Douglas Pass & Florissant Quarry Fossils - Cleaning & Preparation

[Kelleyack]

I am relatively new to fossil hunting and most of my collection is from the coast of South Carolina. I do have some gorgeous fossils that we found last summer from the Douglas Pass area and the Florissant Quarry in Colorado. I finally had time to get them out of storage, organize and label them but am not sure if there is anything I should do as far as cleaning or preparing them so they don't deteriorate? These are a few of my favorites - the spider, flower and grasshopper(?) were magnified. Also, if anyone has specific thoughts on identifying any of them, I would love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance for any help!

[PRK]

GREAT SPIDER!!

[Kelleyack]

Thank you...beginners luck.

[Xiphactinus]

Beautiful! You don't need to do a thing to them. They'll be fine.

[Bullsnake]

Those are spectacular!

[snolly50]

Hello, lots of great fossils around Beaufort! I am curious how the pictured pieces were found. The flower for example, did you find it exposed, split it out? Thanks for posting.

[piranha]

The flower looks like Astronium. Congrats on the fantastic finds!

[Kelleyack]

Thank you - and glad to hear there isn't anything I need to do to them. I thought I had remembered reading about putting a coating on them but I was hesitant to do much to them. I grew up out west but had not collected any shale fossils since I was a kid. am planning my trips out west again for next summer - need to get last years organized before I cart home a new batch.

[Kelleyack]

Hello, lots of great fossils around Beaufort! I am curious how the pictured pieces were found. The flower for example, did you find it exposed, split it out? Thanks for posting.

Thank you! Yes, Beaufort has a lot of good fossil areas but so different than these. We have lots of teeth in our house- I am guessing you do as well. These were all split open from shale either with a razor blade, putty knife or a hammer. My 8 year old found the flower and unfortunately he cracked it in 1/2 but it is still beautiful.

[Kelleyack]

The flower looks like Astronium. Congrats on the fantastic finds!

Thank you! My son found it and was quite proud of it!

[Culbert5704]

Where was the shale? In a pit or on a beach? Etc?

[jpc]

yeah, don't put anything on them. These are pretty stable fossils. Putting stuff on them might actually obfuscate details. There... that's my big word for the day. Excellent fossil... I found my one and only Florrissant spider on my first trip. Also beginner's luck.

[Kelleyack]

Where was the shale? In a pit or on a beach? Etc?

The shale is on top of a mountain for the first site (Douglas Pass) The second site (Florissant) is at a commercial quarry where they pull the shale, pile it up and you choose from the piles. There is a great NPR story on the Florissant that you can listen to here: http://www.cpr.org/article/legacy-archive-1156 She describes the site and process really well.

[Kelleyack]

yeah, don't put anything on them. These are pretty stable fossils. Putting stuff on them might actually obfuscate details. There... that's my big word for the day. Excellent fossil... I found my one and only Florrissant spider on my first trip. Also beginner's luck.

Sorry JPC - didn't mean to repeat your post above twice. Do you recommend doing anything when the fossil is split - like the flower? I am guessing unless it is done professionally it is better to leave it alone. I am dying to get to Wyoming to check out the Green River sites there. It will have to wait until 2014!

[fossiladdict]

Those are spetacular fossil specimens. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[AgrilusHunter]

Hi Kelleyack,

Great fossils! Thanks for posting them!

The spider is particularly impressive. I think it's a male wolf spider, family Lycosidae. Many male spiders have enlarged pedipalps that are used in mating, your fossil shows this really well. The generally body shape fits with Lycosidae, but I haven't seen a lot of Florissant spiders so it could be another group as well.

Female on left, male on right.

Your two insect fossils were a little more tricky. The first specimen is not a bee or a wasp, though it does superficially resemble one. It is a laterally preserved field cricket, likely within the genus Gryllus. The feature below your specimen's abdomen is the hind femur, it's just slightly disarticulated. The femur I've compared it to is the modern species Gryllus assimilis (Jamaican Field cricket), this of course is not the correct species identification for your specimen, just a comparison at the genus level. Since your specimen lacks a visible ovipositor it is likely a male. Your other specimen is less well preserved but I think it too is a laterally preserved Orthoptera of some kind. Again great stuff, I'd love to see more if you have any. Hope this helps!

Edited for source links:

spiderimage

gryllus1

gryllus2

Edited February 18, 2013 by AgrilusHunter

[PRK]

That spider IS a gem! Actually, that is a fine size for a spider. Truly a piece of fossilized eye candy.

