A beautiful Fossil Mountain, Utah Slab

[LabRatKing]

This is a specimen from the strata near the top of Fossil Mountain/ Ibex in Millard County, Utah, USA. ( Ordovician- Lehman Formation)

This is as-found 17JUL19 , no prep was done as I thought the weathering was beautiful just the way it is!

Lots of interesting stuff in there, bits of various trilos, bivalves, ostrocoda,and lots of those coiled and partially coiled critters I have yet to identify.

[Tidgy's Dad]

I agree, looks great. 

The snails look like Maclurites, or at least family Macluritidae, to me. 

[FossilDAWG]

Nice!  I agree, "prepping" would most likely wreck the aesthetic appeal of this slab.

 

Don

[Malcolmt]

I do not think prepping would enhance it at all, in fact it may detract from its current appeal.

[minnbuckeye]

Lovely hash plate!!

[FossilDAWG]

I have a beautiful but small Ordovician starfish that was on a small chip of limestone that had a yellowish-orange surface (almost the same color as in the low spots on the hash plate).  The blue-grey starfish plates contrasted very nicely with the rock, so the starfish really stood out.  I made the mistake of "prepping" the starfish by scrubbing the surrounding matrix with a toothbrush and a baking soda paste.  Although this did expose a tiny bit more of the starfish, it removed all of the weathered yellow-orange surface of the matrix and destroyed the beautiful contrast.  Now I have a well preserved blue-grey starfish on a blue-grey matrix.  Still a good specimen, but the aesthetic appeal is much reduced.

 

I think the same thing would happen with the plate in the OP.

 

Don

[LabRatKing]

Yeah, I have a few other smaller slabs from the same member, one including the "famous" jet black ostracods, and a few like this one. I used one to experiment with, I tried .02M HCL, 4M Acetic acid, and some PVA both brush and mist, the sealer did deepen the colors as expected, but then it just wasn't "right" any more. The acids stipped it all down to a uniform gray.

 

The good news is, while it looks soft, this stuff is DENSE and durable. In fact I had real trouble in the scree at that altitude as it is like walking on unglazed tiles. I tried some experimental fractures with the scree, and had no problem blunting tools!

[GemCityHippie]

I'm in agreement with the others here. That's such a beautiful slab with the natural weathering as it already is. Doesn't really need anything done to it aside from maybe making a display stand for it.

[Top Trilo]

That's a wonderful fossil plate, how big is it?

[LabRatKing]

6 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

That's a wonderful fossil plate, how big is it?

About 10x12cm and 1.5cm thick.