Back at a laboratory the field specimens need to be cleaned and prepared before they can be studied or displayed. Some need very little work, but in many cases, there is a substantial amount of work required.
Jacketed specimens need to be removed from their jackets. This is done in a preparation lab with proper tables, lighting, cutting, drilling, and scribing devices and especially air handling and dust mitigation equipment. Preparators carefully open the jacket and excavate the bones from the matrix. There are often serious repairs required. It may be necessary to separate every single break in a bone in order to clean the interior matrix, so that the bone can then be reassembled correctly. A single 36 inch rib could have over 100 individual broken elements, all requiring detailed cleaning and assembly. Larger specimens will need a new sort of jacket: a storage jacket, to protect them while they are in storage or in transport.
There are various tools and techniques employed in fossil preparation. Some matrixes (the rock that encases a fossil) can be so soft that it is quite easy to remove the fossils using simple hand tools such as dental picks, brushes, and pin vises. specimens from other locations require the use of tools such as pneumatic air scribes to remove the surrounding matrix from the fossil.
In some cases, fossils may be too fragile or small to be prepared using conventional methods. Microscopes and fine needles are employed to remove sediment under magnification, ensuring minimal damage to the specimen.
One of the most important techniques in fossil preparation is micro air abrasion. A micro air abrasion unit is essentially a tabletop “sandblaster”. It combines compressed air and an abrasive medium such as sodium bicarbonate to etch away matrix from fossils by projecting the air mix at high velocities. This is often employed as a last step to remove the final layer of matrix off a specimen. Micro blasting has the potential to reveal very fine details that may not be possible using other mechanical techniques. Micro blasting is also a valuable technique when fossils are highly brittle, or vibrations from other tools may be harmful to the specimen.