RFID Digitizes Dinosaur Bone Collection

When fossilized dinosaur specimens were discovered on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the tribe and the dig’s management company Earth Science Foundation (ESF) turned to technology to advance their fossil recovery operation.

Among the 347 discovered ancient artifacts were 70 fossils of an Edmontosaurus annectens, (colloquially known as a duck lizard) that walked the continent between 68 and 66 million years ago.

The RFID-data and GPS-based location of all the fossils is now helping build a digital record of each bone’s identity and details including where they were found and stored, in a cloud-based server.

The ESF team— which led the excavation, documentation and handling of paleontological specimens— chose Berntsen International’s InfraMarker RFID system with HID Global tags, to enhance global Geographic Information System (GIS) provider Esri’s management platform.
Tracking Fossils

By attaching a passive UHF RFID tag to each artifact and linking it to data in the cloud along with GPS location, the team reduced data collection time in the field by 80 percent and brought artifact data accuracy to nearly 100 percent.