My First Conodont!

[Mediospirifer]

Back in early September, my husband and I went back to Penn-Dixie for another day of fossiling. I was particularly interested in collecting some North Evans limestone to search for microfossils, especially conodonts.

Well, I'm not entirely sure that what I collected was North Evans (it might be Genundewa), but I've been slowly dissolving small pieces in vinegar ever since. I've seen lots of tiny weird things, probably foraminifera, with some possible echinoid spines for good measure.

Tonight, I found what looks like a conodont to my admittedly inexperienced eye.

Here are my 2 best photos (camera held up to microscope eyepiece):

Is my identification correct? Does anyone have any further information on this particular piece? I'm excited!

[Missourian]

Is my identification correct? Does anyone have any further information on this particular piece? I'm excited!

It certainly is a conodont. Most likely, it is Ozarkodina. Very nice.

[Bullsnake]

Really cool!

Congratulations!!!

[Acryzona]

Congratulations! That's a beautiful conodont. It brought back good memories for me - I still remember the morning I found my first conodont some thirty years ago. Happy Thanksgiving!

[Fossildude19]

Excellent find!

Congratulations on your first conodont!

Regards,

EDIT:

I took the liberty of cropping your pics a bit to show off your conodont a bit better.

Edited November 27, 2013 by Fossildude19

[MarcoSr]

Really nice. Some can be very fragile. Be careful handling and storing it. I recently damaged a few.

Marco Sr.

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, everyone! Sometime I'll get some good photos of the other bits I've found in this matrix. I'm still new to micros!

I'm planning on mounting this piece on a slide for safekeeping. At the moment, my handling technique is to dampen a toothpick, touch the edge of the piece I want to pick up (water adhesion seems to pick up most of the micros I've encountered nicely), then touch the toothpick to a drop of water on the surface I want to put the specimen on. Does anyone have a suggestion for a better method? Also, when I prepare my slide, should I let the water evaporate before putting the coverslip on, or cover it wet? I'm assuming superglue will work for securing the coverslip after it's dry.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[PA Fossil Finder]

Awesome conodont! That certainly is a nice specimen. But as the other members said, be careful! I have gently tried to pick one up only to find it is now dust

[Mediospirifer]

Awesome conodont! That certainly is a nice specimen. But as the other members said, be careful! I have gently tried to pick one up only to find it is now dust

Sorry to hear that! That must have been seriously disappointing. I will certainly try to be careful with mine! Some of the other things I'm finding are more delicate than this appears to be--I broke an echinoid spine last night (note to self: touch the toothpick to the end of the specimen, not the middle!!), and some of the (I assume) foraminifera are even more fragile.

I've been looking up information on making permanent slides, since I've never done that before, only short-term-use biological slides. I see that I'll need a mounting medium other than water, and I've found mention of clear-coat nail polish as a possibility. I'll experiment tonight with some of the other micros (things I find lots of) before trying to mount the conodont.

[Arkonamike]

Mediospirifer,

I only know a few different microfossils from the Devonian. So I am not able to help with any ID. I noticed you were using tweezers to pick up your microfossils? I was shown by Ruth Chilman many years ago to safely pick up ostracods using a artists camel hair brush (thin) dipped in water and run thru the thumb and pointing finger to rid of excess water and then it was very easy to pick up the ostracod etc.(using the pointed edge of the brush) from under the microscope. The only tip I have, would be to keep the container your going to put the specimen in close by. They of course make water soluble adhesives to keep those little specimens in place. I don't know if you knew this or if better methods are now used, just thought I'd share this info. Arkonamike.

[Mediospirifer]

Mediospirifer,

I only know a few different microfossils from the Devonian. So I am not able to help with any ID. I noticed you were using tweezers to pick up your microfossils? I was shown by Ruth Chilman many years ago to safely pick up ostracods using a artists camel hair brush (thin) dipped in water and run thru the thumb and pointing finger to rid of excess water and then it was very easy to pick up the ostracod etc.(using the pointed edge of the brush) from under the microscope. The only tip I have, would be to keep the container your going to put the specimen in close by. They of course make water soluble adhesives to keep those little specimens in place. I don't know if you knew this or if better methods are now used, just thought I'd share this info. Arkonamike.

