I can hardly believe it is mid-June already, which means I'm at the halfway mark between the end of the winter semester and the beginning of the fall semester. In my post-Bowmanville week, I've dabbled with some prep, and even some illustrations -- although the latter have been all misfires as I'm having challenges drawing a Walliserops. Firing up the compressor in the lab, I've managed to eat through a few boxes of baking soda. My first engagement was to finish up that placoderm (see the post on that here). Next up was to get back to the trilobite preps. First up was that lovely prone Flexicalymene croneisi I found at Bowmanville. Here is a before and after. Both eyes and the distinctly granulated preglabellar lip are intact and pristine. Only light scribing in some spots around it, and some dolomite as well. On the bug itself, it was pure baking soda, with occasional baking soda - dolomite mix on tougher spots (5::1 ratio). Specimen measures 3.3 cm tip to tip, and prone examples are considered rare while enrolled ones are relatively abundant. This species only appears in the Hillier Member of the Lindsay/Cobourg Formation. Currently, it sits atop a softball sized block of very hard encrinal stone that cannot be scored and cut using the ME-9100, and so I've purchased an angle grinder for that task so it can sit safely in the display case. Another before and after, this time of a Flexicalymene senaria traded to me by a good friend. This one had a few issues with post-mortem compaction damage and a very hard brach and bryozoan attachment on the lower right pygidium that could not be removed for fear of tearing off the shell, so I left that largely in place. The crinoid stem runs underneath this one, giving it the appearance of some kind of fuel line. Despite its problems, it's cabinet worthy to me.
There are still more preps to come, but also at least two fossil trips in the coming week. Once the angle grinder arrives, I'll be playing with that to cut down a few bulky items -- it will be far less tedious than having to do that with the scribe! Next up, an illustration of a friend's Isotelus gigas that we all know as "Kermit." Comments are closed.
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Kane Faucher
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February 2024
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