As a paleontologist, one of the questions that I am frequently asked is why does it take so long for bones to go from the ground to being displayed in a museum? When the Field Museum of Natural History acquired Sue the T. rex in 1997, dinosaur fans everywhere were disappointed to learn that it would take almost three years until her bones would be on display in the museum. "Why do long?" they asked, "All you have to do is clean the dust off and stick them on mounts, right?" Well, it takes a lot more than that before fossils to be ready to be studied and displayed.
The people who do this work of fossil preparation are some of the unsung heroes of the paleontological world. Preparators, as they are known, have the very unglamourous job of cleaning the rock off of fossils, piecing them together, and preparing them to be seen by museum visitors. There are many steps in the long journey of fossil preparation.
Although we would like to be able to simply sweep away sand to unearth a beautiful skull, fossils are usually found preserved in rock that must be patiently removed in order to reach the bones. This rock, called sedimentary rock, is formed when sediments are deposited in an area, and then harden. Limestone, dolostone, sandstone, and siltstone are all sedimentary rocks in which fossils can be found. This rock does serve a purpose, fossilization occurs when minerals replace the organic matter in bone, strengthening it. The sedimentary rock also supports the bone, helping to keep it from being separated.
Paleontologists can only fantasize about finding a fossil as perfectly preserved as the dinosaur skull in "Jurassic Park." Millions of years of sediment piling up on top of fragile bones can cause them to become crushed and distorted. Even the massive bones of huge sauropods can become damaged.
The first step of fossil preparation is called "field preparation," and refers to the work paleontologists must do in order to move fossils from the earth to the museum. First, the surrounding sediment is cleared away from the bones. Rock hammers, picks, awls, chisels, and sometimes even jackhammers might be used to carefully clear away the rock without damaging the bone underneath. Synthetic resins are applied to the bones as they are uncovered, to protect them from disintegration caused by exposure to the elements.
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