Edited February 18, 2013 by PRK

[Kelleyack]

That spider IS a gem! Actually, that is a fine size for a spider

Thank you. It was literally the first piece of shale I split open that day. Needless to say the rest of the day was not as spectacular but it was a really great place to go. I'd love to go back.

[AgrilusHunter]

Hi Kelley,

PRK is absolutely right, that is a good size for a spider fossil. What a beauty! That is easily in the size range for Lycosidae and male spiders are usually smaller that females, sometimes a good deal smaller.

I really like the part-counterpart image of the spider!

Edited February 18, 2013 by AgrilusHunter

[Kelleyack]

Hi Kelley,

PRK is absolutely right, that is a good size for a spider fossil. What a beauty! That is easily in the size range for Lycosidae and male spiders are usually smaller that females, sometimes a good deal smaller.

I really like the part-counterpart image of the spider!

THANK YOU! Love all the expert help here - I really appreciate it!

[AgrilusHunter]

Hi Kelley,

Glad to help!

I'm just happy to get to see your wonderful fossils.

Edited February 18, 2013 by AgrilusHunter

[Evgeny Kotelevsky]

I am relatively new to fossil hunting and most of my collection is from the coast of South Carolina. I do have some gorgeous fossils that we found last summer from the Douglas Pass area and the Florissant Quarry in Colorado. I finally had time to get them out of storage, organize and label them but am not sure if there is anything I should do as far as cleaning or preparing them so they don't deteriorate? These are a few of my favorites - the spider, flower and grasshopper(?) were magnified. Also, if anyone has specific thoughts on identifying any of them, I would love to hear what you think. Thanks in advance for any help!

Wasp or bee.JPGspider.jpgflower.JPGinsect.jpgleaf.jpg

Fantastic!!!!

Edited February 18, 2013 by Evgeny Kotelevsky

[Kelleyack]

Hi Kelleyack,

Great fossils! Thanks for posting them!

The spider is particularly impressive. I think it's a male wolf spider, family Lycosidae. Many male spiders have enlarged pedipalps that are used in mating, your fossil shows this really well. The generally body shape fits with Lycosidae, but I haven't seen a lot of Florissant spiders so it could be another group as well.

FemaleMaleLycosidae.jpg

Female on left, male on right.

Your two insect fossils were a little more tricky. The first specimen is not a bee or a wasp, though it does superficially resemble one. It is a laterally preserved field cricket, likely within the genus Gryllus. The feature below your specimen's abdomen is the hind femur, it's just slightly disarticulated. The femur I've compared it to is the modern species Gryllus assimilis (Jamaican Field cricket), this of course is not the correct species identification for your specimen, just a comparison at the genus level. Since your specimen lacks a visible ovipositor it is likely a male. Your other specimen is less well preserved but I think it too is a laterally preserved Orthoptera of some kind. Again great stuff, I'd love to see more if you have any. Hope this helps!

GryllusFossil.jpg

Edited for source links:

spiderimage

gryllus1

gryllus2

This is that second orthoptera that is not as well preserved. The first picture was under the microscope. Here you can see the length of the antennae better. I actually just found this one the other day. I was further splitting a piece of shale I had brought home this summer. I wish I had more to split! I will have to wait until this summer.

[AgrilusHunter]

Hi Kelley,

Hmmm ... well that is definitely not an Orthoptera. I misinterpreted one of the antennae as a leg in your first image. If both those structures are antennae, and they are both this long then it's more likely to be a Coleoptera than an Orthoptera. It is hard to tell from your image as it is a bit blurry but I'll hazard an identification of Cerambycidae. Cerambycids, or long-horned beetles, have very elongate antennae. The bulbous front femur is also characteristic of this group. Your specimen looks to be missing its abdomen, hence the truncated appearance and the lighter coloration of the elytra halfway through.

I worked in a lab that specialized on long-horned beetles for a number of years at Purdue. They are not very common as fossils so you got really lucky to pull that and the spider on the same day!

Edited February 18, 2013 by AgrilusHunter

[AgrilusHunter]

I'll go with Coleoptera, family Cerambycidae, subfamily Lamiinae. It is hard to tell scale from your image. Maybe one centimeter? An accurate size can really help with an identification. Your specimen looks superficially similar to the modern genus Eupogonius but it may be too large.

Edited February 18, 2013 by AgrilusHunter