Auction Prep Part Deux

[Ptychodus04]

Rocky pre update...

 

I’m 20 hours in and the prep is coming along nicely. A good portion of the last 4 hours was spent cleaning the pile of bones that is the skull. There’s a good bit of 3D aspect to the skull so I have to be careful not to shear off any bones while prepping the sides of them.

 

Now that I’m progressing, I’m stopping to stabilize the bones in order to keep them from fracturing. They are very hard and well preserved, but you can never be too careful.

 

Most if the work is done on the posterior part of the body so it got some PVA as well.

 

[Fossildude19]

Lookin good, Kris!

[RJB]

Im starting to like you Kris.  Doing a really good job man!!!  I havent been to my fossil property yet, but will soon and will pick out some nice stuff for you my friend.   and not that I need any more unprepped fish, but already have planned with the kids to go on a camping trip to go get a bunch more this coming June!!!  The fun never stops!!! 

 

RB 

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, RJB said:

Im starting to like you Kris.  Doing a really good job man!!!  I havent been to my fossil property yet, but will soon and will pick out some nice stuff for you my friend.   and not that I need any more unprepped fish, but already have planned with the kids to go on a camping trip to go get a bunch more this coming June!!!  The fun never stops!!! 

 

RB 

 

I’m a pretty likeable fellow... according to some. 

 

i spent another hour on Rocky this evening. I now want to revise my missing ribs theory. The ribs appear to have broken off and been crushed when the sediment weight pushed hard enough. There are too many ribs jammed together to be only from one side. What looked like possible guts appears to be a pile of mushed up scales. The coprolite is there but may be from another fish. There are other coprolites laying on this guy.

 

As for more unprepared fish... can you ever have enough? That’s a preparator’s heaven.  Even if I had a shed full like you do, I would still go get more if the chance arises.

[Ptychodus04]

I squeezed a pair of hours out of the last couple of insanely busy days. Here’s how Rocky looks after a total of 22 hours.

 

 

I’m beginning to get a real feel for how the burial and decomposition of this guy went...

 

It was a calm Eocene day. After a luncheon of smaller fish, Rocky appears to have retired for a VERY long nap. For quite a while, the expanding digestion and decomposition gasses kept the body inflated against the weight of increasing sediment. This lasted long enough for several vertebrae to become disarticulated and relocate inside the body. Once the sediment weight increased to the point the gasses couldn’t hold up, they violently escaped from the body, jumbling up the jaws and crushing the ribs.

 

What evidence leads me to this narrative? First, the mouth is blown apart and reorganized. Second, the disarticulated vertebrae have ribs crushed on top of them. Third, the body cavity area is a pile of jumbled scales stacked up in areas while other areas have bone directly covered by sediment with no scales. Fourth, there appears to be sections of disarticulated pectoral fin deposited in the body near their original position.

 

Rocky must have been pretty putrid by the time he finally “popped”. 

[Ptychodus04]

3 more hours in this afternoon and I’m taking a break from this guy for a bit to rest the hand and neck. I’m up to 25 hours. Disregard the darker color in the top of the fish. That is fresh PVA and the acetone hadn’t fully evaporated when I took the picture. There’s still a good bit of work to do on the skull and around the spine.

 

[snolly50]

It's looking great. Of course I expect some credit for the training I provided you on prepping fish with head trauma.

 

The Notogoneus says "hey" and "keep up the good work." 

[caldigger]

Of course Kris has to add some personal touches to the prep.

 

 

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, snolly50 said:

It's looking great. Of course I expect some credit for the training I provided you on prepping fish with head trauma.

 

The Notogoneus says "hey" and "keep up the good work." 

The poor Noto was missing most of her head! But, she was a lot of fun to hang out with. Rocky is much more work!

 

 

1 hour ago, caldigger said:

Of course Kris has to add some personal touches to the prep.

 

 

 

That’s awesome! That kilt is really close to my wife’s MacGregor clan tartan! I hope @RJB doesn’t mind the addition.

