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Not sure if these resources have been shared before, but this is how professional collection managers deal with pyrite disease/decay/rot. From the LA County Natural History Museum: https://lacmip.github.io/emu/documentation/pyritedecay/ June, 2019 Volume 11 of the Geological Curator is devoted to the subject: https://www.geocurator.org/images/resources/geocurator/vol11/geocurator_11_1.pdf Fenlon and Petrera's paper on page 9 has a good discussion about various coatings which were historically used as well as what the current best practice. It seems the current best practice for museums is storage in low oxygen microenvironments, i.e. storing it in a cardboard box with plastazote foam, putting in an RP System(R) Type K oxygen scavenger, and sealing in Escal (TM) Neo barrier film.

Hi everyone, I was given this fossil that has some copper foil on it. Does anyone know why this foil is there? I have reached out to a couple shops like Fossil Era and they had no clue... if anyone has seen this I'd love to understand more. Attached are a picture of the foil, as well as the documentation that came with the gift, in case that looks familiar to anyone. Thank you for your time, David

I was wondering how people store their fossils. Mine started off in jars, which protected them from dust and allowed me to display and look at them. When I got slabs of clay I used cardboard boxes to store them, and small items have wooden trays, boxes and drawers. Now I have bookcases of boxes and wooden storage, and a cabinet. Is there anything you do to conserve fossils? I'm looking at storing pyratised material separately with sillica gel sachets to delay or prevent deterioration. Do you catalogue your collection, and/or photograph it? I do this with parts of my collection, the bits that are most interesting to me. I don't with my zillions of serpulid tubes. Do you have a pile of less interesting fossils that you can't bring yourself to get rid of? I take quite a bit home that I think I will discard if it turns out to be uninteresting. And yet I still have so many worm tubes.

I just bought 2 partial stegodon jaw`s with some megs from indonesia. Shoud I put something on them to conserve them? Thansk a lot

snolly (accompanied and supervised by the intrepid snollywife) spent a very pleasant, thought provoking evening at a lecture by Joel Sartore. Sartore is a National Geographic photographer, and founder of the Photo Ark project (link below). His presentation included both video and stills of his wonderful photographic efforts. With humor and self-revelation, his talk laid out the fundamental facts regarding the realities of survival for the animal world and indeed, our foolish selves. A private reception following the lecture afforded the opportunity to meet Sartore. In person he proved to be a warm, affable individual with an infectious love of the natural world. It was time well spent, and if the opportunity arises for interested Forum members, I would certainly recommend attendance of this presentation. https://www.joelsartore.com/gallery/the-photo-ark/

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Hi all, Yesterday I went to the Zandmotor, and I brought back a couple of bones from there (namely an awesome big mammal tooth). I left them tonight just in the living room so that they could dry, but when I came back this morning I had an unpleasant surprise: many of the pieces of bone had started to become white (as seen in the first picture), and the big tooth has started to decompose (as in there are constantly small crumbs of the tooth that are falling off; you can see small black spots next to the tooth in the picture, those are some of those crumbs). I am very worried about this, and wouldn't want my fossils to get damaged. Can anyone tell me how to keep them safely? As in what are some of the best conservation methods? The bones were found on a sandy beach, so I think that salt has a role in this... Please help fast! Happy Easter, Max

" THE BRISTOL DINOSAUR PROJECT – A CONSERVATION AND PREPARATION OVERVIEW" from the Journal of Paleontological Techniques, a Symposium Volume covering the 1st International Conservation Symposium-Workshop. The Bristol Dinosaur Project involved extensive preparation and conservation of a large collection of macro- and microvertebrate fossils. The starting point was some four tonnes of fossiliferous cave-fill breccia, and the laboratory procedures involved a broad range of physical and chemical approaches to reduce this matrix and extract, conserve, and curate the dinosaur bones and microvertebrate remains. The initial state of the remains, and the laboratory procedures followed provide a good case study of historical collections found in many institutions that are in urgent need of care and dedicated work. The program also provided examples of good and bad practice, while training students in laboratory skills. http://www.jpaleontologicaltechniques.org/pasta3/JPT N13/pdf/JPT13_pg_50_64.pdf Have to be patient - takes quite a while to load....

The fossil record suggests specialist species are most vulnerable to dramatic ecological shifts, whether geologic and climatic in nature. Photo by Arjen de Ruiter/Shutterstock BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Which species are worth saving? Which species will survive global warming? Which will thrive? Conservationists are facing hard questions and tough decisions as they anticipate a warming climate. Some scientists are looking to the fossil record for help. Recently, a team of paleontologists led by Alycia Stigall set out to mine the fossil record for clues as to the future challenges of conservation. Specifically, researchers wanted to know which species are most vulnerable to environmental shifts. To find out, scientists studied the effects of significant climatic and geologic shifts on biodiversity throughout evolutionary history. Their analysis showed ecological changes mostly benefit generalist species, while hurting specialists. Generalists are most successful among large landmasses, where they can spread out across a variety of environs and take advantage of an array of natural resources. Specialists thrive within regions with highly differentiated habitats. Through geologic time, the division of landmasses into smaller islands promoted specialization, while the adjoining of islands into larger landmasses benefited generalists. Because specialists occupy small ecological niches, competing for slices of a relatively small resource pie, their presence corresponds with more rapid speciation and greater biodiversity. The fossil record suggests shifts enabling the territorial expansion of generalists coincided with a reduction in speciation and biodiversity. Given the opportunity, generalists invade the niches of specialists and diminish biodiversity. Naturally, generalists make for the most destructive invasive species. Unfortunately, ecologists expect global warming to encourage the spread of invasive species. The new findings -- recently presented at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America -- suggest specialist species will need the most help surviving climate change. "Places that are tropical and stable, regions that have similar climate year-round, will likely be impacted the most by invasive species," Stigall explained in a news release. "Data sets for modern species are usually limited in terms of the number of species and years available when talking about biodiversity, so hopefully we can use the fossil record to expand our knowledge and use the past to make informed decisions about the future." http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2016/09/27/Fossils-are-informing-the-future-of-conservation/9631475010661/?spt=su&or=btn_fb