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Ideas For Displaying Fossils


hitekmastr

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So I was just looking at a Facebook link on making homemade wind chimes, and thought it would be awesome to incorporate fossils into this?! :)

http://recycledawblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-to-make-wine-bottle-wind-chime.html?m=1

Could always hang inside at eye level and doesn't have to be wine bottles... Thought a good idea for a corner for those that are running low on floor/table/display case room. :)

I was a actually toying with the idea of making a hanging mobile using very thin pieces of fern fossils, that have lots of leaves on both sides. Haven't gotten to that project yet but the main challenge is the weight or 3 or 4 shale pieces - would have to use metal instead of wood for the horizontal wires, and not sure yet how to attach the ferns except I assume drilling a hole would work but then to keep it from wearing over time it might need to have some kind of liner in the hole so the wire doesn't cut into the shale hole...great idea, no time to try everything!

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How about fossils attached to a stand or hanging moble that represents their taxonomic relationship? A 'trilobite tree' could resemble this:

attachicon.giftriloclass2009.jpg

This is a great idea - preserves the fossils, the identification, AND the context! This kind of display gets the fossils out of boxes and cabinets and into a display form that is educational and documents the fossil context. Of course, hitting a range of geological periods or strata, or range of flora/fauna really sounds appealing. This is definitely in the category of "advanced" fossil displays!!

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How about fossils attached to a stand or hanging moble that represents their taxonomic relationship? A 'trilobite tree' could resemble this:

attachicon.giftriloclass2009.jpg

This is the coolest chart ever! We're planning to do more trilo hunting this summer so this chart is really good to have!

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I made this as a gift last year for my brother. He's a doctor and has it hanging in his office. Several patients have wanted to get one for themselves.

attachicon.gifNov 19,2012 003.JPG

I picked up some untreated wooden plaques at Michael's yesterday. Also got some interesting texture paint that looks like stone which I may experiment with. This is really an elegant way to display really valuable or cool fossils, with the information on the brass plate. Also, there are affordable places on the Internet that do the brass plates. Very nice. Maybe some other fossil hunters will take a crack at doing this with their displays.

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FYI Michael's does the little metal plates very reasonably! They have a variety of styles. :)

Also, I just decoupaged the criniod IDs on the back of a pendant I made. An ID on a mobile like this could work on a part that is not fossilized. And you can decoupage a metal plate onto whatever as well.

Bev :popcorn:

We are under snow and ice again. :angry:

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Once smaller LCD screens get really inexpensive, I can see integrated Power Point presentations as a terrific display tool. ;)

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Once smaller LCD screens get really inexpensive, I can see integrated Power Point presentations as a terrific display tool. ;)

Now that's a REALLY CREATIVE idea!! An LCD display could show the various individual fossils on a multi-fossil specimen, along with the Latin name, geological formation and era. When this is available, would it be something we buy online, or would there be blank LCD displays we could plug into our computer and program ourselves? A very intriguing concept. It might make a nice little technology venture for someone, since the technology probably exists today. Nice!

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FYI Michael's does the little metal plates very reasonably! They have a variety of styles. :)

Also, I just decoupaged the criniod IDs on the back of a pendant I made. An ID on a mobile like this could work on a part that is not fossilized. And you can decoupage a metal plate onto whatever as well.

Bev :popcorn:

We are under snow and ice again. :angry:

Ah...the fossils are under the decoupage coating, and Minnesota is under a coating of snow...very poetic.

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Now that's a REALLY CREATIVE idea!! An LCD display could show the various individual fossils on a multi-fossil specimen, along with the Latin name, geological formation and era. When this is available, would it be something we buy online, or would there be blank LCD displays we could plug into our computer and program ourselves? A very intriguing concept. It might make a nice little technology venture for someone, since the technology probably exists today. Nice!

The trend seems to be USB thumb drives: load, plug, & play.

Lap-dissolve from a picture of the specimen to a coal swamp illustration showing where the piece fits, then to a picture of it in situ...Power Point is a creatively powerful program!

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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I'm no techy, but what about those fairly inexpensive picture frames that display digital pictures... I don't have one, nor do I know how they work :)

BUT I could see something like that as being very intriguing at a show! If you can load pictures into it, I would think that you could load pages of info on it and arrange the order???

Bev :)

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Ah...the fossils are under the decoupage coating, and Minnesota is under a coating of snow...very poetic.

AND the decoupage coating is dissolvable in hot water; as is snow and ice. Might be a MinnesOta thing! :zzzzscratchchin:

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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I'm no techy, but what about those fairly inexpensive picture frames that display digital pictures...

