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fish are freakin hard to prep!


hadrosauridae

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I am always eager to try new things and develop or expand my skills.  I've been putting in a lot of hours doing final prep on Hell Creek bone, and frankly, thats easy compared to these fish!  I recently bought some un-prepped green river slabs from Ptychodus04.  Since the weather and pandemic have put a halt to most things I began trying my hand at prepping these.  Such a difference from working big dino bones!  The fish bones are like fossilized hairs and unbelievably fragile.  The matrix (on most of these) is extremely soft which makes clearing easy with a scribe, but also easy to blow it out.  Using a soda blaster is a little more gentle, but still easy to blow out the fossil as soon as the matrix is gone.  The bone details are so fine, I can understand how having a stereo microscope (along with a micro-jack scribe) would make this type of prep a lot easier.

 

I think I did OK on my first fish.  I'm scared to try and clear the spine any more because the bones are so thin and fragile.  Then the second fish is in a harder matrix (and deep), but from what I've cleared so far, it seems to be a in a lot better condition.  I'm afraid I may wear out my scribe exposing it though, LOL.

 

20200321_165929.jpg.8266cc3fba6f938f87fd5092aea347cd.jpg

 

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20200321_165915.jpg.a16665d3e1eebd657e265dcf0f6a4b64.jpg

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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10 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Gently, gently catchy fishy. 

Nice work so far. :)

LOL, thanks

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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Your second fish seems to be a (somewhat rarer) Mioplosus labracoides (not 100% sure). Looks good so far, but take it slow.

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Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes (Confucius, 551 BC - 479 BC).

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42 minutes ago, oilshale said:

Your second fish seems to be a (somewhat rarer) Mioplosus labracoides (not 100% sure). Looks good so far, but take it slow.

what species is the first?  I'm new to fish.

"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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52 minutes ago, hadrosauridae said:

what species is the first?  I'm new to fish.

Looks like a Knightia eocaena.

You should download this:  Green River Fish

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    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

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"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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@Fossildude19 thanks for that link!

"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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;) 

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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Nice work. Much better than my first fish prep. That second one does indeed appear to be a Mioplosus. Very cool. Just goes to show you you don’t know what they are when they’re deep in the rock!

 

Don’t tell anyone what you payed for that fish. :default_rofl:

 

Keep up the great work.

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"Mit Geduld und Spucke fängt man eine Mucke." is a typical German saying. Just put that into google translate and replace mosquito with fish :)

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Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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28 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

"Mit Geduld und Spucke fängt man eine Mucke." is a typical German saying. Just put that into google translate and replace mosquito with fish :)

This is what I got from Dr Google

 

89A50D32-F3FE-4852-B274-474944AD67CA.thumb.jpeg.6089c9166835b0d6cff494ed82149dd0.jpeg

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Looks pretty decent to me for a first go! Especially for a fish! Can’t wait to see what comes out of the deeper rock. :) 
 

I’ve never tried those delicate little fish either. By all accounts they are very difficult. I’m still working my way up to them so I’ll stick to my brachiopods and coral for now. 

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The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.  -Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy)

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3 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

This is what I got from Dr Google

 

89A50D32-F3FE-4852-B274-474944AD67CA.thumb.jpeg.6089c9166835b0d6cff494ed82149dd0.jpeg

Shows you once again how precise our media giant can be. Actually, to let the cat out of the bag, "Mucke" means mosquito....oops, I'm the one at fault. I forgot the dots on the 'u': Mücke, or Muecke. German can be pretty complicated sometimes.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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@Ludwigia I don't need patience OR spit to catch mosquito's.. All I need to do is walk outside in the summer. They seem to find me very attractive. :wacko:

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Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties.

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3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Shows you once again how precise our media giant can be. Actually, to let the cat out of the bag, "Mucke" means mosquito....oops, I'm the one at fault. I forgot the dots on the 'u': Mücke, or Muecke. German can be pretty complicated sometimes.

Being a trumpet player, this is strangely fitting. With a lot of patience and practice (spit generation in the horn) you do catch a music!!! :default_rofl:

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@hadrosauridae, you can gently scrub the surface of the matrix with a toothbrush and acetone to remove the extra pencil markings without abrading the first layer of matrix off and thus changing the color.

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6 hours ago, daves64 said:

@Ludwigia I don't need patience OR spit to catch mosquito's.. All I need to do is walk outside in the summer. They seem to find me very attractive. :wacko:

Those pesky things aren't nearly so numerous here as over there. Shortly after I first arrived in this country we were sitting on the balcony with our neighbors when one single little itty bitty bug buzzed up to say hello. Just a month beforehand I'd been making a path through swampy cedar woods down by the river back in Canada, so I hardly paid any attention to it. But our neighbors broke out into panic and started jumping around like crazy, which I found to be somewhat amusing.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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I ended up spending 8 hours today working on this little fishy.  I think I've been working on the belly because it looks like the anal fin I uncovered.  I just started to get the head exposed before quitting time, and the bones nice and sturdy so I'm hoping for more great detail there too.

 

20200323_182207.jpg.48bf75c46a4fa91eae9fcb7223102389.jpg

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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I downloaded a pic of Mioplossus, scaled and overlaid it on my prep.  Amazing that it fits exactly, I can see what my fish should look like when complete. Also, I can see exactly what is left, and where it should be.

 

5e795cc26cfae_mioplusmorph2.jpg.99c4dfa67dca80fe8ac541b580863828.jpg

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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Prep update. I spent another 6 hours on it today and that only got the head uncovered.  The prep continues!

 

90262758_10217141580711780_8951568862638243840_o.thumb.jpg.bf24de3158abf7c5b0b8b9aae869ae3b.jpg

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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11 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

Prep update. I spent another 6 hours on it today and that only got the head uncovered.  The prep continues!

 

90262758_10217141580711780_8951568862638243840_o.thumb.jpg.bf24de3158abf7c5b0b8b9aae869ae3b.jpg

:thumbsu:

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11 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

I spent another 6 hours on it today and that only got the head uncovered.

 

Looking good. Take your time; slow and steady wins the race. That's going to be a quality fish when you're done. It's easy to see how I easily spend 30+ hours on a fish now isn't it? ;)

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3 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

Looking good. Take your time; slow and steady wins the race. That's going to be a quality fish when you're done. It's easy to see how I easily spend 30+ hours on a fish now isn't it? ;)

Oh absolutely, and this is really a small ( 7 - 8 inch i think ) fish.  One of those big fish you do would probably take me a month or more. 

"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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