Fossil crab prep: remove all the rock! Prepping a crab fossil I found on the beach

You asked for it, I tried it! I removed as much rock from this crab as I could with the air scribes I had.

I found a brilliant concretion containing a fossil crab. The species is Tumidocarcinus giganteus and it is mid-Miocene so around 12 million years old. A concretion is a natural cement that is formed by calcium carbonate around the crab possibly kickstarted by the decomposition process. The crab was probably buried by an underwater landslide caused by a earthquake, tsunami or some other geological event. You could tell there was a crab inside by the legs sticking out either side and also a part of the claw was visible. It hasn't been on the beach long as it hasn't been rolled around by the waves yet which would have damaged the legs that were sticking out a bit.

The prep took around 20 hours, the top was really easy to prep. The rock was flaking away in big chunks which is such a good feeling!

It does look like the crab had suffered some crushing, unsure if this occurred before or after death. My feeling is it happened during whatever event buried it.

00:00 - 01:00 Finding the concretion
01:01 - 03:34 Ventral(bottom)
03:35 - 06:07 Dorsal(top)
06:08 - 07:05 Detail work
07:06 - 07:51 Glue and consolidate
07:52 - 09:00 Final product
09:01 - 10:21 Comparison
10:22 - 11:53 Outro


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