossil preparator uses magnification to clean a crocdylian Fossil with a pin vise.

It was an itsy-bitsy, teenie-weenie, yellow poka-dot rare crocy, that I prepped for the first time today.

Pin-vise is at 1/64" size! So little!

Curious where Sternberg Science Camps+ will be this summer? Well we’ve got a map for that! Yellow states are places we have logistics pretty much locked in for. States in gray are ones we are diligently working on for 2025 programs! We’ll be posting updates of this map as we get logistics finalized.

If you see this, post your bird art 🐦‍⬛🪶🎨

Honestly, it depends on the day. The skin is preserved in some pretty tough rock so progress can be painfully slow at times. Then there are the days we have tours and I get to see little kids faces light up as they stare at actual dinosaur skin, and I'm reminded that, yes, it really is dope as hell.

Model of Laelaps in front of a print of the painting of Fighting Laelaps by Charles R. Knight.

Growing up in Chicago and so close to the Field Museum, I always had a deep fondness for Charles R. Knight's paintings.

Recently, I was given this wax model that was supposedly used as a study for the famous Fighting Laelaps painting.

bart simpson is giving a speech at a podium while homer simpson is standing in the doorway ALT: bart simpson is giving a speech at a podium while homer simpson is standing in the doorway

Ugh no one told me you'd be here. 😝

Close-up on dinosaur scales.

The right arm of an edmontosaurus with preserved skin and keratin

Me using an airscribe to remove matrix from the hand of an edmontosaurus mummy.

Me holding the prepared skull of Hoplophoneus from Badlands National Park

Hi! I’m Mindy and I’ve worked as a preparator of fossil vertebrates for 21 years. I’ve worked on all sorts of projects both large and microscopic. Most of my current work is on fossilized skin from Dakota the #dinomummy.

Photograph of a plushie Kulindadromeus holding a take out container from Cinnabon. They are placed on the dash of a truck.

Sorry for the delay! Catching up on posting over a lunch break.

@mhouseholder.bsky.social and I set off early this morning to run some SEM-EDS analysis on thin sections of fossilized skin from Dakota the #dinomummy at NDSU in Fargo.

I would love to be added to this.