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Selections from the Ken Karns collection


Ken K

Eucalyptocrinites elrodi 

Middle Silurian, Waldron Shale Formation, Shelby County, Indiana.

 

Slab measures 10" x 7", specimen with stem and holdfast measures 6" and single crown 2.75"

Collected and prepared by Ken Karns

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From the album:

The Waldron Shale

· 7 images
  • 7 images
  • 4 comments
  • 14 image comments

Photo Information

  • Taken with OLYMPUS OPTICAL CO.,LTD C3040Z
  • Focal Length 16.8 mm
  • Exposure Time 1/80
  • f Aperture f/2.3
  • ISO Speed 100

Recommended Comments

Cool association piece and nice prep job! (To say the least.)

It would make a nice desktop background if it were a larger pic...

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The Amateur Paleontologist

Posted

Beautiful! Excellent prep work you did :)

-Christian

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The Amateur Paleontologist

Posted

Do you have other specimens from that location?

-Christian

 

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Wrangellian, thanks much and I can size it larger as I did scale it down a bit for posting here.

 

Hey Christian, I appreciate that.  I did not keep track of the hours but I worked on it for several months.  This particular species has pustules all over crown and must be carefully prepared under high magnification with low pressure air abrasive.  I literally cleaned around each pustule!  Quite rare to find a specimen complete down to the root system.

 

I specilaize in the Waldron Shale which has a very limited outcrop with most specimens coming from localities in Indiana.  I have a large collection of all taxa from the Waldron Shale and have been working this fauna for over 35 years.  I have a large inventory of unprepared material that I am presently sorting and working through as the main collecting sites are now closed to collecting.

 

Thanks Kasia, it is one of my best Crinoid pieces and certainly the best E. elrodi piece.  The associated brachiopods are Meristinia maria (larger specimen on the left edge of the single crown), Atrypa reticularis (below the M. maria) and Whitfieldella nitida (upper right).  Should have posted the names of these guys on my original post as I hate to slight the brachiopods as they are a wonderful and conspicuous fauna of the Waldron Shale and are extremely well preserved in most cases.

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Congratulations Ken. As far as association pieces go, this assemblage is as good as it gets. Great find and spectacular prep job.

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A wonderful specimen, and world-class prepping.  Obviously a labor of love for you.  Thanks for showing us this spectacular find. :wub:

 

Don

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Ooops...first off, so sorry to both Jeffrey P and FossilDAWG for the pathetically late response!  I failed to turn on the notification of comments.  Appreciate that Jeffrey P, that's one of the things that I love about the Waldron Shale formation is the wonderful associations.  Thanks for the kind words FossilDAWG, and you are correct...preparing Waldron material is not "prep work" but "prep excitement"...every piece is a thrill to add to the collection.

 

Hey Winter Hobby...thanks much for the note.  Gee that's a good question.  I really should start keeping track of the hours taken to prepare things as it is a very interesting statistic.  I would guess the E. elrodi double here took in the neighborhood of 160 hours or so.  The bulk of that time was the final preparation on the two crinoid crowns.  the species E. elrodi covered in small pustules on both the calyx and arms.  These I prepare, as I do the entire specimen, under high maginification utilizing an air abrasive machine and dolomite powder.  I prepared each and every pustule individually.  If you attempt to direct the air abrasive stream perpendicular to the pustule it will abrade the pustule from the top down and dull the detail.  I come in at an oblique angle and clean the matrix from one side of multiple pustules the reverse the specimen and clean the other side of the same ones and so on.  This takes a bunch of time to do but the results are well worth the effort.  I have a bivalve from the Waldron, Pterinea brisa, Hall, that has spines all over the entire shell and I prepared it the same way and it turned out ridiculously detailed and is one of my most coveted Waldron specimens.

 

Thanks again folks for your interest, enjoyable knocking elbows with you all.

 

Ken

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Tidgy's Dad

Posted

Wow! What an incredible piece. 

The prepping is fantastic.

Thanks for sharing. 

Congratulati.gif

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Denis Arcand

Posted

I don't know what else to add, at first glance I think everything has already been said by other members of the TFF.

I think your patience has been rewarded with the amazing results of your prep.

 

I give it five  :star: :star: :star: :star: :star: 

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Thanks so much "TD".  One of my top Waldron Crinoid specimens for sure.  

 

Appreciate that Denis, the best result was the complete stem and root system root system on the one.  Extremely rare in this complete form, particularly for the E.elrodi species.

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