Auspex Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 I like La Brea matrix pieces, and I'm a sucker for mixed associations, so when I saw this bird bone and beetle combo for sale, I had to have it (makes a nice display). It had been sprayed with gloss Krylon, but the price was very reasonable, so I figured why not. Once I got my hands on it, the first thing that struck me was that the beetle was enormous! It is fully 1 1/8" long (some is hiding under a lip of matrix in the pic). As I started to key-out the the surface bone (the end of another [a tibiotarsus] is peeking-out, right of the beetle), my big bug-inspired grin ( ) became a dropped-jaw "woah!" ( ); the real star on this lump of tar turns out to be the proximal 2/3rds of a femur from a small falcon (quite probably the extant Merlin (Falco columbarious)! Among the La Brea avifauna, this is extremely rare! I guess I need to figure out how to kill the gloss on the plastic varnish... ; the piece is too good to leave as-is. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lordpiney Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 beautiful fossil chas! congrats! a little acetone on a rag will take the krylon off. just rub lightly! lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicholas Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 That's some specimen!!! I'm thinking maybe using varasol on a rag may take the shine away...not sure if it will damage the piece though... I wouldn't dare do anything to it because I may hurt it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 hmmm...are you sure it's krylon? because i'm thinkin' there a couple of different ways of dealing with it. i mean, if you know that it's krylon acrylic, and you feel like it isn't too thick a coat or cloudy or anything, then you could call the company and ask if spraying a teensy coat of matte or semi-gloss krylon over it would de-gloss it without bubbling or other weirdness. of course you could also experiment by masking over a tiny area on the back of the thing, assuming it's sprayed all over, and test fire the matte at it. a solvent like acetone or something might well de-gloss the surface also, but i'm not sure if it would haze it or anything undesirable. again, an experiment on the back with a small brush or something might be done. for me, it seems weird to put lacquer or acrylic over a bitumen-based matrix. doesn't seem like it would work well, but maybe it does. but i would imagine that trying to remove it all wouldn't work well at all. those poor birds. i don't guess they realized how much trouble they were causing by getting stuck in that junk back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roz Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Glad you got a good deal. That looks like a water bug. Also so very cool to add to the collection.. Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Smilodon Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Chas, I don't hand out "Cool Fossil" awards very often, in fact only one other time since I've been here and that was earlier this week. Consider yourself awarded. Now, you know who to send that photo to. I expect there's enough bone there to be certain. The other person is Ken Campbell at the LA County Museum of Natural History - he's their Bird/LaBrea guy Lastly, I'm sure you will go slowly on your prep of the chunk, but in your picture, it looks like there is another bone end east of the beetle and south of the obvious bird bone. I ask this because early on I acquired a number of chunks of matrix with one obvious bone on display. One day the bone on one fell off, and I wondered what else might be in the matrix. Almost each chunk produced another one or two fossils that were "hidden" deeper in the matrix. Just FYI. Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 Thanks Don! If I decide to go after that other bone, I'll do it from the underside. There could be more stuff in there too; the piece of matrix is 3" thick, and well consolidated. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Chas., do you think "the end of another [a tibiotarsus] is peeking-out, right of the beetle" is whole??? The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted November 7, 2009 Author Share Posted November 7, 2009 No way to tell without going in. A little varsol, some Q-Tips., a spade-ended dental pick, and some patience...and time; can't forget time... Sure would be cool if it was from the same bird, but small bones found together in this stuff are rarely from the same individual; everything has been pretty well stirred up. I'm now sure of the femur ID; those of a falcon are pretty distinctive. The known species from the pits are Peregrine, Prairie, Merlin, and Kestrel; it's too small for the first two, and too robust for K-bird. One wonders how a Merlin got himself caught in the tar trap; they aren't scavengers, and habitually take prey on the wing. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDD Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 Beautiful piece! Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoup Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 (edited) hmmm...are you sure it's krylon? because i'm thinkin' there a couple of different ways of dealing with it. i mean, if you know that it's krylon acrylic, and you feel like it isn't too thick a coat or cloudy or anything, then you could call the company and ask if spraying a teensy coat of matte or semi-gloss krylon over it would de-gloss it without bubbling or other weirdness. of course you could also experiment by masking over a tiny area on the back of the thing, assuming it's sprayed all over, and test fire the matte at it. a solvent like acetone or something might well de-gloss the surface also, but i'm not sure if it would haze it or anything undesirable. again, an experiment on the back with a small brush or something might be done. for me, it seems weird to put lacquer or acrylic over a bitumen-based matrix. doesn't seem like it would work well, but maybe it does. but i would imagine that trying to remove it all wouldn't work well at all. those poor birds. i don't guess they realized how much trouble they were causing by getting stuck in that junk back then. Hey Tracer. If its Krylon gloss I used it on my first bunch of Ambridge fern fossils,I did not like the results. The ferns blended into the back round of the matrix. I had the same thought as you try matte or semi-gloss this also did not work. I thought about acetone but did not try it. But I did find out that if you left your specimens outside in the sun for a while like all summer the krylon would fade mostly on the matrix and not on the fossil,I do not know why that is but thats what I have found. Maybe a heat lamp would do the same thing. Thanks to Shamalama I am not coating my finds with a spray can anymore. You do a great serves to this forum clear skies and good hunting to you. Paul Edited November 7, 2009 by zoup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted November 7, 2009 Share Posted November 7, 2009 But I did find out that if you left your specimens outside in the sun for a while like all summer the krylon would fade mostly on the matrix and not on the fossil,I do not know why that is but thats what I have found. what the?! call nasa! we need an immediately study on selective uv degradation of polymers based on substrate!! stat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 I like La Brea matrix pieces, and I'm a sucker for mixed associations, so when I saw this bird bone and beetle combo for sale, I had to have it (makes a nice display). It had been sprayed with gloss Krylon, but the price was very reasonable, so I figured why not. Once I got my hands on it, the first thing that struck me was that the beetle was enormous! It is fully 1 1/8" long (some is hiding under a lip of matrix in the pic). As I started to key-out the the surface bone (the end of another [a tibiotarsus] is peeking-out, right of the beetle), my big bug-inspired grin ( ) became a dropped-jaw "woah!" ( ); the real star on this lump of tar turns out to be the proximal 2/3rds of a femur from a small falcon (quite probably the extant Merlin (Falco columbarious)! Among the La Brea avifauna, this is extremely rare! I guess I need to figure out how to kill the gloss on the plastic varnish... ; the piece is too good to leave as-is. Auspex, Yeah, like other sites, you can break down a promising chunk the size of a microwave oven and find nothing else but the bone ends that were on the surface, but then open a piece the size of a large potato and get a beetle, a tooth, and a couple of bones. The last time I broke down some unprepped matrix, I found a partial dire wolf jaw section (one molar showing with the jaw in front of it pointing at a right angle into the tar) in one chunk and a horse jaw section with at least three teeth) in another after picking away at the surface. In a separate smaller piece I found a partial scapula of a large mammal with two types of large bird claw (one an eagle and another less, curved specimen about half the length) embedded. The rarest thing I ever found in tar was a partial lion maxilla with a couple of nice teeth (that was cool). Most of the time, you find just bone pieces. Yes, you would want to test an out-of-the-way spots first to see how to best clean off the surface preservative, but I would go with acetone to soften up the tar. I don't have to tell you to be careful cleaning the bird bone. The asphalt has permeated and therefore weakened the already-fragile bone. I would use a small paint brush with a tight cluster of bristles when you get close and spot-dap diluted Butvar as you go instead of waiting until after you clean the matrix away. Sometimes, the matrix falls away perfectly and other times it tries to take a bone end with it so remember that patience pays off. Remember that the piece probably did not come from the Rancho La Brea site. It's more likely to be from McKittrick or Maricopa in Kern County (a dealer might prefer to tell you it's from there). As I recall, the faunal lists are near-identical. It's just some taxa aren't found with the same frequency from locality to locality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fig rocks Posted November 8, 2009 Share Posted November 8, 2009 That's a nice piece of tar Auspex! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted November 8, 2009 Author Share Posted November 8, 2009 ...Remember that the piece probably did not come from the Rancho La Brea site. It's more likely to be from McKittrick or Maricopa... Yeah, I used "La Brea" generically, which was unintentionally misleading. I suspected, and the seller confirmed, McKittrick as the source. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 Auspex..... Beautiful aquisition.... well done .... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.L.P. Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Lucky you! Thanks for sharing! "All the dinosaurs are real, based on fossil evidence. Whether the rest is real depends on you. It belongs in the marble hall, not that of the museum, but of your imagination, the other side of the mirror, the world that is in the end more true."-James Gurney, Preface to Dinotopia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sseth Posted November 12, 2009 Share Posted November 12, 2009 Very cool! _____________________________________ Seth www.fossilshack.com www.americanfossil.com www.fishdig.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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