A young pupil learns the painstaking art of fossil preparation.
The Wyoming Dinosaur Center holds one of the best preparation labs in the West. Visitors to the museum can view the preparation lab. Technicians can often be seen removing rock from ancient fossils.
Preparing the fossilized bone properly is time-consuming. The lab technician must use extreme care. Each facet, structure, and hole on the bone may provide important information.
Preparation work is hard work. It can take hundreds of hours to stabilize a single bone well enough for regular handling. The bone is usually weak and fragile, while the rock around the bone can be harder than cement.
