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While on a trip in NYC, I thought it would be fun to visit Old Granton Quarry as it was close to where I was staying. In the first day, I found some nice material so I returned for another ~2 hrs on the last day of the trip. Day one was in the afternoon, cloudy but without rain. Nice conditions, and I stayed exactly 2 hours. I was fortunate to visit near Christmas, and there was little vegetation to cover the cliff-face and obscure it from view. Also there was, thankfully, no poison ivy growing. On day two, I started out early, before dawn at ~06:45. It rained slightly, and throughout the dig the cliff reminded me it was there by little bits of rock falling past my head. I found a cute little Plethodon cinereus in the cliff, before dawn, that was a bit shy. Here are the finds! Dorsal fin and some scales Partial Diplurus newarki body - caudal and anal fins - and a few ribs. Skull, and dorsal fin imprint of Diplurus newarki. Concretion/nodule - possibly coprolitic in nature Diplurus newarki - disarticulated ribs, caudal, and possible skull. Diplurus fins and scales Diplurus caudal fin imprints. Disarticulated bones/fins/scales. Diplurus caudal fin Estheria ovata Diplurus ribs Estheria ovata imprints and disarticulated bones/scales. Partial skull and ribs of Diplurus. (Possible ray finned fish scales.) Diplurus 1st dorsal fin Possible skull, or coprolitic material. Concretion nodule imprint: Probably coprolite/concretion/nodule. Could be some bone in there, as well. Diplurus caudals, scales. Possible Diplurus scales Possible Diplurus skull, and scales/disarticulated bones.

I have one more small Triassic Diplurus coelacanth fish collected many years ago in North Bergen, New Jersey. The fish's head is slightly lifting off the shale matrix along its top and bottom, but remains well attached at the front and back of the head -- see the photos. The lift gap along top and bottom is at most 0.5 to 0.67 mm. Pressing on the head results in a micro-movement down. With careful handling, I don't believe that the head is in any danger of fully detaching. I have little background in prep work, so I would like to ask opinions on: Should anything be done to cement the head down? And a related question: what cementing technique can be used given that the gap is under one mm. I appreciate any thoughts on this.

Here’s a before and after look at a small Diplurus newarki that I just finished for another TFF member, @LoneRanger. This is small and well preserved minus a nasty coating of pyrite on most of the fossil. This prep took 7 hours to complete. Tuesday, I started another specimen that is even smaller! These were collected before I was born! Can you find the fish? Hint, I scribed on it a bit before I thought to take a pic...

@Jeffrey P has issued quite a challenge with a request for preparation of a small coelacanth. This little guy appears to only be missing the tip of the head. Unfortunately, the rest is under a thin layer of diamond hard shale! Here's a pic of the specimen as it arrived. Where's Waldo? Only parts of the skull are exposed with a hint of the caudal fin under the matrix. Here it is after 4 hours of prep. This guy is a textbook example of sticky. I'm switching between 3 tools to prep this. I start by removing about 1/2mm of matrix with the Aro. This is kind of like doing dental work with a jackhammer but if you're careful, it will get you down to the later just above the bone pretty quickly. Then I switch to the Micro Jack. The problem with the scribes is that the matrix turns white when you scribe it... and the bones are white! I scribe away for about 10 minutes with eagle eyes out for any hint of bones (this uncovers an area about 5mmx10mm) and then hit it with abrasive to knock off the scribe marks so I can see the bones against the matrix.