Inside the preparation lab
A visual archive of the slow, careful work between field and museum.
From jacket to specimen
Fossils usually leave the field wrapped in plaster jackets. In the laboratory, preparators remove the surrounding rock grain by grain using air scribes, needles and microscopes, consolidating fragile bone as they go.
Preparation can take longer than the excavation itself. Every step is recorded so later researchers know what was done to the specimen.