When the screens themselves get down to 15 cents per square inch ($12 for an 8" X 10" screen), you could have as many as you wanted running off a simple, single CPU. Think of the fossil stories you could tell that way! Each specimen in the display could be shown as it lived, and in situ as found. Even closeups of fine details could be part of the experience.

"There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant

“Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley

>Paleontology is an evolving science.

>May your wonders never cease!

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Well, they aren't down to $12, but I have seen them on sale for $30. And for that matter, old laptop computers are cheap. Not that I'm a techy person, but a person smarter than me could set up a simple program doing what I think I understand you are saying and the laptop could sit beside a display and do whatever it would do because it has lots more memory than a picture frame!

And you could sit a picture frame around the screen and put something on top of the keyboard to make it not look like a computer. It could loop somehow...

We might be thinking of different things. I'm thinking of a display for a show or whatever. In which case you would be looking at what, a 3 minute loop max? With a lot more available if needed on a computer.

Just thinkin' :popcorn:

Bev :)

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Well, they aren't down to $12, but I have seen them on sale for $30. And for that matter, old laptop computers are cheap. Not that I'm a techy person, but a person smarter than me could set up a simple program doing what I think I understand you are saying and the laptop could sit beside a display and do whatever it would do because it has lots more memory than a picture frame!

And you could sit a picture frame around the screen and put something on top of the keyboard to make it not look like a computer. It could loop somehow...

We might be thinking of different things. I'm thinking of a display for a show or whatever. In which case you would be looking at what, a 3 minute loop max? With a lot more available if needed on a computer.

Just thinkin' :popcorn:

Bev :)

I think Auspex was thinking of a small LCD wafer of some kind that would be about the same size as a large brass plate that gets mounted on a large plaque or sculpture or frame containing a fossil specimen - except the LCD or LED screen would be animated with all kinds of video as well as still image possibilities...or it could be larger, the size of a sheet of typing paper if the cost allowed...maybe the fossil now becomes a BOOK...where the fossil is enclosed in an 8 x 10 case on the left inside of the "book" and the right side of the "book" would be an 8 1/2 x11 LCD/LED panel with an animated video that shows the "live" fossil, its environment, taxonomy, stratigraphy of the formation where it was found, maybe the fossil hunters actually finding it, and an explanation of the details about the fossil...and much more! We're getting close to the point where we're all able to create our own videos and online TV clips. Why not a "fossil video" with every specimen?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I know this is "rough as guts" but the boys just disassembeled a projector tv (NZ finally went digital so all the old great tvs are being biffed)

Anywoot, as the pieces came off, I threw the main mirror on top of my fish tank, and put a hunk of glass and some LEDs in it... the effect is awesome and I will investigate putting it to proper use as a display cabinet as it gives 2 dimensions...

th_20130426_210300_zps4220d48a.jpg

And of course - there is th a"making of" vid as well

th_destroy2_zps3200463f.jpg

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WONDERFUL idea!

Reminds me of the scene from "Grumpy Old Men" where the gal used a TV as a fish tank! Interesting concept!

And talk about fish tanks, I ended up getting a great deal on a used 3' fish tank with lid and light for $20! Used that for a fossil display at our HBC Regional Tourism Center.

post-9628-0-61522800-1366978927_thumb.jpg

Closeup of display

post-9628-0-21947600-1366978996_thumb.jpg

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Bev - Ah - we actually have a 50 gallon aquarium (started with 10 gallons and kept trading up until we have a 50) - Nancy is the aquarium expert. Haven't thought about putting fossils in there but fossil shells would look cool - any reason it might hurt the fish????

I grew up in Wisconsin - delivered newspapers and at least twice a year the actual temperature hit -32 to -35 degrees Farenheit!!! Now in Pennsylvania, some winters we have virtually no snow and right now the grass is still green.

Keep warm...

i was wondering what kinds of fish u keep fresh water or salt...i can't see any fossils hurting the tank(unless there made out of metal lol) but the water will hurt the fossils being shells or what ever u may put in there ...i kept salt water fish .corals ect...for 15 years..i put shells in it they last about 2 yrs tops lol..but in fresh water they should hold up alot longer

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i was wondering what kinds of fish u keep fresh water or salt...i can't see any fossils hurting the tank(unless there made out of metal lol) but the water will hurt the fossils being shells or what ever u may put in there ...i kept salt water fish .corals ect...for 15 years..i put shells in it they last about 2 yrs tops lol..but in fresh water they should hold up alot longer

I don't have any fish in my display aquarium. :) It is strictly to display the fossils. I put sand in the bottom to give a somewhat realistic look. I printed out the names of the fossils on card stock parchment paper with a parchment scroll around the words. Behind I used a blue shiny aquarium paper. Then I printed pictures from the internet of likely candidates for what they may have looked like in real life. Rolled some tape and stuck those to the aquarium paper and got a 3D back!

