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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.

My son found what I think is an oddly shaped Megalodon tooth (grey tooth) on the beach in South Carolina near Charleston. The tooth seems small, blunt, and rounded. It's very thick, but only about 7cm long. Aside from the big chip at the tip, the enamel on the outer edges is intact but wavy, so the deformation isn't from breakage or wear in the ocean. I included another tooth I found on a beach in NC (Topsail Island) for comparison (I don't know the species of that one either -- maybe another meg?). The back of the enamel on the meg tooth is split and there's a weird, circular nub the top where the enamel ends which looks like a growth. It's definitely part of the tooth and about 2-3mm above the enamel. The split in the enamel on the back is also raised and you can feel a noticeable ridge all the way down the back of the tooth. I provided a close up of it. Can anyone tell me: 1. Is this a meg tooth? 2. What might be wrong with it? Why is it so short and what might that split and nub on the back be? 3. What's the species of the normal-looking black tooth used for comparison? Thanks

Simple question. Would the application of Butvar B-76 prevent pyrite disease??????? I hope so. I just applied some to the pyrite I collected from the Pella beds, Pennsylvanian of Iowa.

Thought our members might be interested in seeing the few bones in my collection that have some sort of paleopathological features on it. Most of the time when someone is showing us a bone we are looking at some perdation due to bites and wonder if its real. Hopfully that is not the case here. Let me begin by suggesting a good book on the subject Mesozic Vertebrate Life by Tanke, Carpenter and Skrepnick. It covers many areas but several chapters on this subject. What I would like to do is to show you my specimens but ask anyone to post Dinosaur specimens that they may have in their collection that have some features on it. Always interested in seeing other specimens and not has much technical papers. Most of what I'm describing is my guess or no guess, so other opinions are always welcomed Allosaurus sp. To me this looks like bad case of arthritis around the bone. The bone should be smooth. Wonder if they took asprin Struthiomimus sp. I'm not sure what to say on this Tibia. There is a 5 inch wide bulge in the middle of the bone some type of growth or infection? Had to be painful. Second photo is comparison with a normal bone. Theropod indet. A carpal of a theropod with some lesion or scar around the bone. May be a healing scar due to an injury. A toe bone with what looks a theropod bite that has displaced some bone. Looks like some healing occured so it was alive, ouch! Anzu wyliei A toe bone with what looks like a postmortem bite mark. Its shape says Crocodile. Remember the bone is hollow so it would not take much to cause the depression. Edmontosaurus annectens A huge 5" across ungal from Baker Montana. My guess is disease but could be has a result of bite. This is what a normal one should be smooth both sides.

Wondering what caused this hole in the triceratops frill. Perfectly round but not all the way through. Any ideas?