Ramo Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 In the Blue Hill Shale Member of the Carlile Shale formation, you can sometimes find concretions that have very colorfully preserved ammonites. The concretions are usually about the size of a golf ball to baseball. They are smacked with a hammer to see if there is something inside, as many are empty. The concretions are extremely hard, but there is usually a weak spot between the ammonite and the super hard limestone. I recently picked up a CP air scribe, so I thought I'd try it out on a "mud ball" that had a little of a Scaphites carlilensis exposed. The outside of the concretion that is light gray is fairly soft. The dark gray interior is too hard to do much with. I found that if I worked on a part for a while with the scribe, a crack finally developed somewhere on the concretion. After working on the one in the lower part of the first photo, I found that it had another ammonite right next to it. This one was a Prionotropis hyatti. After a lot of work removing matrix, finding a couple tiny "extra ammonites" in the same ball, and gluing parts back together I finally arrived at the finished product. The camera does not do the color justice. The purpleish, pinkish, reddish, rainbows just don't show up well, but as you probably gathered from this long post, I'm kind of happy with the results!! Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KansasFossilHunter Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 My gosh, what a drooler! Beautiful prep, Ramo. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evgeny Kotelevsky Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Wow! They are aragonite or not? http://evgenykotelevsky.wordpress.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Wow! I would have never guessed that was from Kansas. Excellent prepwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Wow! I would have never guessed that was from Kansas. Excellent prepwork. Yeah, the ammonites themselves look like Fox Hills stuff; not so the matrix, though. What else does the Blue Hill Shale give up? "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 Thanks for the comments. (Not really excellent prep work, more like lucky prepwork) The Blue Hill doesn't give up much, a shark tooth here and there. A bunch of the micro shark and fish teeth in Marco Sr's post from last week is also Blue Hill Shale. Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 well done, sir. cool preservation like that is hard to find in tx, but it looks similar to what some lucky friends have found in the arcadia park formation in the dfw area. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 ...The Blue Hill doesn't give up much, a shark tooth here and there. A bunch of the micro shark and fish teeth in Marco Sr's post from last week is also Blue Hill Shale. Ramo Marco Sr.'s topic is also top-drawer; I was wondering about the range of shelly inverts from there, and whether your ammos are typical of their preservation. "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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossiladdict Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Very nice! I find the rainbow colors hard to get too- you have to be in the right light at the right camera settings to get even close to capturing the colors. Fossils are simply one of the coolest things on earth--discovering them is just marvelous! Makes you all giddy inside! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted March 8, 2013 Author Share Posted March 8, 2013 I don't have a lot of these for comparison, but I think the rainbow colors are fairly typical for this location. Finding them and getting them whole out of the concretions is the hard part. Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sward Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Very nice! I find the rainbow colors hard to get too- you have to be in the right light at the right camera settings to get even close to capturing the colors.A polarizing filter on your lens can help bring out the rainbow affect. Beautiful find. Nice prep, too. I'd rather be lucky at prepping than good any day of the week. Congrats! SWardSoutheast Missouri (formerly Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX) USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fossiladdict Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 A polarizing filter on your lens can help bring out the rainbow affect. Thanks for that info- I pulled out a polarized filter and tried it. It captured the colors- seemed to capture them in different areas than what my lens with no filter did. Fossils are simply one of the coolest things on earth--discovering them is just marvelous! Makes you all giddy inside! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullsnake Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Really nice, Ramo! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crinoid1 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Wow! Those are beautiful Ramo! Nice prep job on them too. Looks like they came out great. -Gabe I like crinoids...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missingdigits Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Awesome Ramo! Coolest mudball I have ever seen. I have a couple of dozen scaphites carlilensis in mudballs but have never seen more than one in a mudball, let alone two different kinds of ammonites in one. Fantastic addition to your collection. Hope to see it in person sometime. I usually pass up mud balls but you have me rethinking it now. I did find a cool partially pyritized one a while back. You might have seen it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 (edited) If you want to try my airscribe on any of your finds, bring them out next time you are in the area. We can try and see what's inside. I think this mudball was one I picked up hunting with you. Ramo Love that pyrite. Here's one I busted up like yours. Edited April 6, 2013 by Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblackston Posted June 29, 2022 Share Posted June 29, 2022 Old topic but Ramo those are beautiful!!! I'd love to find a few of these and grab some matrix to look for Micros! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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