I think that in a fresh water aquarium it would be fine with the fossils.

Also very cool with snakes, crabs, turtles or an terrarium set up. :)

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Before anyone else starts taking TV's apart, I think it should be noted that a person can get shocked badly by a TV if they don't know what they are doing. Apparently even if it's unplugged it can carry a charge.

(That's about all I know about electricity other than Nikola Tesla is one of my all time favorite scientists and he was a tad on the crazy side)

Ramo

For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
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Good point Ramo - yes, the cascade next to the flyback transformer can store a bit of a bite, the caps in the power supply theoretically can and so does the tube itself. I remove any residual voltage with an insulated screwdriver and either shorting components or connecting directly to the metal earth.

Yes, tesla was an incredibly intelligent guy - I have built a small tesla coil in my garage - I can get about 15cm long sparks off it.

As for fish tanks, many fresh water fish are sensitive to hard water - dissolving limestone, shells etc will increase the water hardness. I would only do it with african cyclids etc that are used to that type of water.

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Perhaps a crafty person who has a lot of small fossils (same size and kind) might want to fashion a "fossil tree" similar to these "rock trees" my son bought for me at two different rock shows.

post-7338-0-49700200-1367596564_thumb.jpg

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Perhaps a crafty person who has a lot of small fossils (same size and kind) might want to fashion a "fossil tree" similar to these "rock trees" my son bought for me at two different rock shows.

attachicon.gifRockTrees.jpg

That is BRILLIANT! Thanks for sharing! I can see doing a gastropod tree! :)

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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  • 6 months later...

post-9628-0-70227100-1383967879_thumb.jpg

So here is my aquarium fossil display (no water) at home as a "community tank". LOL Lots of different fossils for you who don't keep fish. There is lots of room underneath for "extra" fossils. I like to change it out on a regular basis with different fossils or my latest finds. A fluorescent light so it costs pennies to keep it lit and pretty. AND the fossils stay dust free - I hate to dust!

For the background on this aquarium, I used some of the art of Mike Menasco, a fossil hunter and artist in the Twin Cities of MN, theartisticindulgence.com

Start putting out the word to your friends that you are looking for an aquarium even if it doesn't hold water for your fossils. WOW, I got given six in six weeks! I now have PLENTY of aquariums! All for FREE!

So, here is one with fluorescent fossils:

post-9628-0-24828300-1383968268_thumb.jpg post-9628-0-06883200-1383968290_thumb.jpg

Lights on; lights off. A night light in the bedroom - yes, I even have fossils in the bedroom! :wacko:

Just change out the light in the aquarium hood (this one is 18 inch for a UV blacklight <$6 from Walmart) to a blacklight and put in your fluorescent fossils and minerals! I put cardboard boxes painted flat black (<$1 a can at Walmart) as risers. Pretty cool!

The other aquariums I am using as "dedicated tanks" for, eventually, bryozoan displays, cephalopods, etc.

And one I am actually using for my pond fish, Koi and big goldfish, over the winter. :-D

The more I learn, I realize the less I know.

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Hide the neon, Bev ! The light is dangerous for eyes !

Coco

----------------------
OUTIL POUR MESURER VOS FOSSILES : ici

Ma bibliothèque PDF 1 (Poissons et sélaciens récents & fossiles) : ici
Ma bibliothèque PDF 2 (Animaux vivants - sans poissons ni sélaciens) : ici
Mâchoires sélaciennes récentes : ici
Hétérodontiques et sélaciens : ici
Oeufs sélaciens récents : ici
Otolithes de poissons récents ! ici

Un Greg...

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I assume you're not leaving that UV light on long periods of time, and not staring at it for very long either, Bev?

I have a little handheld UV light so it's not something that is on for very long, though I wear glasses so I'm not too worried about the eyes, but I am careful to not stare directly into it, rather keeping the light on the subject rock and only looking at the light it gives off.

Interesting ideas though.... Your place must be like a candy store esp. for nerdy kids like I was! That receptaculite looks pretty nice.

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