Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza

[Ptychodus04]

I just finished up this nice Notogoneus prep. This is a beast measuring 23” long! It will need a bit of restoration due to the cut from the layers above but otherwise is quite a specimen.

[Fossilis Willis]

Nice noto Kris.

[Ptychodus04]

9 minutes ago, Fossilis Willis said:

Nice noto Kris.

Every so often, I wish the fossils I prep are mine to keep. This would be one of those times. 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Ptychodus04

[daves64]

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Greaaaaatt...... I looked at this & got a hankering for smoked salmon.. 

[Ludwigia]

Nice one! Pity about that cut.

[Pagurus]

That's a gorgeous specimen, and beautifully prepared of course. It would make a good model for someone to paint. Hmm.

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Nice one! Pity about that cut.

That’s an easy restoration. Thankfully, they missed the edge of the anal fin! That would be much harder to restore. Even better, I don’t have to do the restoration. 

[fossilhunter21]

Very nice job on the prep! 

[Randyw]

Great job!

[RJB]

Wow!  Fattest Noto I've ever seen.   That preservation looks wierd.  Looks like you painted parts of it with liquid chocolate.  Also going to be interesting to see how you put the two parts together. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

6 hours ago, RJB said:

Wow!  Fattest Noto I've ever seen.   That preservation looks wierd.  Looks like you painted parts of it with liquid chocolate.  Also going to be interesting to see how you put the two parts together. 

 

RB

It is definitely a fat one. Some of the girth is due to scale shift on the bottom. If the belly scales had been preserved better, the whole thing would have looked like chocolate. 
 

The cut isn’t all the way through the slab, so it just needs filling and paint.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Ptychodus04

[Sjfriend]

Great work as always! GRF fish are not my area of collection BUT you make that hard to stick too. Love going back through this thread and seeing all your work

[Ptychodus04]

8 hours ago, Sjfriend said:

Great work as always! GRF fish are not my area of collection BUT you make that hard to stick too. Love going back through this thread and seeing all your work

Thanks!

[Ptychodus04]

Check out the chompers on the Diplomystus I’m currently prepping. These are the largest I’ve ever seen on one of these fish.

 

 

[Ludwigia]

Oh grandmother! What great teeth you have!!

[daves64]

Just don't get bit by it... be kinda hard to explain to the Dr or anyone else. 

[fossilhunter21]

Wow! Those are some awesome teeth!

[Ptychodus04]

Well, it didn’t wind up being as good of a fish as one would hope for. Scales were poorly preserved and flaky where they were there at all. The darker bits around the fish are where I wet the matrix to remove errant pencil marks. Someone in the quarry got a bit excited with the pencil.

 

 

I started a nice Mioplosus this week that looks promising. It’s deep in the rock so there’s going to be multiple hours of scribe work to get down to it. What I have uncovered is extremely well preserved though.

[Nanotyrannus35]

What layer is that from? I haven't seen preservation of that color from the 18-inch layer.

[Ptychodus04]

1 hour ago, Nanotyrannus35 said:

What layer is that from? I haven't seen preservation of that color from the 18-inch layer.

 

This is from the 18"

 

Fish in this particular quarry sometimes have a red tint to them rather than your typical black from the 18.

[Randyw]

Awww too bad about the scales but it makes a great anatomical speciman! And you did a great job as always! Whoever you prepped it for should be really pleased!

[RJB]

Still a good specimen but a question just came to mind.  Ya know how that rise behind the head can be quite noticable?  But not in this specimen of yours.  You think that this is a female?  I should get out my fish book.  Too lazy. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, RJB said:

Still a good specimen but a question just came to mind.  Ya know how that rise behind the head can be quite noticable?  But not in this specimen of yours.  You think that this is a female?  I should get out my fish book.  Too lazy. 

 

RB

I wonder. It is definitely flatter than many. It could also be that it is immature. It’s not very big (comparatively speaking).

[Ptychodus04]

The Mioplosus I’m working on is the opposite side of the spectrum on preservation.

 

Time-lapse Video

[Top Trilo]

11 minutes ago, Ptychodus04 said:

The Mioplosus I’m working on is the opposite side of the spectrum on preservation.

 

Time-lapse Video

WOW! Looking forward to see this one complete.