Green River Fish Prep

[Ptychodus04]

I'm working on some Green River stuff for @abctriplets that they collected on their fossil extravaganza!

 

Thus fish is turning out to be a real gem. This is how the piece arrived in Texas.

 

EDIT: 1st two photos courtesy of Jared.

 

I applied copious amounts of Paleobond to both surfaces and clamped them together for several days, marking the location and direction of the fish so I don't forget. 

 

Then I went on the attack. The fish layer was about 3/4" below the surface so I used a small chisel and knocked about 1/2" off the top of the slab to reduce the depth. Then comes the CP9361for fast bulk matrix removal, being careful not to hit the fish. 

 

There is a very slight color change (darkening) to the matrix immediately before you expose the fish. Once I saw that, I switched to the Micro Jack knowing that the fish is anxiously waiting to fall apart just below the surface! 

 

These fish are extremely brittle so I'm stopping every 30 seconds or so to consolidate. Scribe, consolidate, repeat...

 

2 hours later and here's where it sits.

 

I believe this is a Mioplosus sp. and it looks like it will be complete. You can see the glue where the break ran across the skull and down the body.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Ptychodus04
Photo Credit

[Spinosaurus]

nice fish! nice photos too.

[sseth]

Great work.  It is a Mioplosus.  Looks to be a good one.

[Ptychodus04]

5 minutes ago, sseth said:

Great work.  It is a Mioplosus.  Looks to be a good one.

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the ID. It is coming out nicely but man is it tedious to stop after a few mm to consolidate. Under the microscope, it looks like you have a huge area cleared only to discover that a single drop of PVA is too big for the space.

[sseth]

22 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

Thanks for the confirmation on the ID. It is coming out nicely but man is it tedious to stop after a few mm to consolidate. Under the microscope, it looks like you have a huge area cleared only to discover that a single drop of PVA is too big for the space.

I understand that completely.  Microscope work is very slow and like you said, you feel so excited about how much you have gotten done and then you realize when you look up from the scope that you can't even see what you have done. 

[RJB]

S and G.    Stop and Glue.  Only way to save some fossils.  Yes, tedius, but sometimes you end up with a fantastic fossil. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

Here's the little fish after 2 more hours of stop and glue preparation.

 

[Ludwigia]

Now we're getting somewhere. Looks like it's going to turn out very nice.

[Ptychodus04]

Two more hours and I'm almost done. I think the split fish layer is a misnomer. The correct descriptor starts with "s" has an "i" and ends with "t" but seems to be far more accurate!

 

[JohnBrewer]

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Two more hours and I'm almost done. I think the split fish layer is a misnomer. The correct descriptor starts with "s" has an "i" and ends with "t" but seems to be far more accurate!

 

Haha. 

 

Great job job as always Kris

[Ptychodus04]

7 hours total and the little Mioplosus that could is finished. I'm beginning to loathe animals with fins! Only joking of course. This little guy rotted on the bottom for quite a while judging from the disarticulation of the skull and the gnarly state of the fins.

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2017 by Ptychodus04
Autocorrect!!!!!

[Ludwigia]

Great work, Kris! Never mind the slight disfigurement, it's a great piece!

[StevenJD]

that turned out nice!

[Ptychodus04]

28 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Great work, Kris! Never mind the slight disfigurement, it's a great piece!

 

I'm happy with how it turned out. I actually prefer a specimen that has some issues. It tells more of a story. Hopefully @abctriplets likes it when it arrives 

 

3 minutes ago, StevenJDennis said:

that turned out nice!

 

Thanks. I have one more green river piece and then it's on to your giant fish from South Texas!!

[StevenJD]

1 minute ago, Ptychodus04 said:

 

Thanks. I have one more green river piece and then it's on to your giant fish from South Texas!!

 

Awesome

[RJB]

Besides the problems, it came out better than I thought it would.  Good job Kris!

 

RB

[ynot]

It is nice to see a masters work!

Thanks for the show.

[Ptychodus04]

Thanks @RJB and @ynot. It didn't have a lot of faith in this one due to the nature of split fish specimens and their flakiness. This is the one time where scribing cyanoacrylate off a specimen was actually a good thing!

[Nimravis]

Great job, thanks for posting the whole process.

[Peat Burns]

Beautiful work.

[abctriplets]

20 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

7 hours total and the little Mioplosus that could is finished. I'm beginning to loathe animals with fins! Only joking of course. This little guy rotted on the bottom for quite a while judging from the disarticulation of the skull and the gnarly state of the fins.

 

 

 

 

Wow, that turned out great! I just shared this thread with the kids, and we got to experience the whole process!!

[Macrophyseter]

Lovely fish!

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, abctriplets said:

 

Wow, that turned out great! I just shared this thread with the kids, and we got to experience the whole process!!

 

Your son is quite the fisherman!

[JohnBrewer]

Superb work Kris!

[Fossil-Hound]

@Ptychodus04 very nice. I'll probably head there myself on Saturday. We are moving into our new home in the middle of September and I'll boot up my server and load up your website.