How to best preserve an orthocone, collingswood

[dalmayshun]

I have several pieces similar to this from a drift hill near Newberry, UP, Michigan. I have been told it is Collingswood?, and found very nice pseudogygites impressions there, none whole however, just adding that for the location. At any rate, I have been trying to figure out what these orthocones are. I have several layered from various rocks which are quite small...little cone shaped impressions from 1/2 " to these. all of them are flattened, with that distinctive crush mark down the middle, where the oval part collapsed. My reason for this post, other than still being curious as to what these creatures were, is how do I preserve them...most often I have both top and bottom impressions, filled with the flattened material of the creature between them...much like a flattened trilobite. But as they dry, the animal part is beginning to flake off...is there something I can do to preserve them, other than slathering them with some kind of glue...I have used butvar b76 on some of the bones I've collected, but these seem too fragile for that kind of application. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. (1 is the rock with layers cracked, 3 is the image from the third layer, 2 is the image from the second layer, each of these layers have orthocone images in them, ranging from about 6" down to 1.)

[piranha]

22 minutes ago, dalmayshun said:

I have several pieces similar to this from a drift hill near Newberry, UP, Michigan. I have been told it is Collingswood?, and found very nice pseudogygites impressions there, none whole however, just adding that for the location...

 

 

"Pseudogygites latimarginatus has been recorded from drift near Newberry, northern Michigan (Ruedemann and Ehlers, 1924).  The genus was recorded from the Groos Quarry Member at the Bichler Quarry, north of Escanaba (Hussey, 1952)...    ...In northern Michigan near Newberry P. latimarginatus occurs associated with C. pygmaeus Zone graptolites on loose pieces of shale (Ruedemann and Ehlers, 1924).  These may have been derived from the nearby outcrops of the " Haymeadow Creek" Member (= lower Bill's Creek Formation, Liberty, 1968) which also contains graptolites referable to the C. pygmaeus Zone (Berry, 1970)."

 

text from:

 

Ludvigsen, R. 1979
The Ordovician trilobite Pseudogygites Kobayashi in eastern and Arctic North America.
Royal Ontario Museum, Life Sciences Contributions, 120:1-41   LINK

[dalmayshun]

What a great link, thanks so much piranha...