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My Scardy Cat Crab !!!


RJB

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  It was 2 or 3 years ago right here on The Fossil Forum when  guy posted a picture of this crab concretion and I got sooooooo excited that I had to message him and ask him if we could make a deal. yWell, we did make a deal, and its been sittin in my garage since then.  Ive looked at it many, many, many  times and was always scared to get started on it.  Well,, today, I brought it out again and took a really good look at it.  and yes, i was scared all over again!   I could not read ventral or dorsal for the life of me just like all the other times ive looked at this thing !  Being a very big concretion I knew that I would have to 'dig' a hole and hope I hit dorsal and that would take a lot of time removing lots of rock just to find out!  I made a drink and then made some phone calls and talked to some folks just to stay away from the actual beggining of getting this dang thing started.  Then it was time.  I did the best I could do at guessing what side was 'dorsal'?   Did this about 20 times in the last 2 or 3 years and always put it back in the box.  Ive always known with the Washington crabs that the flatterside is dorsal, but with these Tumido crab concs from New Zealand, the flat side can sometimes be the ventral side. I learned that the hard way, so now you see how I can be so scared.  Maybe im just a chicken?  :)    Here is almost 4 hours of prep work removing rock.  and I hit carapace!!!  WooooooHoooooo!!!   and its not calcited!!!  thats a triple diple WoooooooooHooooooo!!!!  Life is just gooder than pecan pie!!! 

  oh, hard to tell by the ruler from the camera angle, but this rock is over 10 inches wide!!!   yeah, a big concretion.

 

RB

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

oh, hard to tell by the ruler from the camera angle, but this rock is over 10 inches wide!!!   yeah, a big concretion.

I just realized that in the pictures there is an average sized Washington crab in the background.  Now you can see just how big this rock is!!! 

 

RB

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:crab::dinothumb::popcorn:

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

WoooooooooHooooooo!!!!  Life is just gooder than pecan pie!!! 

Ooo, Me likes the Pecan pie!:drool:

 

 

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This one should be a dandy! Can't wait to see it!

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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Nice @RJB, you’re the crab whisperer!

 

if I had known you needed an excuse to avoid the crab, I would have invited you to come down and help me replace my fence. Got it all down and new posts in today. The real fun was that it got up to 101 degrees this afternoon!

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In the above pictures ive placed the rock the way I think the crab itself is situated.  I got the dorsal part right but the front/back end part wrong.  I was cruzin along just taking away rock when BAM!!!  Hit the right pincer!  DANG!  So now, looking at this rock im wondering if there is a left pincer?  Not much room left for it.  Its probably there but most most likely taking a real nose dive under the face.  Time will tell but im a bit nervous now.   7 and 1/2 more hours into this thing.  Most of that time is rock removal.  its rather boring but it has to be done. 

 

RB

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On 6/27/2018 at 4:31 PM, RJB said:

and I hit carapace!!!  WooooooHoooooo!!!   and its not calcited!!!  thats a triple diple WoooooooooHooooooo!!!!  Life is just gooder than pecan pie!!! 

Well, I tried to look up "calcited"  but only found this... Calcited might not have been terrible...CalciteCrab.JPG.59d28e0be2c60cc5bebe81ba9030b591.JPG

 

The White Queen  ".... in her youth she could believe "six impossible things before breakfast"

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More excitement is on its way again. Yippee.  Will there be a left claw on that BIG boy?  Even if the claw dives down it could easily be exposed.  Could you see that ends of the legs on the sides of the concretion?  Crab prep beats post hole digging any day and most assuredly when the temp is 101.

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Hey RB, love seeing the progress you are making....

Your dilemma reminded me of a block of echys in my garage that has been sitting their waiting for me to stop procrastinating about and go try to finish prepping it...if it doesnt work out, it is what it is....Its a rather common find so I wont be up something better left for science. I'll end up learning something that I can apply on the next attempt. 

 

Continued success.  Good luck! 

Regards, Chris 

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Thank you everyone.  And crabfossilsteve has asked If I can see any leg ends on the edges of the rock.  Yes, there are 3 on one side, 2 on the other.  Gunna be real interesting to see where the other 3 are?  Time will tell

 

RB

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Hey Ron

 

Wanted to ask if you where able to tell the dorsal of the crab when you looked at the cross sections of those legs.  Often the rounded side of the legs is the dorsal while the flat is the ventral.

 

 

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7 hours ago, crabfossilsteve said:

Wanted to ask if you where able to tell the dorsal of the crab when you looked at the cross sections of those legs.  Often the rounded side of the legs is the dorsal while the flat is the ventral.

legs on the ends were purty dang round!  No way I could tell, even though I know exactly what your talking about.  2 or 3 years ago when I first looked at this, I was hoping for just that sinario (spelling),  and that was not there.  One of the reasons this was a 'Scardy cat crab'. 

 

RB

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Hey Ron

 

What a pain, sometimes..eh.  Say would you mind taking some pics of the leg cross sections, curious to see them to see if I could learn anything from them?

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On 7/2/2018 at 8:15 AM, crabfossilsteve said:

Say would you mind taking some pics of the leg cross sections, curious to see them to see if I could learn anything from them?

Here ya go Steve.  Now you can be as confused as  me.  :)

 

RB

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Two more prep sessions with a total of about 7 more hours into this thing.  Just lots and lots of rock to remove!!!  I can see now that the back legs are taking a real nosedive!!!  That means a lot more rock to remove and more time!!!   I know there are 5 legs on this thing cause of the circles on the edges of the concretion but now wondering about the other 3?  and im still nervous about the left claw?!!!  This crab is turning into a nightmare!!!  My fingers are crossed. 

 

RB

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Thanks for the pics Ron.  Yeah, a bit confusing for sure....ha ha.  Hope there is a left claw there, bud.

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