Feature It's All about Context Continued from page 25 the specimen being mapped. Next, the shapefile is opened for editing in ArcMap. By tracing over the bone with the digitizer pen, an accurate rendering of the bone appears in the appropriate place on the map. The tracing is checked using Adobe Photoshop. The map is overlaid on the bone photograph. The individual polylines that make up the shapefile are merged, and the shapefile is appended to the Remap08 layer of the map. Next, the layer is opened for editing. The ancillary data collected about the bone during excavation is then added. Descriptive information, such as taxon, skeletal element, and completeness, is recorded as well as spatial information (e.g., elevation, azimuth, and inclination). The program even records the name of the discoverer and comments made about the bone during excavation. There are 30 fields in the attribute table for Remap08. This information lets researchers parse the data in many different ways for easier analysis of questions such as n Do certain taxa tend to collect in certain areas of the bone bed? n Do certain elements tend to come to rest in particular orientations? n Does the preservation degrade with proximity to the surface? These questions may be answered when the remap project has been completed. For more information, contact Donald Anton Esker In Situ Bone Bed Curator The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota Hot Springs, South Dakota E-mail: done@mammothsite.org The map showing all the bones excavated since 1974. The level of detail for bones mapped before 2007 is lower in this map. The map showing all bones remapped since the project started in 2007. The level of detail for bones is higher in this map, but the map is not complete. 26 ArcUser Spring 2009 www.esri.com