Plesiosaur Fossil Prep

[JaydenSquire]

Hi All, 

 

I work in a small museum and im currently a geology undergrad, this is the first time in quite sometime that the museum has its own large fossil to prepare. 

 

I have some questions, we have an Air-Chisel and other prep tools. But what is the general consensus for getting fossils out of limestone? Particualy vertebrate fossils like these. 

 

Cheers,

 

Jayden Squire

[jpc]

These sort of things can be well prepped with air scribes and an air abrasive.  Practice on less important pieces (ribs) before you go for the skull.  They can also be done with acid, but I have not done that.  The acid results tend to be better so if that is an option, you should look into it.  Send an e-mail to Pat Druckemiller at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks, Alaska.  He and his team have done some acid work on stuff like this.

[Ptychodus04]

The first rule of thumb when prepping is related to the approach. You want to remove the matrix from the fossil rather than remove the fossil from the matrix. This seem like semantics but it has a major effect. You are more likely to damage what you remove. 

 

Acid prep does provide stunning results but will take a long time. There's a process to it that I can get into if you want to go that route. Typically, air scribes would be employed on a specimen such as this. You can also combine the two processes by scribing off as much matrix as possible and remove the rest with acid.