[RJB]

That snolly is a funny guy.   Fish lookin good Kris even with the problems.  This will go to one of my kids.

 

RB

[Ludwigia]

Lookin REALLY good, Kris!

[Ptychodus04]

3 hours ago, RJB said:

That snolly is a funny guy.   Fish lookin good Kris even with the problems.  This will go to one of my kids.

 

RB

 

Don't forget that you adopted me earlier this summer. 

 

It has a relatively ugly face but overall it’s pretty nice. 

 

1 hour ago, Ludwigia said:

Lookin REALLY good, Kris!

 

Thanks. This has turned out to be quite the project.

[Ptychodus04]

I’m up to 28 hours on Rocky now. All bulk matrix removal is finished and I’m about to wrap up work with the Aro and switch to the Micro Jack for detail work on the skull and vertebrae. I’m going to have to leave a bit of matrix on some of the vertebrae in order to support the little stubs of ribs that are still attached (and in their original 3D orientation).

 

 

[snolly50]

4 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

8 hours ago, RJB said:

That snolly is a funny guy.   

 

RB

It has a relatively ugly face but overall it’s pretty nice. 

 

Hey wait! Y'all ain't still talkin' about snolly I hope!

[Ptychodus04]

53 minutes ago, snolly50 said:

 

Hey wait! Y'all ain't still talkin' about snolly I hope!

 

Feel free to interpret how ever you see fit.

[Haravex]

Might be a stupid question but what's the difference between an aro and a micro jack? I thought they where the same you see.

[Ptychodus04]

47 minutes ago, Haravex said:

Might be a stupid question but what's the difference between an aro and a micro jack? I thought they where the same you see.

 

They are similar but the Aro is about 20x more powerful (and equally less controllable) than the Micro Jack 4.

[RJB]

The ARO is more powerful than all the Micro Jacks from Paleo tools.  I think there are 5 microjacks numbering from 2 to 6?  Then if you upgrade from an ARO to the ME9100 you then have a much more powerful still, and if your like me, you will also have a SuperJack that puts the ME9100 to shame. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

44 minutes ago, RJB said:

The ARO is more powerful than all the Micro Jacks from Paleo tools.  I think there are 5 microjacks numbering from 2 to 6?  Then if you upgrade from an ARO to the ME9100 you then have a much more powerful still, and if your like me, you will also have a SuperJack that puts the ME9100 to shame. 

 

RB

 

There are 6 Micro Jacks in total (1-6).

 

The ME9100 is comparable to the CP9361.

 

I’m completely jealous of your Super Jack! Oh the rock those things can move! 

 

I’m planning to upgrade my front end and stylus on my 9361 to the ME9100 style. The Paleo Tools stylus is by far superior to the stock Chicago Pneumatics stylus.

[snolly50]

23 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Feel free to interpret how ever you see fit.

My Mom told me I was a handsome lad. So I'll just ignore your crack about my "relatively ugly face!"

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, snolly50 said:

My Mom told me I was a handsome lad. So I'll just ignore your crack about my "relatively ugly face!"

 

Probably a good idea. I’m not sure you could handle what @RJB dishes out. He’s threatened several times to put a hit on me and he likes me. 

[RJB]

Oh you guys.  Im just a little cute innocent puppy dog. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

Oh you guys.  Im just a little cute innocent puppy dog. 

 

RB

 

I have a feeling you’re neither cute nor innocent. 

[ynot]

2 hours ago, Ptychodus04 said:

3 hours ago, RJB said:

Oh you guys.  Im just a little cute innocent puppy dog. 

 

RB

 

I have a feeling you’re neither cute nor innocent. 

 

 

 

I found this picture of @RJB.

How can You pick on such a cutie pie?

[Ptychodus04]

25 minutes ago, ynot said:

 

 

 

I found this picture of @RJB.

How can You pick on such a cutie pie?

 

That was his baby picture. This is one that was taken recently...