No, I'm not using tweezers--the tweezer ends are bigger than most of the micros I'm finding! And my tweezers are fairly pointy.

Thanks for the description of the damp brush technique; that sounds like it works on the same principle as my damp toothpick technique, with the advantage of being a more flexible tool. I'll have to dig through my art supplies and see if I have a brush in the right size. You may have saved some foramins and spines from breakage!

Thanks for the tip!

[Mediospirifer]

I found a fairly detailed description of mounting permanent slides using nail polish as a mounting medium, and tried it out with some echinoid spines on one slide and some fragile mystery pieces on a second. Both worked reasonably well, so I tried the same method with the conodont. In retrospect, I should have used a bit more nail polish on the second and third slides--they have odd edge-of-medium lines under the cover slip.

Here's the set:

Echinoid spines:

And the mystery fossils (anyone recognize these?):

Back with more photos!

[Mediospirifer]

More photos of tonight's results:

My conodont slide:

Next time, I'll use more mounting medium. And yes, there will be a next time--when I went back to sorting residue, I found 5 more conodonts!

Here are some of them:

One more post for the remining pictures!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's the last two conodonts:

At least, I think these are all conodonts. I'm not sure about the second new one in the previous post. I find it interesting that after finding the first one, the others seemed more obvious. I've always been good at pattern recognition, so I guess i just needed to teach myself what to look for, color-wise.

If anyone can tell me anything about them, I'd appreciate it! If anyone can ID my mystery pieces, that would be good, too.

Here's a couple more photos of random shapes that I see. There's a lot more where these came from!

Anyone recognize any of these specimens?

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Doctor Mud]

Congratulations on finding your first conodont!

Mediospirifer provides an excellent description of how to make permanent mounts. The nail polish technique works well when you have a mounting medium that remains fluid. As Mediospirifer pointed out, you have to be careful when ringing with nailpolish since your slide can leak.

It can be worth spending a little more on a permanent mounting medium that will harden. I tried for years to find something that is easy to use, and not too poisonous (I started out using lactophenol PVA which is not too good for you!) I use Euparal now for mounting insect parts and it works well. I get this online from an entomological supply company here in Australia (Ento Supplies), but there may be sources elsewhere. You just need to make sure that your specimen is dry before you apply the mountant. Then you allow to air dry for a while. I finish off the slide in a drying oven at 60 degrees C for a couple of days.

Happy picking!!

[PA Fossil Finder]

This site may help with identification: Devonian Microfossils of NY. I used that site when I got some North Evans Limestone residue.

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks, Dr. Mud! I may look into the Euparal, although right now my budget is tight. What I'd really like to have for the conodonts is some well-slides!

I'm contemplating trying to prepare the next slide by painting a layer of nail polish, placing the fossils, then letting it dry a little (10-15 minutes) before putting a coverslip on. Hopefully, that will prevent some of the fluid flowing out!

This site may help with identification: Devonian Microfossils of NY. I used that site when I got some North Evans Limestone residue.

I'll look at the site--it does look interesting!

It was actually your North Evans Limestone post that inspired me to go back to Penn-Dixie to try collecting some of my own!

Edited November 28, 2013 by Mediospirifer

[Herb]

Nice conodont.

You can use a 50% water and white glue to mount the specimens on. Spread the glue on the paper and let it dry. You can use a fine camel hair artists brush (use a razor blade/knife) to cut all but 3-4 hairs off. Moisten the brush (I use spit) and the fossil will stick to the brush and you can easily transfer it to the paper.For more easy ideas see my posts for collecting microfossils on a budget pt 1&2. If you have questions you can PM me. The glue will last 10's of years and you can remove the fossil by just moistening it.

[Mediospirifer]

Nice conodont.

You can use a 50% water and white glue to mount the specimens on. Spread the glue on the paper and let it dry. You can use a fine camel hair artists brush (use a razor blade/knife) to cut all but 3-4 hairs off. Moisten the brush (I use spit) and the fossil will stick to the brush and you can easily transfer it to the paper.For more easy ideas see my posts for collecting microfossils on a budget pt 1&2. If you have questions you can PM me. The glue will last 10's of years and you can remove the fossil by just moistening it.

