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I bought this lobster concretion from a guy right here in Helena at the rock and jem show. Took me about 3 years to get this finished cause of the problems I ran into. I would get frustrated and put it aside for some months and then go on the attack again, run into another problem and toss aside. Anyways, after my son picked it up not too long ago and seeing how he thought it was super cool, It renewed my interest and I finished it up. This is Hoploparia from the Bear Paw Formation. RB

The Palaeocast podcast released a very interesting episode on Decapods with Dr Carrie Schweitzer of Kent State University. http://www.palaeocast.com/decapods/

Its been a long time coming, but my biggest display cabinet is finally coming along. Ive got more crabs and lobsters, but no clue as to where they are at right now. I moved about 11 years ago and boxed everything up. In a box or 3 somewhere? I can also see now that ive got a 'display stand' problem. I need some kind of stands for the bigger crabs to be sitting 3 or 4 inches higher than they sit right now. But still, its lookin purty good. and ive also got quite a bit of room left for more, that's a good thing. RB

A friend of mine and myself took 4 hours to clean up and organize my fossil garage. What a freekin job! But its amazing to me all I forget. I found 2 big milk crates of crab concretions, and lots and lots of unprepped ammonite material and I do mean lots, probably 10 boxesl! Wow!!! Im getting very forgetful nowadays. Ran into about a dozen or so lobsters that still need to be prepped out! Lots of fish slabs! Lots of odds and ends too and some very special things that need to get into my collection display cabinets. I don't really want to push the 'envy' botton, but being in the clean up mode, when he asked me "what about this" I simply would say, "take it" or "its yours". He left for home with lots of fossils to say the least. But what for me that really got my attention was a small box with a lobster conc in it. Its a lobster Ive seen before, but only pieces and this one appears to be somewhat complete even though a bit crushed. Very cool to me being a lobster colletor. Here is a pic of the box. Now ive got tons more prep work to do.

While at the Quartzite show last week I ran into a guy who had a box of lobster concretions. At first I was super excited, then realized all the super bad luck ive had with these things in the very near past. We kept a talking and he realized that I wasn't that interested. I also realized he didn't want them. So,,, we made a deal. The deal is that I prep out the best ones, I get first pick and he ends up with whatever is next in line. I told him to give me at least a year and he was happy with that. Looks like I just may get me a good fossil lobster? I went through his box of 11 concretions and they began to drop like fly's! I told this guy that would happen. These 3 that look to have good possibilities all have issues, but just for the chance to get a good lobster is truly a good deal for me. RB

Prehistoric Lobsters Made Homes of Ancient Ammonoid Shells by Brian Switek, Wired.com, March 12, 2012 http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/prehistoric-lobsters-made-homes-of-ancient-ammonoid-shells/ This fossil shows lobsters knew how to cuddle msnbc.com ‎http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46721831/ns/technology_and_science-science/ The paper is: Klompmaker, A., and R. Fraaije, 2012, Animal Behavior Frozen in Time: Gregarious Behavior of Early Jurassic Lobsters within an Ammonoid Body Chamber. PLoS ONE. vol. 7, no. 3. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031893 http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0031893 best wishes, Paul H.