Our Process

Shovels and pickaxes are used to remove soft overburden and break through hard sandstone layers. Once bone is found, small hand tools are used to pry around the bone and remove it to the museum, where it is cataloged and placed in the prep lab.

Prepping a fossil requires great patience, skill, and attention to detail. Depending on the size of the specimen, technicians may use anything from a jackhammer down to tools that vibrate a single grain of sand to remove the matrix and expose the fossilized bone.