Paleontologists are scientists who study dinosaurs. When they go looking for fossils, they have to be very careful. First the fossils should be labelled and photographed (while still stuck in the rock).

Most of the rock is removed using large tools (like picks and shovels), but the 5-8 cm of rock closest to the fossil are removed with smaller hand tools (like trowels, hammers, whisks, and dental tools). The exposed fossil is photographed and labeled again. Frequently, only some of the overlying rock is removed at the dig site. The rest of it can be removed later, in the lab.

Small fossils are easily excavated with small hand tools. Large fossils require more effort and bigger tools in order to get it out. These tools include shovels, picks, jack-hammers, or even explosives.

It can be very hard work looking for dinosaur bones. It is often out in a desert, where it is hot, with no shade, and no water. This is Kevin. He's a super-cool paleontologist, and he's doing what paleontologists do a lot: digging. Actually, he's using the 'Cobra' gas-powered jackhammer to smash up rocks! Kevin studies trilobites, a type of fossil found in the Mid-Cambrian rocks here. Some triolobites are 500 MILLION years old! That's a HUGE amount of time, I mean, just a whole lot!!

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Mary Anning (1799-1847) was a very important discoverer of dinosaur bones in the early days in England. She was not a scientist - she was very poor, and found her first fossils when she was only 10 years old! She lived in an area rich with fossils from the Jurassic era. She spent a lot of time talking to scientists, and grew to know a great deal about fossils. Mary made many great discoveries, including ichthyosaur skeletons. But perhaps her most important find, from a scientific point of view, was her discovery of the first plesiosaur. As time passed, Mary Anning and her family were forgotten. Because she was only a woman, and from a poor family, many scientists of the day could not believe that she had such special skills and knowledge.

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