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Britton Formation Fish


Ptychodus04

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This fish was collected by two people with two weeks between them. A friend of mine was collecting in a creek in the lower Britton Formation (Cenomanian) this fall. While excavating another fossil, he exposed the middle portion of this fish with a 30 pound digging bar! (Out flies the fish!!).

After two weeks of rain, the water level had receded enough for me to get out to the site to collect the head and tail. Unfortunately, the rock was badly fractured and after two weeks of creek flowing over the exposed area, none of the pieced fit snugly any longer. Also, the erosion had exposed some of the fish on the upward facing side (opposite of the piece in hand that was originally chipped off). So I had part of the anterior and part of the posterior exposed on the wrong side of the fish.

I fit the pieces as well as possible and glued them back together with Paleobond. This required a bit of imagination as the exposed pieces no longer fit. I also glued myself to the matrix a couple times. Then, I filled in the back side (including creek exposed parts) of the specimen with Apoxie Sculpt. I now had a stable block to start working on.

post-4550-0-74050500-1455544633_thumb.jpg

Forgive the junk pics...

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After five hours with my Aro, I have the ventral side of the skull exposed as well at pectoral fins and caudal fin. This fish is dorsoventrally compressed at a slightly oblique angle.

post-4550-0-60047700-1455545046_thumb.jpg

This appears to be an Apsopelix sp. based on skull shape, pectoral fins, and the dorsoventral preservation which is common for the genus.

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I cannot help with the species, but I eagerly await the completion of your work. :)

The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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:popcorn::popcorn::popcorn:

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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  • 2 months later...

It has taken me a while to get this guy done. All in, it took about 9 hours With CP9361, Aro, and micro abrasive. It is rather distorted and was quite interesting to scribe on!!

Definitely Apsopelix sp.

post-4550-0-00556000-1461885220_thumb.jpg

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Very cool!

Well done.

Regards,

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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I missed out on this when you first posted it, but I must say, you've done a great job with that jigsaw puzzle!

Thanks, it was a nightmare! There's nothing like reassembling eroded pieces of shale and hoping you got everything lined up right!!!

I like the SVP Scale :D

It sure helps everyone understand the size of the piece. I struggle with coins as a scale because I am unfamiliar with coin sizes that are not US currency.

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Looks like that was a tuff job to be sure. Just glad it was you and not me. You definetly have more patience than I. Great job.

RB

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Looks like that was a tuff job to be sure. Just glad it was you and not me. You definetly have more patience than I. Great job.

RB

Thanks. It was a head-scratcher for sure. I almost relegated it to the back of the bench to be lost for all time. But, mostly whole fish are worth the trouble even if they aren't in very good shape!!

I'm not sure I posses any more patience than you. I can't do hours of scribing on a concretion trying to anticipate where the crab starts. I'm like Mr. Owl in the old Tootsie Pop commercials... One, Two, Three, CRUNCH!!

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