Thanks, Herb!

I was thinking about alternative storage methods for the conodonts. Gluing them to paper (I'll use cardstock) sounds good! Ultimately, I think I want to micromount the best ones in gemjars, but paper sounds good for now.

I'll have to get a finer brush to cut down. The smallest brush I have is a 1/4" round-tip, and I don't want to cut it down that much. It does work for moving larger pieces around (conodonts and other bits that are naked-eye visible), but the tiny ones get lost in the bristles!

[Herb]

Any cheap brush you can use to cut down from a discount store. You can buy actual micro slides from the web. About $1-2 each. Or you can make your own using plastic coin holders and custom print mounting papers to fit the holders using Excel or Open Office. Making your own mounts to custom fit specimens that are too large to fit on a microfossil slide. Ie...the tiny Eocene specimens from Whisky Bridge,TX.

[Bullsnake]

Herb's techniques are excellent, and hard to improve upon, but, if I can add another technique I read on a website (haven't been able to find it again), rather than buying the well slides, just glue the little circles used to reinforce the paper-punch holes for 3-ring binders to a plain slide to create a 'well' for 3D specimens.

I suppose you can stack them to the depth you need, and still glue on a cover slip.

Edited November 30, 2013 by Bullsnake

[Mediospirifer]

Thanks for the suggestions, Herb & Bullsnake!

I think at this point I'll make some custom inserts for coin holders, similar to the ones on Herb's budget pages. I bought another brush today, I'll try mounting some on card tomorrow. The truly microscopic pieces foramins and spines) I'll continue to make slides of.

I'll also post a few more pictures tomorrow--I found a few more, including one that looks like a micro shark tooth. Cool stuff!

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a few more pictures. I'm finding lots of interesting stuff in my matrix residue!

Here's a couple that I think are shark teeth (apologies for the blurriness in the left image):

And a pair of conodonts:

The two conodonts are particularly interesting to me--they came from a tiny chip of matrix that I put back in the vinegar after noticing conodont pieces visible. When I took it out of the vinegar, I had one (relatively) large, oddly-shaped mass that split into these two when i tried to turn it over with a damp brush! They're presently lying in the position they first split into; I'll take lots of photos when I move them.

Before they split, the right-hand element was at 90^o to its present position, as if standing on the pointiest "tooth", with the left arm overlapping the left-hand element, in contact with the lump of matrix. I'm thinking this is likely the position they had relative to each other when the critter was alive--350-odd million years ago!!!

I'll post more detailed (hopefully clearer) pictures later.

[Mediospirifer]

I've been sorting further through my resdiue, mostly looking for toothlike objects. I haven't yet tried to ID anything, but I've been taking lots of pictures! My operational steps have been: 1) Move newly-spotted piece to an uncluttered background (ceramic plate). Photograph multiple times (8-12 pictures). Turn over and photograph other side. If object is a complex three-dimensional shape, turn it to a couple more angles and photograph. Finally, mount on the specimen card (I copied Herb's 2x3 card with numbered boxes for 60 objects--thanks for the suggestion, Herb!).

I haven't yet found a case for the card, so it's presently residing in the microscope slide storage box. So far, I have 41 objects mounted on my card labeled "Conodonts & Other Teeth"! Most of these are fragmentary conodonts, a few look like whole conodonts, two are (probably) shark teeth, a third may also be a shark tooth, and one is a (relatively) large spine. A few are things that I have no idea what they are, but they're weird-looking and cool!

Here's one of the latest:

When I first saw that under the microscope, my first thought was to wonder if a modern insect had dropped a chelicera in my residue! Then I saw this feature, still in matrix, and thought otherwise:

This piece went back into the vinegar for a few more hours to try to extract it. I haven't photographed it again yet (I need to get more batteries for my camera! ), but I will before I etch it again. So far, the vinegar doesn't seem to be damaging the specimen, so I do plan to continue the dissolving--carefully!

Anyone know what either of these might be?

[Bullsnake]

Maybe scolecodonts.