Paraffin floatation

[DE&i]

Has anyone had success using "paraffin floatation" techniques, while sieving sediments for insect fossils.

 

As I'm considering bulk sample collecting of such material in the new year

[GeschWhat]

I've never heard of this...please tell.

[JohnBrewer]

 

[caldigger]

Floating micros on wax? Huh?!

Please explain this technique, curious minds want to know.

[Pagurus]

This sounds intriguing. I'm looking forward to learning more.

I found a few interesting articles online, including this one (Procedings of the Geologists Association, 2010) which states:

"... residues can be enriched cheaply and effectively using Interfacial Methods, which exploit differential wetting phenomena. Placed in a suspension of kerosene in water, microvertebrate fossils become wetted preferentially with the kerosene, which then allows them to adhere to granules of paraffin wax; these are removed and melted to release the fossils..."  Unfortunately this is just an abstract with a pay-wall link to the full report. 

 

This research report tests the efficiency of paraffin flotation on concentrating insect remains in archaeological sediments. Not fossils, but interesting. This is the complete report, including methodology.

 

[Al Dente]

Years ago I read an article on conodont separation using paraffin and kerosene. I tried it on a sample that had micro shark teeth and scales but it completely failed. I have since read where it doesn’t have high recovery rate for conodonts either.

 

A variation of this method uses kerosene and hydrogen peroxide. I haven’t tried it. The paper is “A new interfacial method for Conodont separation” Belka et al.