Fossil Preparation
Have you ever wonder how this precious fossils come to life for everybody to appreciate?
Here we explain the process of our artisans and the result of it
What An Unprepared Spiny Trilobite Looks Like
I've seen many questions about how the spiny trilobites from Morocco such as a Leonaspis Sp, Dicranurus, Walliserops, Comura, or Koneprusia can be preserved with free standing spines after nearly 400 million years.
The answer is when they are found they are encased in solid limestone, and are found by literally sledgehammering blocks of limestone looking for cross sections of trilobites. The pieces are then glued back together and the surrounding matrix (rock) is removed using air abrasive techniques (think minature sand blaster) under high magnification. A well prepared trilobite of one of this species often takes in excess of 40 hours of work by a master preparator. Not a task for the impatient person but the results can be spectacular. This is also the reason for the price on many of these trilobites, it's the preparation cost, to get intact a creature that was alive millions of years ago.
Here's an example of a spiny Zlichovaspjs trilobite in it's unprepared state.
Preparation Technique
We use various types of physical force to remove the matrix from around the specimen. In this mechanical preparation we utilize tools that apply external physical force to sediment (also called matrix) in order to remove it from fossil. A very delicate job that requires not only patience but a lot of skill.
Final Product
After 3 days of our work on our fossil you can see the result a very detailed Zlichovaspjs Rugosa