How can archaeologists and curators bring the footprints of dinosaurs to the museum and preserve those things?

My guess is they remove the footprints carefully using precise tools. They have a lot of knowledge on how to remove it carefully without breaking or cracking the fossil. They preserve them by having them in a room temperate room so the footprints don't turn corrosive.

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American Museum of Natural History

Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1

Lesson 4: Dinosaur fossils

What Is a fossil?

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Fossils are naturally-preserved physical traces of long-dead organisms. Usually, these traces consist of an organism's hard parts, such as bones, teeth, shells, or wood. Occasionally, when conditions are optimal, soft parts of organisms can also fossilize, such as impressions of skin, body outlines, and, more commonly, leaves. Other traces of objects made by organisms, such as footprints, burrows, and nests, also qualify to be called fossils. Most definitions of fossils require that the organism's body part or other physical trace be more than 10,000 years old in order to truly be called a fossil. Created by American Museum of Natural History.

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Cyan Wind
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Cyan Wind's post “How can archaeologists an...”
How can archaeologists and curators bring the footprints of dinosaurs to the museum and preserve those things?
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(13 votes)
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- Anthony Jacquez
  Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Anthony Jacquez's post “My guess is they remove t...”
  My guess is they remove the footprints carefully using precise tools.
  They have a lot of knowledge on how to remove it carefully without breaking or cracking the fossil.
  They preserve them by having them in a room temperate room so the footprints don't turn corrosive.
  Comment on Anthony Jacquez's post “My guess is they remove t...”
  (10 votes)
Maria Elena Franco
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Maria Elena Franco's post “How do scientists find th...”
How do scientists find the age of a fossil
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(4 votes)
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Gabby
Posted 9 years ago. Direct link to Gabby's post “what kind of tools do arc...”
what kind of tools do archaeologists use?
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- tysumner
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to tysumner's post “it depends on what they a...”
  it depends on what they are looking for if its a tooth they just have to dig if it was an entire skeleton they would have to use a whole matter of eqipment
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  (1 vote)
nruiz
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to nruiz's post “why does a fossil have to...”
why does a fossil have to be considered 10,000 to be a fossil
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Gryffin Flowers
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to Gryffin Flowers's post “Are there any other fossi...”
Are there any other fossils of different organisms (besides dinosaurs) that you have found?
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joshua.villarreal
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to joshua.villarreal's post “do they use a metal detec...”
do they use a metal detector
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Pranav Malireddy
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Pranav Malireddy's post “do you find organs or som...”
do you find organs or some skin of acient dinosaurs
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Video transcript

People have different definitions of what fossils are, but basically the key point is that fossils are some trace of an ancient extinct organism. Most of the fossils, especially when it comes to dinosaurs, are bones like these big vertebra or teeth from a dinosaur, hard parts. And, if you're looking for other kinds of fossils, seashell fossils of various kinds, there are fossil leaves in wood from plants, all of those qualify as fossils because they're traces of ancient organisms. Sometimes, other types of body parts like skin and fossil footprints that were left by animals are also found, and these too qualify for fossils. So basically, a fossil is any trace of an ancient organism, either a hard part, or a soft part, or some product that they left behind and usually this trace has to be over ten thousand years old in order to be considered a fossil.