From the grave to the cradle to the clamshell

The Carter County Museum has so many fossils, they would spill out of the museum's back room like a cartoon character's stuffed closet if they were all stored on site. Approximately 80 percent of the museum's collection is held at its warehouse.

When Nathan Carroll took over as curator of the museum, he found the warehouse full of bones laying on the ground. Since then, he has organized and built shelves to keep them off the floor. The Denver Museum recently donated archival shelving units to help house smaller specimens.

Fossils in the museum's warehouse are getting new protective casings. Th...