two woman lean over a tray with many small bone fragments and sort them into rows
Michelle LeFebvre shared her professional expertise with our volunteers, helping them sharpen their skills and learn about identifying animal bones from dig sites. Florida Museum photo by Annisa Karim

Our last Volunteer Enrichment Workshop of the season was a blast! Nicole Fuller, Collections Manager of the Florida Museum of Natural History’s Environmental Archaeology collections and program, along with our director, Michelle LeFebvre, provided an overview of cutting-edge environmental archaeology geochemical and biochemical analysis techniques (e.g., isotopes, ancient DNA), followed by a hands-on zooarchaeological analysis workshop.

Our volunteers engaged in a hands-on faunal bone sorting and identification activity using collections from a real archaeological site. They worked to identify animal species, analyze skeletal elements, determine the age and potential uses of the remains, and explore the role these animals played in the site’s history.

Thank you Denege, Dawn, and Sarah for joining us yesterday!

Volunteers sit at a table and sort small bone fragments
Nicole Fuller showed our volunteers many intriguing details about how to examine animal bones excavated from dig sites. Florida Museum photo by Annisa Karim
Researcher shows a volunteer an animal skull while the volunteer sorts small bone fragments.
Nicole Fuller demonstrates with specimens. Florida Museum photo by Annisa Karim