In this instance it is flakes of fossil bone, rather than broken twigs, that might lead to your quarry. A fossil discovery is an exciting, and important event. It might be the first time that this creature has ever been seen since that time it was buried - maybe 150 million years ago. Removing of a large fossil is a very skilled process needing a considerable number of people and a lot of equipment so that the scientific importance of the specimen is not compromised. Patience pays off These are wise words of warning.
People can accidentally destroy the fossil in their excitement eagerness to dig it out of the rocks.
If the fossil has lain there for 100's of millions of years a few more hours may not matter at that much - unless of course the specimen is about to be washed away by the tide, or by workmen with heavy machinery. Care and attention are still absolutely valuable if the specimen is to have real scientific value later on. Painstaking work back at the lab Fossils, such as dinosaurs, are usually buried in sedimentary rock. This is usually hard and needs to be removed by painstaking work in the laboratory so that the details of the fossil bones can be studied more clearly. Some fossils can take as many as 5 years to prepare before they can be studied by scientists - again patience is the watchword.