Gallery
These photos are from my Instagram feed and get updated every week.
I've just finished prepping this juvenile plesiosaur bone cluster with nine separate bones in it. It took about three weeks of work which was about a week of manual prep and two weeks of acid prep. It was a very tricky prep as the rock was full of cracks which the acid kept getting into and there was a trace fossil on the back I wanted to keep. Its from the aristonectinae family of elasmosaurs and probably the third or fourth example from New Zealand. Full prep video is on my YouTube channel, link in my bio.
Im trying a new method to get some microfossils ready for a closer inspection. It was a real pain to get hold of some hydrogen peroxide as there seems to be a shortage of it at the moment. The peroxide is hopefully going to remove the bit of calcite and siltstone still covering the forams. I'll do a video of the process for anyone interested in the process. Swipe to see an example of one of the forams, its about 1mm long.
I found this torpedo looking thing while out looking for fossils. Its used to take a fishing line out deep when fishing from the beach, and it's quite heavy as well! I managed to track the owners down and returned it later in the day.
Microfossil Monday! Some suspected forams I am working with at the moment. These are some mid-Miocene ones from New Zealand still in the siltstone. By the way, does anyone know where you can get those microfossil slides in New Zealand? The ones with the tiny compartments.
I'm just about done with the prep of the this Cretaceous bone I found a few months ago. I've removed so much rock and used a few different methods, let's see who can guess what type of bone 2as inside 😀
Such beautiful detail on this piece of Cretaceous bone I am working on! I'm hoping to have the video done in the next week, it's one of my more ambitious fossil preps thats for sure!
This bit of bone had a layer of what I suspect is calcite over the top of it making it really hard to see any detail. A vinegar bath made quick work of it though! Swipe to see the result.
Another mystery fossil from today. The white colour made me think gastropod but maybe it's something more interesting like a tooth. Let me know if you recognize it please 😀
I found this ~30kg bit of whale bone today. Is it a mandible or rostrum? Any ideas? It's really well preserved and might prep quite nicely 😀 Miocene around 8myo formation.
A cool crayfish tail sticking put of a concretion. There's nothing else showing so there should be a very complete crayfish inside there.
I found another section of what I suspect is part of a cetacean skull. I have another very similar concretion which had a section of squamosal and an earbone in it, hopefully this one does too! Some very dense bone in there for sure. I'm not sure if that is a bit of earbone peeking out in the one photo. I'll have to go back as there are 3 other pieces of it as well 😆
Look what I found hiding in amongst the rocks, I thinks its a tiny Metacarcinus novaezelandiae crab. Just the claws are exposed and a tiny bit of the carapace so it should be a beauty once prepped.
I stopped at one of the local rivers on the way home and found a couple of fossils and a bit of jasper looking rock. First photo is some petrified wood with very nice grain visible. Second photo is some jasper I'll cut. Third photo is a bit of worn Waiparaconus thats tumbled down the river. There is still a debate whether this is a barnacle.
Beautiful day for a fossil hunt! You can't beat a crisp Canterbury winter's day ❄ Swipe to see a mystery crab that I found, it will need some prepping to figure out what species it is 😃 hopefully one of the more rare ones 🤞
Edit: looks like it is Megascyliorhinus cooperi I saw this tiny bit of shininess in the cliff today and was hoping it would be a shark tooth. I carefully removed a circular section of siltstone after putting some consolidant (B72 paraloid) on it. Luckily I did as it had a nasty crack running through the one side of the root. Back home this evening I removed the siltstone with a toothpick and water and exposed a beautiful shark tooth! Have a look at under 6x magnification, its a beauty! The tip is see through and still sharp as the day it got lost. It's around 12-million-years-old, mid-Miocene from New Zealand. Let me know if you recognize the species!
I stumbled across this beautiful piece of petrified wood on the weekend, my first piece in ages! It has some nice dark, agatized sections as well 😀 Im not sure of the age or species as I was exploring a new area.
Update: might be something like a Protosphyraena rostrum 😃🐟 A quick fossil prep of a bit of Cretaceous bone this evening. I thought it was a bit of rib at first but the taper doesn't look quite right 🤔 Let me know if you recognize it. The cross section shows some really thick walls as well.
A chunky bone block I found today while I was out exploring a new area a bit more south of me. Not sure of the age but I'm 90% sure it's late Miocene or younger. Perhaps cetacean bones?
A beautiful fossil I found earlier today hiding amongst some rocks 😀 It's a nautiloid, unsure of the exact species but the chambers are beautifully exposed. The body of the nautiloid occupies the last chamber, the living chamber. Often I find the chambers of the fossil ones I find are filled with calcite crystals. Swipe to see it's living relative, the nautilus. #
Im just about ready to give my air abrasion setup a go! Just a bit of plumbing still to do and then it's ready to rock. I've gone with the Vaniman Problast and I'm going to start with the softest media until I find something that works well for the fossils we find here. Between the air scribe, acid and air abrasion I should be able to tackle some of the trickier fossils 🤞 First up is this bone cluster that just won't play nicely with the acid.