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Pyrite Hell, and a suprise!


LiamL

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I found a block packed full of bone afew week back, but also full of pyrite. I thought it was just full of fish bone, which is quite common and i often leave it but luckily shoved it in my bag.

Yesterday I picked it up and decided to have a dig around in it and was pleasantly surprised to find some ichthyosaur verts! So i suspect it's a mix of fish and Marine reptile, or just all ichthyosaur (Hopefully)

 

Does anybody have any tips for prepping bone in pyrite. I'm probably just going to have a dig around and see what i can uncover, smooth it down with the dremel and add some coating to the bone to bring it out.  It's Good practice for me but it's wearing my pen tip down haha.

 

Hopefully there will be more verts to find! There's certainly more space to uncover more.

5c0d1517d29eb_Photo09-12-2018121224pm-min.thumb.jpg.8f63bb8e8ae3aa9d4acbc8f52628f104.jpg

 

Vert cross section on the bottom

5c0d151c2b8e3_Photo09-12-2018121451pm-min.thumb.jpg.de489ee9c66a116f1a92b3c28c4c915c.jpg

 

Ribs? on the bottom

5c0d165cc99a0_Photo09-12-201811610pm-min.thumb.jpg.958cedfa18af1340d87855a26e7e6d58.jpg

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Yorkshire Coast Fossil Hunter

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Another nice find! 

Always good when you go through old stuff and find a pleasant surprise. :)

 

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Very nice specimen :) Let's hope that there's more ichty material in there!

-Christian

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Opalised fossils are the best: a wonderful mix between paleontology and mineralogy!

 

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A. At Khaan Academy!...

 

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5 minutes ago, The Amateur Paleontologist said:

Very nice specimen :) Let's hope that there's more ichty material in there!

-Christian

Thanks, it's quite tough work!

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Yorkshire Coast Fossil Hunter

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4 minutes ago, LiamL said:

Thanks, it's quite tough work!

I'd imagine! Lucky old me with my clay!

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On The Hunt For The Trophy Otodus!

 

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There's not much you can do with some pyrite.  Many times the bone is unrecognizable below it or completely gone.  In most cases, it may be best to prep and clean everything you can, then dry things very well and consolidate as best you can.  Take plenty of photos and measurements...just in case the pyrite degrades everything over time. 

 

Grinding or otherwise attempting to remove the pyrite sometimes can cause other failures in the bone.

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It is beautiful either way. Nice find!

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

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Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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41 minutes ago, JohnBrewer said:

Pyrite is ridiculously difficult to get through. But you do have a Ken pen. Might be better prepped a little and get your buddy to polish the rest. 

I'm curious to see what else is under, just hope i dont beat it up too bad.

Depending how it looks when i'm finished i might just send it off in my next batch to Stone Treasures in afew months.

Yorkshire Coast Fossil Hunter

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@LiamL, pyrite is a nightmare. The best you can hope for is that it hasn’t grown into the bone too badly. It is murder on your scribe stylus for sure but that’s basically the only way to get it off if you can.

 

I agree with the sentiments above. Prep what you can and consolidate. I’ve used to following process with great results to stabilize even decaying pyrite.

 

mix approximately 1cup Iron Out crystals with 1 gallon water. Soak specimen overnight. Scrub off specimen with liquid soap and a firm brush. Rinse well with water. Dry with paper towels. Bake in oven on lowest setting for a few hours to fully dry. Allow to fully cool. Then consolidate with very thin Paraloid (or Vinac or Butvar).

 

I have treated pyrite thusly and stored it in closed boxes with no decay.

 

 

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  Hey @LiamL,  I do not in any way mean to sound like im beating you up, but it looks like you are hitting bone with your scribe.   If I may, let me give you a tip.  When it comes to 'sticky', and im sure with that pyrite its probably as sticky as it can be,  I will go down as far as i dare and then use the side of the tip/stylus to 'wear' down until I get to color.  it will still get beat up a bit but in an orderly way.  Trying to clean up a sticky fossil with the tip of the scribe can really and truly make for a bad prep job.  Just to show you what I mean, here is a crab I did a while back that was about 90% sticky and a real nightmare to prep but you can see all the ruff areas and how they all look like they got beat up the same way.   If I had tried to prep this crab solely with the tip of my scribe there would be much much more damage to this crab.  I do wish the best  of luck. 

 

RB

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

 When it comes to 'sticky', and im sure with that pyrite its probably as sticky as it can be,  

Things just don’t get much stickier than pyrite. It will actually grow into the bones. You wind up polishing it down to where the bone is and calling it quits if it’s too bad.

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