By Wang Chao-yu and Bernadette Hsiao, CNA staff reporter and writer
People are often wowed by dinosaur skeleton and fossils in museums, marveling at the size of these prehistoric creatures while wondering how they lived and survived.
Part of the attraction for many is how real the displays seem to be, a testament to the skill of those who clean, repair, and consolidate dinosaur fossils and bring them back to life.
Despite their apparent gift, these "fossil preparators" as they are known toil in relative anonymity. They are even more anonymous in Taiwan, where the profession barely even exists because of the lack of dinosaur fossils here and limited number of fossil displays.
One local fossil preparator has spent most of his adult life trying to change that. He is 53-year-old Hsiao Yu-fu (蕭語富), known in the industry as Mr. Fossil.
His unwavering passion for fossils has taken him through big discoveries and major disappointments, including getting kicked out of his own fossil restoration and exhibition company.
Having stepped into the field by accident, he became Taiwan's first fossil preparator and set the standard for the profession in the country, and he still aspires to build a museum where he can tell the story of evolution through the fossils he has restored.
Taiwan's original fossil preparator
Interested in natural science and fossils in his teens, Hsiao set off to Germany to learn more about the field at the age of 21, without having any expectation that it could lead to a career.
"Actually, I just wanted to go pick up some stones, because I knew there were some trade fairs in Europe where people exchange fossils and stones," he recalled.
While in Germany, a friend involved in fossil digging and restoration took him to Holzmaden, a place known for its 180-million-year-old shales that contain rich fossil resources.
Thanks to this friend, Hsiao became aware of the fossil preparator profession -- the main career option available to fossil lovers -- which he had not known existed before.
Hsiao started digging and restoring fossils and later set up his own fossil restoration company Shishang (石尚) in 1997, turning his interest into a business.
Exciting findings
Sustaining him through his many years of fossil restoration have been exciting moments and achievements that have given Hsiao credibility as the leader in the field in Taiwan.
Perhaps the crowning moment came in 2018, when Hsiao collaborated with a landowner in Montana to excavate a triceratops that was then sent to Taiwan for restoration in 2019.
Before the restoration process, no one knew how complete a fossil this triceratops -- nicknamed "Big Boss" -- would be.
At first, Hsiao thought Big Boss did not have a mandible until he made a startling discovery after restoring the fossil: its mandible was covered by its maxilla (which forms the upper part of the jaw), meaning that Big Boss was a complete triceratops skull.
According to Hsiao, it was even "the most complete triceratops skull in the world."
Pointing at a Tyrannosaurus claw mark on the skull and another Tyrannosaurus bite mark that punctured its neck frill, Hsiao said Big Boss lived a brave and adventurous life.
"And here there is a severe fracture of the nasal bone, which probably caused its death," he said, talking about the dinosaur's life story.
Hsiao's first big find dates back to 2005, after he attended a trade fair in Tucson. He had no inkling that the block of material with hints of bones he traded for at the show would later turn into an exciting discovery.
"I saw bits of a dinosaur egg and bone that appealed to me, and seeing bits meant there were lots more," he said.
As he continued the restoration process, he realized the bone was the ilium (the upper half of the pelvic bone), and that bone and the presence of the egg led him to assume he was dealing with a pregnant oviraptor.
"You must make bold assumptions when restoring fossils. If you don't, it's very likely you'll overlook important scientific evidence," he said.
He later found another egg and two other bones -- the pubis and the ischium -- related to the pelvis and hip.
"The ilium, the pubis and the ischium were not just pieces, but complete bones," said Hsiao with excitement. "Also, they were not displaced, which means this oviraptor was buried alive while pregnant."
What it added up to was the first discovery in the world of dinosaur eggs found complete in the body of the mother.
Hsiao then co-authored a study called "A Pair of Shelled Eggs Inside A Female Dinosaur" in "Science" three months later that answered a longstanding mystery of how dinosaurs laid eggs.
Hitting rock bottom
Though Hsiao is the acknowledged authority in his field in Taiwan, he still has faced professional setbacks, none worse than being ousted from Shishang, his own fossil restoration company, in 2018.
Hsiao, who only had a minority share in Shishang, still does not like talking about what happened to this day. But according to local media reports, it appears that he lost a power struggle with the board of directors.
His vision of creating new opportunities for the company, pushing for expansion, and pursuing anything he thought was interesting clashed with his more business-like board focused on processes and planning.
Though devastated, he remained undeterred, founding another fossil restoration company in 2019 called Mr. Fossil, while Shishang went out of business earlier this year.
With a bad taste in his mouth from how Shishang ended, why did he decide to give it another shot and start Mr. Fossil?
"This is what I love," Hsiao said, "Whatever you do, you must follow your heart and do what makes you happy."
In addition to restoring fossils, Mr. Fossil also curates for museums, including the National Taiwan Museum's "Paleontology Exhibition -- Evolution of Life on Earth," and sell fossils and minerals.
Aspiring to tell the story of evolution on Earth through fossils, Hsiao's ultimate dream is to open a "simple but sophisticated" museum, where people can learn through interactive devices and fossil displays.
After more than 30 years of trying to uncover and restore the past to tell its story, and facing the bitterness of losing his company, Hsiao could be forgiven if his passion has ebbed. But he said he never gets bored and is always eager for the next discovery.
As he said: "Restoring fossils is like opening a blind box, you never know what you'll get. Sometimes it's nothing, sometimes it's a pleasant surprise."
