Ptychodus04’s Fossil Fish Prepapalooza

[Ptychodus04]

I just wrapped up the prep on a Diplomystus and Cockerelites plate. One of the Cockerelites is missing a lot where the plate separated, so I didn’t spend much time at all on it. The other one is great, minus some flaking issues on the fins. The Diplomystus is “meh”. It has a jacked up mouth, some fin and scale issues. The caudal and dorsal fins are awesome though. All in, this took me 31.25 hours and a ton of patience.

 

 

 

[Randyw]

Another great piece! Looks great! Really like the close ups.

[Ptychodus04]

8 hours ago, Randyw said:

Another great piece! Looks great! Really like the close ups.

Gracias

[fossilhunter21]

You did an amazing job on that! It turned out really nice! Looking foward to seeing more of your amazing work.

[RJB]

  Ya know Kris, with all the problems, I didn't spend the 31.25 hours on it and I was not the one who was close up and personal, I would say this slab of rock looks purty dang nice.  Its funny how its a different perspective for me looking at this from a different vantage point.    Im doing the same thing with a crab right now.

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

52 minutes ago, fossilhunter21 said:

You did an amazing job on that! It turned out really nice! Looking foward to seeing more of your amazing work.

Thanks.

 

33 minutes ago, RJB said:

  Ya know Kris, with all the problems, I didn't spend the 31.25 hours on it and I was not the one who was close up and personal, I would say this slab of rock looks purty dang nice.  Its funny how its a different perspective for me looking at this from a different vantage point.    Im doing the same thing with a crab right now.

 

RB

It is ok. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to prepping though, so I get really disappointed with specimens that don't live up to my expectations. 

[Ptychodus04]

I’m working on a large Phareodus with excellent preservation and a really messed up face!

[Randyw]

The face may be messed up but i love the way it shows off the teeth!

[RJB]

Apparently there were boxing matches back in the day and this guy lost. 

 

RB

[Ptychodus04]

5 hours ago, Randyw said:

The face may be messed up but i love the way it shows off the teeth!

Yah, this guy has some amazing chompers.

[Ptychodus04]

Just now, RJB said:

Apparently there were boxing matches back in the day and this guy lost. 

 

RB

I nicknamed the one I worked on for you so many years ago “Rocky” because it’s face looked like it went 15 rounds with Apollo Creed. I guess this is “Apollo”.

 

The only good thing is that this is Sandwich Bed material, so the matrix pops a bit cleaner than the 18” matrix. So far, my experience prepping large fish from the Sandwich Beds has been that they are much more well preserved than the small fish. No flaking issues like the little guys.

[fossilhunter21]

Looking good! I actually like the way that face was presverved. Can you imagine if you could show off your chompers like that? 

[Nanotyrannus35]

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

Sandwich Bed material,

Seems like a pretty big and good quality fish, especially for the sandwich beds!

[Ptychodus04]

57 minutes ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Looking good! I actually like the way that face was presverved. Can you imagine if you could show off your chompers like that? 

It definitely shows how a bit of time at the bottom of a lake can give you quite a makeover. 

 

45 minutes ago, Nanotyrannus35 said:

Seems like a pretty big and good quality fish, especially for the sandwich beds!

Yep. The big fish are typically good but they are few and far between. The cool stuff in the Sandwich Beds are typically stingrays, birds, etc. There’s a muck higher likelihood of finding something weird in that stuff.

[Ptychodus04]

Check out these scales!

[Ptychodus04]

19 hours in, most of which has been working on the skull. The dorsal fin has some disarticulation but is otherwise well preserved so far. This fish is DEEP in the rock!

 

[fossilhunter21]

Looking good!  That fish is very deep in the rock! It is definitely a very interesting fish.

 

-Micah

[Ptychodus04]

30 minutes ago, fossilhunter21 said:

Looking good!  That fish is very deep in the rock! It is definitely a very interesting fish.

 

-Micah

Yep, there’s a ton of matrix removal just to get close to it. Thankfully, I’m able to get right down to the micro layer above the fish with the scribes. This makes for great results when switching over to abrasives.

[Top Trilo]

It does look deep, I can see the cliffs around the fin. 

Were you still able to see the signs of a fossil underneath like raised bumps where the verts were even though it was so deep? You had to have to prep it but it looks like the fish would have been covered in several mms of rock.

Its looking like its going to be a really fantastic fish when done. I cant wait to see the results.

[Ptychodus04]

23 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:

It does look deep, I can see the cliffs around the fin. 

Were you still able to see the signs of a fossil underneath like raised bumps where the verts were even though it was so deep? You had to have to prep it but it looks like the fish would have been covered in several mms of rock.

Its looking like its going to be a really fantastic fish when done. I cant wait to see the results.

 

There were a few of the typical tells like a slight ridge corresponding to the vertebrae and the large ray of the pectoral fin. Some of the skull bones are 3 dimensional and protrude nearly to the surface of the slab as well. There's about 15mm of matrix covering most of the fossil. I spent 13 hours working on the skull alone due to the differing elevations of bones. Once I realized what was going on with it, I really had to go slow to keep from hitting bones with the scribe. The fins slow you down considerably as well, plus it's all microscope work. It's too easy to get lulled into a feeling that you know exactly where bones are going to be on a deep prep. Once you go there, you always wind up with discovery lines on the bones. 

 

When I was prepping at the museum, we always told new preppers that you can prep fast or you can prep well. You can't do both. 

[Ludwigia]

Those teeth are very impressive!

[Ptychodus04]

5 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Those teeth are very impressive!

 

Would certainly hurt to be bitten by these!

[Ptychodus04]

22 hours in.

[fossilhunter21]

That fish is turning out really nice! 

 

-Micah

[Ptychodus04]

30 hour update.