How to preserve fossils?

[Jurassicz1]

So how do u preserve fossils like shale/limestone and teeth? I heard something about paraloid? Where do i buy it? And i have washed some fossils with tap water when i started fossil hunting. And some say they can get discolored with sunlight How do i know that? I got a old trilo that now have alot of dots of matrix they were not dried in sunlight but the rooms light was turned on i used normal hand soap.  

[Ptychodus04]

Paraloid can be found on the internet. Make sure to get B72.

 

Sunlight will degrade most anything. I don’t have any fossils in direct sunlight that I care about greatly. Water can be fine for washing certain fossils. I don’t recommend it for Pleistocene vertebrate fossils as they tend to respond to it in a self-destructive way.

[Paleostoric]

I don't know much about fossil preparation, but discoloration from sunlight I believe usually will make a fossil appear lighter in color. UV rays are powerful, so really anything exposed to sunlight gets damaged over time. As for the trilobite, is it possible those dots are leftover residue from the soap you used?

 

 

[Jurassicz1]

1 hour ago, Paleostoric said:

I don't know much about fossil preparation, but discoloration from sunlight I believe usually will make a fossil appear lighter in color. UV rays are powerful, so really anything exposed to sunlight gets damaged over time. As for the trilobite, is it possible those dots are leftover residue from the soap you used?

 

 

Im not sure the colour was the same as the matrix i can send a pic once im home but if it is leftover soap how do i remove it?

[Jurassicz1]

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Paraloid can be found on the internet. Make sure to get B72.

 

Sunlight will degrade most anything. I don’t have any fossils in direct sunlight that I care about greatly. Water can be fine for washing certain fossils. I don’t recommend it for Pleistocene vertebrate fossils as they tend to respond to it in a self-destructive way.

I did not have it in direct sunlight. The light in my room was turned on might be that? And do u mean pleistocene AND vertebrates? Or just pleistocene aged vertebrate fossils?

[Ptychodus04]

4 hours ago, Jurassicz said:

I did not have it in direct sunlight. The light in my room was turned on might be that? And do u mean pleistocene AND vertebrates? Or just pleistocene aged vertebrate fossils?

Pleistocene aged vertebrates respond very poorly to application of water. Many other fossils can handle it but I avoid it when at all possible. If I need to wet a fossil to clean it, I typically use alcohol.

[Paleostoric]

15 hours ago, Jurassicz said:

Im not sure the colour was the same as the matrix i can send a pic once im home but if it is leftover soap how do i remove it?

If your fossils respond fine to water, then I suppose water could be used to remove the excess soap, but I may be wrong. Maybe try Ptychodus04's suggestion of using alcohol instead.