Gallery
These photos are from my Instagram feed and get updated every week.
Yesterday, I braved the rain to go have a quick look for some fossils and found a large concretion that had just fallen out the cliff. It has some bone sticking out, which looks like the beak of a bony toothed bird (pelagornithid)!!
I was blown away by this 85% complete Triceratops in the Melbourne museum, the bones are HUGE! Imagine how long that took to prep π I had great fun at CAVEPS 2023, so many great talks by very passionate paleontologists
My fossil shark poster arrived today! Thanks @cofcnaturalhistory π
Here are some frames I took from a video of the scan of some cetacean teeth I found in a concretion. It was scanned by a beam of neutrons at ANSTO as traditional x-rays aren't powerful enough to penetrate this dense rock from what I understand. Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for the full video, it's pretty mind-blowing footage! This is going to help me prep the concretion as I now have a map of where the teeth and bones are in the rock.
I'm doing a 3d scan of that 48 million year old fossil marlin skull tonight with my POP2. A friend from up north, Stuart, sent me this mega carousel which is great for a 15kg skull π
I'm excited to try and prep these ammonites! Thanks so much @yorkshire_fossil_hunter π Keep an eye out for a future prep video.
An amazing piece of petrified wood I found in a stream today. I thought it was a modern piece of wood till I picked it up and felt how heavy it was!
The left side of the penguin is coming along nicely, it's very symmetrical!
Some petrified wood I found today in North Canterbury, all very different looking.
The cutest tiny fossil crab I found today!
Here's a throwback to my first ever set of whale ear bones I found that one of the team at @te_papa kindly labelled. I donated it to Te Papa before I was into 3D scanning so I might have to go and scan it one day so I can print a copy for myself.
A progress pic of the fossil penguin prep with some, hopefully correct, labels. I've been out with a cold but hopefully will be doing some prep this evening.
We planted some trees today, more than 500 native species! 14 of us local fossil hunters got together and planted them on the beautiful Glenafric farm where they had prepared some ground for us, as well as providing the trees and a great lunch afterwards! Thanks to everyone that volunteered and spent their Sunday digging holes in a blustery wind. Can't wait to see them grow over the coming years.
I finally got all the parts together for my new stereo microscope, including a new camera to take some HD footage. Now to take a crack at some of those microfossils!
Fossil penguin prep progress: the coracoid is exposed as well as the humerus. I came across the joint of the tibiatarsus where it connects to the femur as well.
I'm slowly making some progress on this bit of cetacean mandible (corrected, not rostrum!),. Its been an off and on again project for the last 3 months.
Penguin prep post: I found the wishbone and humerus still in the correct position! π§
I love finding these tiny, fossil crabs that nature has prepped. This one is quite complete other than the bit of the carapace that got sanded away. I think its a Tumidocarcinus crB but not 100% sure on that.
I've been prepping this maybe penguin, and this bit of bone is definitely looking skully π I'm using the air scribe for bulk rock removal then using acid to remove the last bit of bone.
I found this mystery rock in a mountain stream about two years ago. I haven't been able to ID it yet, does it look familiar to any one? Maybe some type of palm or fern fossil?