Greenland Fish Nodules

[DevonianDigger]

Just got in some nodules from Greenland courtesy of our good friend @holdinghistory. Never dealt with these before. Do I freeze/thaw these? What would be the best course of action for opening these little fishies up?

[Misha]

I have no idea about your question but this is the first time I have heard of these, do you know what age they are from?

They sound very interesting

[DevonianDigger]

Honestly, I know nothing about them other than that they are from Greenland and contain Capelin. Lower Pleistocene maybe? @Fossildude19 I think Tim has some of these, he might know more information. 

 

[digit]

I'm just guessing here--but somehow I'm thinking these might get prepped more like you'd uncover a Green River Formation fish or a trilobite than popping open a Mazon Creek concretion. I could be (and I likely am) totally off on this but that's the feel I got when I first saw these concretions.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Fossildude19]

@DevonianDigger

 

Jay, 

I've heard that the best bet is to lightly tap with a hammer along the edge, if one is visible. 

You have enough there to probably try freeze/thaw with a few. 

Good luck.  

[piranha]

additional info from:

 

Bennike, O. 1997

Quaternary vertebrates from Greenland: a review.

Quaternary Science Reviews, 16(8):899-909

 

[Phevo]

The fish i have from there is a pos/negative and the other specimens i have seen are aswell (or one half broke and was left behind). 

 

In regard to prepping light tapping with a hammer coulden't hurt i suppose. 

 

That's what people i know have done, but people in Denmark are alittle hammer trigger happy and I don't know what their succes rate was

[Mark Kmiecik]

If the grain is very fine and the matrix is soft and powdery freeze/thaw may turn it into mush. I've had this happen with some small, soft, fine-textured Mazon Creek specimens. If the matrix is not porous freeze/thaw will do nothing. I suppose the best way to find out would be to test it on a "less-promising" sacrificial nodule or two.

[FossilDAWG]

3 hours ago, piranha said:

additional info from:

 

Bennike, O. 1997

Quaternary vertebrates from Greenland: a review.

Quaternary Science Reviews, 16(8):899-909

 

Thank you very much for that info.  So it seems the Greenland fish are younger than the ones that can be found in the Leda Clay in the Ottawa area, but the fauna is very similar.  Here is a link to a post I made back in 2010 about the Champlain Sea fish.  I only ever used a hammer to split the nodules, but they usually had a clear "fish" shape and the plane where the fish were was usually obvious.  Those Greenland nodules seem to have a much more irregular shape, so I wouldn't really know where to apply the hammer.

 

Don

[Fossil-Hound]

@DevonianDigger put them in the microwave for 5 minutes. Lol Ok so lightly tap around the edges like @Fossildude19 suggested. @RJB might have a better method.

[DevonianDigger]

Thanks everyone for the info. They're pretty small and I'm a little nervous about trying to hammer them. I will if I have to, but I decided to give one a freeze as an experiment. Here's hoping it doesn't turn to a total mess. I will report my findings!

[RJB]

On 7/8/2019 at 9:27 PM, Fossil-Hound said:

might have a better method.

 Ive never had any experience with these.  I have seen some of these before and one was a really nice fish.  I do wish DevonianDigger the very best of luck though.

 

RB

[Mark Kmiecik]

On 7/9/2019 at 6:08 AM, DevonianDigger said:

Thanks everyone for the info. They're pretty small and I'm a little nervous about trying to hammer them. I will if I have to, but I decided to give one a freeze as an experiment. Here's hoping it doesn't turn to a total mess. I will report my findings!

I'm probably telling you something you already know, but just in case . . . . the water has to soak in all the way to the plane in which the fossil lies. If the fossil is more three-dimensional than planar your results may be much less than good with the freeze/thaw method. The separation will occur in the plane that MOST of the fossil lies. That plane may be other than the one you want exposed and may require additional prep.