What is the difference between “repair” and “restoration” on a fossil?
There is a huge difference between repair and restoration. Repair is defined as taking something that is broken and fixing it. Almost all fossils found in a limestone matrix need some type of repair. When the matrix is hard and dense, it has to be split and broken up to find the fossils inside. Some matrices are so hard and the fossils so ornate that the split would have to cut through the fossil at some spot. Since the fossil has been broken in half, parts of this fossil are embedded in each half. If you carefully join the two pieces back together, the fossil is again intact – although it is still encased in rock. We then take this embedded fossil and carefully extract it from the surrounding matrix under a microscope. If this is done correctly, there is no damage to the fossil except a microscopic crack where the fossil was first split. This “repair” does not devalue the fossil at all. In fact, these repaired and fully extracted fossils are some of the most collectible fossils in the
