Studying fossils
Once a fossil is excavated and delivered to a museum or laboratory, paleontologists will peel off the layers of plaster and slowly brush away the excess dirt. This could take months, as it's a painstaking process. Sometimes the larger fossils are put through a laser scanner that makes an accurate 3-d map of the organism. Or, for smaller fossils, they are sometimes soaked in special types of acid to eat away the surrounding rock. Paleontologists record their finds in journals, and often sketch pictures of what they think the fossil once looked like.
