Tools :)

Paleontology is an interesting field. We don't put a lot of money into developing new tools. We just kind of wait for another field to come up with something brilliant, wait for it to be a decent price, and then stock up on it and use it for our own purposes.

That said, we tend to be a fairly patient people, and waiting isn't a big deal.

One of the big reasons for this though is that we aren't a field with a lot of money. While it is very important for education and discovery (paleontologists are very cross disciplinary, meaning they are likely to notice things that another scientist might not), there are other things that tend to get more funding because they are deemed more important. That's fair. So most of the money we have goes to paying salaries and travel (because you can't do paleontology and not go find fossils.) There are a few exceptions, some research gets done and that takes a bit, but honestly developing equipment is really low on the list of priorities. After all, the jobs been done for us ninety percent of the time. Thus, you probably recognize most of these. Come on, a paint brush or tooth brush? Well, its a non-intrusive way to clean off a fossil, causing minimal damage, almost like dusting something in your house. Dental pick? The kids love that one, it removes very small amounts of sediment from the fossil, fairly accurately. Often these are donated by dentists once they have been used, because sharpening them changes the shape. We aren't too worried about the shape, we just need a good point. More complicated tools, like air scribes, are used in other trades and just happen to also remove rock from bone fairly accurately. When used in the right hands, anyway...

What about the liquids? Again, those aren't actually that high tech. You can use water to loosen matrix, making it easier to remove from bone, and the glue is basically plastic dissolved in acetone in various concentrations. A thin one is good for stabilizing a fossil, a thicker one better for repairing a broken one.

 It's pretty much the same in the field, using the smallest tool possible to safely remove rock from bone and only switching to a larger tool when needed. Knee pads are a note taken from gardeners, as are trowels to remove the upper layers where fossils are less common. See? Really not a high tech field. Honestly, when technology has been used in paleontology, at least in field work like in Jurassic Park... well, no dice. CT scanning seems to work for fossils in jackets, but otherwise, there is nothing quite like using basic tools and resorting to something a little bigger when times are desperate.