After a highly successful Science Under the Stars fundraiser, I've tried to get back into the lab to catch up on neglected science work. Administrative duties are still conspiring to keep me chained to the phone and computer, but I have made some progress.Above is a mastodon thoracic vertebrae, one of the same vertebrae featured on Fossil Friday last month. We've removed this vertebra from the field jacket and started repairs and reconstruction.The image above is in posterior view, with anterior to the top. This is an anterior thoracic, with the very tall neural spine typical of that part of the skeleton. There are two prominent articulations on the right side for ribs. One is just below the tip of the transverse process and faces toward the lower right, while the other is the circular depression between the transverse process and the centrum. These two regions actually articulate with different ribs; the transverse process articulates with the tuberculum (or tubercle) of the rib, while the depression adjacent to the centrum articulates with the capitulum (or head) of the next rib.We'll continue cleaning this and the other bones from this jacket in the coming weeks. We should be able to pin down pretty tightly which vertebra in the series this is. Then these will be joining other bones from the same individual in the Valley of the Mastodons exhibit.