It attracts roots from plants, lichens, and also is a big problem over the winter. The water freezes over the winters and expands, breaking the fossil apart from the inside out. When a preparator recieves the fossil from the field, it is usually in a plaster jacket. Helpful aides to the preparator is the field persons notes about the quality of the fossil, matrix it is in, and pictures of the fossil. A preparator has to have a lot of patience and knowledge about the fossil being prepared.
Preparation is a slow and tedious process that can take months to years to complete one fossil.
A preparator might also have to fill in the missing pieces of the fossil to stabilize it or to make it presentable for museum display. This takes a very artistic person to do this job and there are only a few that are exceptional at this task. Many skeletons that are seen in museums are only partially authentic fossils, the rest has been created by a preparator with exceptional talent. A preparators tools are very customized depending on the person and also on the fossil. There is really no preparators hardware store to say the least.