Laboratory

Laboratory

The Lourinhã Museum Laboratory is the space where the preparation, conservation and restoration of pieces that belong to the museum's collection takes place. Operating daily, materials from the museum's different collections are prepared in this location, such as fossils, archaeological pieces, osteological specimens and ethnographic materials. This is a space with conditioned access, due to the nature of the work carried out there. However, you can see what is happening inside this space through an observation window located in the Multipurpose Room.

Fossils are the pieces that the public most seeks to know. After excavation, these pieces are carefully removed from the surrounding rock, reconstituted, consolidated and stabilized. This laboratory has specialized in working on fossils from the Upper Jurassic of the Lourinhã region (~150 million years ago), but fossils from other ages and locations are also prepared here, such as Mozambique, Angola, Wyoming, Algarve and Greenland. Recent bone remains were also prepared from partner institutions such as, for example, the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, the Lisbon Geological Museum or the American Museum of Natural History.

The laboratory relies on the work of professionals, who take care of the materials, with the precious help of more than 80 annual volunteers. Also frequent users are undergraduate, master's and doctoral students in Geology, Biology and Paleontology who collaborate in laboratory work and receive support in carrying out their theses.

The treatments carried out on the parts can be chemical or mechanical. In the case of fossils, physical preparation involves the use of needles, probes, hammers and chisels, pneumatic microhammers or grinding saws, depending on the piece. Alongside this process, adhesives and consolidants are applied, which make the extraction and conservation of fossils possible. Another activity developed is the creation of molds and replicas. Replicas facilitate scientific study and can be found in museums.