Brett Breakin' Rocks Posted October 9, 2021 Share Posted October 9, 2021 (edited) Hi There, I've nibbled at the edges of fossil prep for several years but I'm finally getting settled and have some spare time. Most of my finds originally were from Georgia and South Carolina and rarely needed any preparation beyond gentle cleaning. My mailbox finds from Kazakhstan however are caked in Kansas-esque soft silt/clay/chalky matrix, so I attempted to clean one of my larger parcels from the Eocene using a pin vice and eventually a Dremel tool and various brushes. The bone is very hard and well mineralized and is only brittle in some small isolated spots. The matrix gets much harder the deeper you get, but still peels away like soft dirt under the spinning Dremel wheel. I wish I had an air abrasive unit to remove more of the chalky matrix, but I'm getting close to the end using the tools I have. I'll probably build a stand for it to get it up off of the ground. I suspect it is in the Tuna family since we see very similar morphology with Thunnus sp. fish verts from South Carolina. Other fossils found in this area of Kazakhstan are swordfish rostrums, O. auriculatus or something along those lines, and Mackerel fish fossils. Cheers, Brett For Reference: Thunnus sp. South Carolina - Chandler Bridge fm. Edited October 9, 2021 by Brett Breakin' Rocks 1 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted October 9, 2021 Share Posted October 9, 2021 Great Job, Brett! Looks awesome! Well done sir. Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossilhunter21 Posted October 9, 2021 Share Posted October 9, 2021 Aesome job job on the prep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett Breakin' Rocks Posted October 9, 2021 Author Share Posted October 9, 2021 3 hours ago, Fossildude19 said: Great Job, Brett! Looks awesome! Well done sir 3 hours ago, fossilhunter21 said: Aesome job job on the prep! Thanks ! It was a nice project over the past few weeks. A little bit more I can pick at but it was fun. Cheers, Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sjfriend Posted October 12, 2021 Share Posted October 12, 2021 That is a great piece and great prep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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