Fossil field jackets

Fossil field jackets are protective containers used during fossil excavation. A well-designed, properly implemented plaster-and-burlap jacket protects fossils during transport and storage and allows more controlled excavation in a laboratory.

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Established facts

  1. Adverse weather can affect plaster setting, and moving a field jacket before it has sufficiently cured can leave a soft, flimsy or brittle cradle that contains fossils without adequately protecting them.

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  2. In the described plaster-jacketing method, exposed fragile fossils are consolidated with an adhesive and covered with a separator layer before wet-plaster-soaked burlap is wrapped around them and allowed to harden. Enough surrounding rock is ideally retained to support fragile remains, with final rock removal performed in a fossil preparation laboratory.

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