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A Meg And A Tapir Tooth


Shellseeker

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I have been fortunate to make finds this week that lead me to questions. These 2 are my best finds from today and Sunday respectively.

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I had previously found a couple of lightening strike Makos, black teeth with white streaks. Here is a nice lightening strike Meg - I think.. You can see the brownish streaks cross from the blade into the root.

Here is the question: Do we know or have speculation on how exactly a lightening strike fossil shark tooth is created?

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I love the cream colored fossil teeth. I frequently find tapir "caps", enamel with no roots. It is a rare (for me) to find a tapir tooth with roots. I found one with complete roots 2 years ago, put it in a safe place, but after 6 months found that the roots were crumbing. Without quick action, I would be left with just another tapir cap.

So this time I took the tapir tooth and immersed it for 1 hour, up to the edge of the enamel in a solution of 60% white Elmers glue and water. It seems straight forward for a single case of preservation. Does this seem like a reasonable preservation technique for this case?

Thanks for any and all responses. SS

NOTE: you can click twice on either photo to get a larger picture.

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Very nice finds Jack! :)

Every once in a great while it's not just a big rock down there!

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I read somewhere the lightning appearance comes from poor preservation, although this is not true in all cases. I have seen a few teeth with excellent preservation and the lightning strikes. One site that I hunted, all of the teeth were preserved with lightning strikes.

As for the tapir, I have used diluted white glue many times. It is usually not a good long term answer to the problem, butvar or duco would be a permanent solution.

Nice finds!

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The best rule of thumb is: Never re-wet with water a dry vertebrate fossil. This is particularly applicable to vertebrate teeth.

Read about consolidation here:

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/user/42-harry-pristis/

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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The best rule of thumb is: Never re-wet with water a dry vertebrate fossil. This is particularly applicable to vertebrate teeth.

Read about consolidation here:

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/user/42-harry-pristis/

Harry,

I have bookmarked this excellent guidance.

Not sure that it makes a difference, but I had heard something about keeping a fossil wet -- The tapir tooth was returned home in water and moved from water to the Elmer's solution. -- The root was/is not "crumbly".

The guidance states that white glue once applied can not be removed. I am unsure whether I should try to add butvar over the Elmer's

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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Acetone will dissolve white glue into an unpleasant, but adherent slime. Experiment with your tapir tooth, some acetone, and an old toothbrush. Let us know the outcome.

http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page

 

What seest thou else

In the dark backward and abysm of time?

---Shakespeare, The Tempest

 

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