My First Pulalius! (and an update)

[Huntonia]

Hi all, I haven't been very active on this forum in a while, but I've still been collecting and prepping. Thought I would share a bit of a milestone with you guys.and talk a little about what I've been up to in the time I haven't been active on here. 

 

First up, my first Pulalius vulgaris! I had the great pleasure of doing some hunting in the Lincoln Creek Formation with Will @Fossilis Willis a little over a year ago and found this small concretion just over 2 inches in width. How it looked when I got it home: 

 

Knocked the extra matrix off quickly, and set it aside to be prepped when I felt more confident in my ability and tools. A few months ago I finally got to work on this conc. Lots of scribing later I found some shell material! 

 

 

From then on it was just a matter of dialing the 9361 way down, and slowly chipping away at the matrix. Some of it had really great separation, and lots of it was the stickiest material I've worked with. Hours were spent holding my breath scribing off layers of matrix less than 1mm thick. Slowly but surely the ventral side of the crab started to appear. 

 

 

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially for my first attempt. Really wish the legs had come out better, the prominent leg on the left is disarticulated and dives so deep into the matrix I can't expose it further. The end of another one runs off the concretion below it but no sign of the rest of the leg. And on the right I found a few busted up floating pieces that don't show up super well in the photos, but nothing substantive. I suspect there might be more leg material deeper in but the stylus of the scribe needs to be sharpened and I need to work on other projects so I'm calling it done for now at least. 

 

Overall a fun and informative prep, really pushed my limits. I definitely feel a lot more confident about scribing up close and in tight quarters after this one. Massive thanks to Will for his help finding this! 

 

 

As for what I've been up to lately, an even bigger thanks to Will for mentioning a local paleontology group while we were out hunting. I joined NARG (the North American Research Group) and I've been collecting with the group, writing articles for their newsletter, and presenting at their meetings. I've also been taking Geology and Zoology classes at my local community college. This hobby has become a pretty big part of my life, I bet most of you can relate. 

 

I find it almost unbelievable looking back at my journey since I joined this forum in 2019. At the time I was 13 years old, looking to get an ID for a trilobite I'd come across online. The forum has been an amazing tool for learning about everything paleontology related and played a huge role in helping me grow my passion. I remember reading through posts of fossil hunts and prep-work on this forum and wishing I could do that someday, and now here I am. Thanks in no small part to the inspiration of this forum, and all the input and help I've gotten from forum members over these past 4 years. In 2 weeks I'll  be graduating High School, and in a few months I'm moving out to study geology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. I honestly don't know what to say except, Thanks TFF! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Lovely crab and a really uplifting post.

Thank you for sharing your journey. 

[Doctor Mud]

Fantastic! Especially for your first prep. I hope you do more and would love to see the results 

[Ludwigia]

Good job! And looking forward to hearing more from you as your lifeline develops.

[digit]

4 hours ago, Huntonia said:

This hobby has become a pretty big part of my life, I bet most of you can relate.

I bet you are correct.

 

Congratulations in continuing your education in a field aligned with your passion. We look forward to some trip reports and posts showing your progress in learning to prep.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[FranzBernhard]

4 hours ago, Huntonia said:

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially for my first attempt.

You can be really proud of the result! Congrats!

About 3 times older then you, this is something I will never try. I am not patient enough to do such things.

Franz Bernhard

 

[RJB]

Your first Pulali and its a ventral.  Couldn't have tackled a tuffer prep it you tried.  If you can do that, your gunna find a dorsal sided one quite easy in comparison.  Very nice job for first try.  Your one of those 'naturals'.   Now we are all just waiting to see your next prep.  Best of luck

 

RB

[JohnJ]

8 hours ago, Huntonia said:

I honestly don't know what to say except, Thanks TFF! 

 

Thank you for sharing your prep and adding to the ever increasing number of young people growing up on TFF!

[Huntonia]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!! 

 

5 hours ago, RJB said:

Your first Pulali and its a ventral.  Couldn't have tackled a tuffer prep it you tried.  If you can do that, your gunna find a dorsal sided one quite easy in comparison.  Very nice job for first try.  Your one of those 'naturals'.   Now we are all just waiting to see your next prep.  Best of luck

 

RB

Thanks! Your preps on here and your videos were super helpful references for me while I was working through this project.

 

Excited to see how dorsal prep compares! The next concretion in my pile has a claw sticking out so I've got it oriented, should go a bit smoother than this one. As for the ones after that I have no idea. I've been having good success splitting and glueing shrimp concretions to read cross-sections, I know some people who swear by doing the same with the Pulalius but I'm quite hesitant to try it myself. 

[grandpa]

Excellent!  Great talent.  You have a gift.