Dr Mud, 6ix and the big D - crab hunt

[6ix]

Well, I had another opportunity to hit the beach with the infamous Dr Mud... unfortunately not many photos this time, but we had had a tonne of fun...

the Big D had a great day, 

 

I'll get some photos of his best finds up later.. but we sat down for a break.. you see that rock just behind him?

 

Yep, it was a crab.  A really sandy, flaky one but still another crab.

 

 

@Doctor Mud - That big half I bought back to polish - it was a top not a bottom.  As I cut it away it to flatten it - it all disappeared... 

 

We still came back with some goodies, and the big D got into prepping first thing this morning...

 

 

He found a really nice black crab that he wanted to get into first, but I talked him into doing a pebble instead..

 

[Doctor Mud]

Great to catch up and spend some time on the beach. Life has been a bit stressful lately and time on this beach with friends is just what I needed!

 

i think Big D found the best crabs of the day. I found a weathered one one with the biggest claw I’ve found. Not as big as 6ixes “big boy”.

 

always nice to find something new on a trip and on the way out I spotted this orange rock with a cross section of a vertebra

 

Flipped it over and there are some associated fish bones. I don’t have a lot of experience with fish anatomy and thought they might be skull elements.

 

Any ideas guys?

 

 

It’s a bit weathered but more might be exposed with  prep. An x-ray or CT scan could help with this one before prep. That rock is hard and the bone flakey.

 

[RJB]

  Always fun to go to the beach, but for you guys it must be super duper fun.    A hike on the beach and to bring back crab fossils too!   This should be a  movie! 

 

RB

[ynot]

Nice!

Glad You could get out and hunt.

[Fossil-Hound]

That’s awesome.

[Doctor Mud]

One from our trip @6ix

 

I’ve been mostly house bound looking after my father while my mother is away on a well earned break. I miss prepping. 6ix has offered his prep facilities but my dad needs someone in the house pretty much all the time. So when he slept during the day, I used the only tools available: chisel and dremel engraver to work on this project. Didn’t want to work on an A grade since the dremel is less than ideal.

 

check out the size of the claw!!

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

The large claw will be about 14 cm long (5.5 inches) when fully exposed.

 

Carapace is about 14 cm across too.

 

might be worth doing a little reconstruction on the small claw

[Doctor Mud]

My other great find of the day. @6ix I didn’t realize how good this crab was until I got it home and cleaned it up. I knew it was a big one, but look at that big claw! Going to be a beauty. Claws were already exposed but the shell is virtually intact on both claws. 

 

Concretion is 25 cm across. 

 

[Doctor Mud]

I’m in a new house - with a workshop!! I finished soundproofing it in the weekend and now I can prep anytime of the day or night 

To get into the swing of things after a long break I thought I would finish off the orange weather big claw crab above. Check it out!!!! 

 

 

Im doing something that is unusual for me and I’m going to do a claw reconstruction and reposition with the small claw. You can see I just scribed through what was only and external mold of the pincers to expose the big claw in all its glory. 

[Doctor Mud]

Next came the delicate claw surgery.

removing the small claw at the shoulder. I scribed right into the joint and scribed a trench in the rock around everything. I wondered how I was going to finish it off when it conveniently popped off.

 

[Doctor Mud]

Here is “Stumpy’s” worn small claw ready for final prep and restoration.

 

The tips of the pincers are still on top of the large claw and I’ll leave them till last when I finish exposing the large claw.

 

[Doctor Mud]

Here’s where Stumpy is at now. I decided to make the ventral the display side.

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

The rock is soft and orange which is different for this site. The scribe goes through it like a hot knife through butter but you have to be careful! In some places the shell is soft, or cracked or had a thin layer of calcite. Most of the time flakes off nicely so you just have to go slow and stabilize often 

 

[fossisle]

Wow great to see your trip pictures and prep!!

[Ruger9a]

Very nice work!