Mon, Aug 07, 2023 page3

• ‘Mr Fossil’ brings dinosaurs back to life

  • Staff Writer, with CNA
  • • 
    • 
    • 

  People are often wowed by dinosaur skeletons and fossils in museums. Part of the attraction for many is how real the displays seem to be, a testament to the skill of those who clean, repair and consolidate dinosaur fossils and bring them back to life.

  Despite their apparent gift, these “fossil preparators,” as they are known, toil in relative anonymity. They are even more anonymous in Taiwan, where the profession barely even exists because of the lack of dinosaur fossils and limited number of displays.

  One local fossil preparator has spent most of his adult life trying to change that. Hsiao Yu-fu (蕭語富) is a 53-year-old man known in the industry as Mr Fossil.

  

  Fossil preparator Hsiao Yu-fu plies his craft in an undated photograph.

  Photo: CNA

  Interested in natural science and fossils as a teen, Hsiao set off to Germany to learn more about the field at the age of 21, without having any expectation that it could lead to a career.

  “Actually, I just wanted to go pick up some stones, because I knew there were some trade fairs in Europe where people exchange fossils and stones,” he said.

  While in Germany, his friend who was involved in fossil digging and restoration took him to Holzmaden, a place known for its 180-million-year-old shales that contain rich fossil resources. Hsiao then became aware of the fossil preparator profession — the main career option available to fossil lovers — which he had not known existed.

  Hsiao started digging and restoring fossils, and later set up his own fossil restoration company Shishang in 1997.

  Through his many years of fossil restoration there have been the exciting moments and achievements that have given Hsiao credibility as a leader in the field in Taiwan.

  Perhaps the crowning moment came in 2018, when Hsiao collaborated with a landowner in Montana to excavate a triceratops that was then sent to Taiwan for restoration in 2019.

  Before the restoration process, no one knew how complete a fossil this triceratops — nicknamed “Big Boss” — would be.

  At first, Hsiao thought Big Boss did not have a mandible until he made a startling discovery after restoring it: Its mandible was covered by its maxilla (which forms the upper part of the jaw), meaning that Big Boss was a complete triceratops skull.

  It was “the most complete triceratops skull in the world,” Hsiao said.

  Pointing at a Tyrannosaurus claw mark on the skull and another Tyrannosaurus bite mark that punctured its neck frill, Hsiao said Big Boss lived a brave and adventurous life.

  “And here there is a severe fracture of the nasal bone, which probably caused its death,” he said.

  Hsiao made his first big find in 2005, after he attended a trade fair in Tucson, Arizona. He had no inkling that the block of material with hints of bones he traded for at the show would later turn into an exciting discovery.

  “I saw bits of a dinosaur egg and bone that appealed to me, and seeing bits meant there was lots more,” he said.

  As he continued the restoration process, he realized the bone was the ilium (the upper half of the pelvic bone), and it and the presence of an egg led him to assume he was dealing with a pregnant oviraptor.

  “You must make bold assumptions when restoring fossils. If you do not, it is very likely you will overlook important scientific evidence,” he said.

  He later found another egg and two other bones — the pubis and the ischium — related to the pelvis and hip.

  “The ilium, the pubis and the ischium were not just pieces, but complete bones,” Hsiao said. “Also, they were not displaced, which means this oviraptor was buried alive while pregnant.”

  It turned out to be the first dinosaur egg found complete in the body of the mother.

  Hsiao coauthored a study called A Pair of Shelled Eggs Inside a Female Dinosaur in Science three months later, which answered a longstanding mystery of how dinosaurs laid eggs.

  Hsiao faced a professional setback when he was ousted from his own fossil restoration company in 2018.

  Hsiao, who only had a minority share in the company, still does not like talking about what happened to this day, but local media reports say that he lost a power struggle with the board of directors.

  Though devastated, he remained undeterred, founding another fossil restoration company in 2019 called Mr Fossil, while Shishang went out of business earlier this year.

  Aspiring to tell the story of evolution on Earth through fossils, Hsiao said his ultimate dream is to open a “simple but sophisticated” museum where people can learn through interactive devices and fossil displays.
• Most Popular

  • 1

    Investors diversify from TSMC to other winners of AI boom

  • 2

    HSR malfunction causes delays, reduced service

  • 3

    Japan ‘mystery illness’ not new: CDC

  • 4

    Taiwan eyes 100,000 drones a month

  • 5

    Taiwan, China coast guards argue in South China Sea