Washington State Ghost Shrimp Claws: Defensive and Feeder

[Neanderthal Shaman]

I'm fairly new to fossil preparation. After a trip to the Olympic Peninsula back in November, I had a ton of concretions and no way to see what was inside. At first a tried splitting them with a hammer, but after busting a perfectly good claw into a million pieces, it was clear that I needed some actual preparatory equipment, either an air scribe or a Dremel 290. I went with the 290, and for the last month I've been working through the concretions. Most of them are duds, either empty or just a small piece of exoskeleton at the center. I unearthed a pretty solid looking defensive claw a few weeks ago, and today I finally had another success: a feeder claw! I've inflicted a pretty good number of dings on both claws, but overall I'm happy with them. My most common mistake is flaking the very tips off. Once the surrounding shale is chipped away, they tend to detach very easily. When this happens, they're usually still in a tiny chunk of shale, which I find near impossible to disassociate from the tip. At that point, getting the tips reattached has usually proven to be a lost cause. 

 

 

The species is Callianopsis clallamensis from the late Oligocene of Twin Beach Washington. 

 

 

Defensive claw.

 

Feeder claw. 

 

 

 

Both claws mounted.

[RuMert]

Nice display style

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

Nice claws! I'd be happy with them, as well as how they came out!

 

5 hours ago, Neanderthal Shaman said:

My most common mistake is flaking the very tips off. Once the surrounding shale is chipped away, they tend to detach very easily. When this happens, they're usually still in a tiny chunk of shale, which I find near impossible to disassociate from the tip. At that point, getting the tips reattached has usually proven to be a lost cause.

 

What you might try next time is apply a bit of Paraloid B72 to the tips before continuing with the prep. This should consolidate them a bit and make them less likely to chip. Then again, may be you're already doing this, as I think I do see some traces of glue?

[Ptychodus04]

Welcome to the Pandora's Box of fossil prep. Get ready to drop a ton of money as you progress with your prepping.

 

Are you using any magnification? At a minimum, get a jeweler's magnifying headset. This will help you to keep from dinging the claws and knocking pieces off. It won't stop all of it but it makes the process easier.

[fossilhunter21]

Nice prep! 

 

I like how you are displaying them.

 

-@fossilhunter21

[crabfossilsteve]

I like what you did for the display.  Full picture of a extant example with the fossils.