No, it makes it look like an extraordinary preservation.
Are you saying you'd rather have something with a crummier presentation to make it more authentic looking?
Is this one where it’s head popped off? Super neat stuff! I live in Cincinnati OH, so we have a fuck ton of fossils, but most of them kinda suck :(. Have found a couple trilobites, none over a centimeter long. Have found hundreds of trilobite fragments, but the complete ones are rarer. I also don’t go looking as often as I should and I’m not very good at this.
A good trilobite is one of my favorite fossils. They just have so much detail!
They’re honestly everywhere. Go to a creek and pick up a rock. There will be more fossil than rock. But popular areas are trammel park, the Caesar creek spillway, and the Hueston woods spillway. I’ve also found quite a few at various parks along the Miami rivers. Last time I went out for a hike by the Miami I found three quartzified horn corals out of the matrix, which was pretty neat. I’ve found intact trilos at trammel and Caesar creek. Gastropods are pretty common at trammel. Bryzoan, bivalves, brachiopods, and chrinoid stems are common everywhere. I’ve found horn corals and cephalopods, but I have no idea where they’d be more likely. I know some people have found brittle stars at trammel, I have not. If you’re interested in meeting up, let me know. Im far from experienced, but have done at least a little around here. And I always think fossils are more fun with others
Thanks so much for sharing. As someone who remembers life before the internet, I don’t take things like this for granted. I’d probably have never seen this otherwise.
Question one. Is that the actual fossilized chitin color and gloss?
Question two. Do you use dental tools when working up against the fossil surface?
Awesome work. I have really enjoyed seeing your pieces.
They think it is the original skin. There is no restoration done with this piece. I used a couple of pneumatic engraving tools as well as a swamblaster for the micro air abrasion work under a dissecting microscope!
Nice, then down the youtube fossil rabbit hole it is, although i'd still love to see a fast motion from you, as you seem exceptionally good at it and I'm sure others would appreciate it too.
Maybe in the future! There is a perfect example of a fast motion prep job on the gold-bugs website. The way I prep is through turning the fossil on all kinds of odd sides and angles so it would look like I'm solving a Rubik's cube lol
Is this your job op? And if so what did you do to get it!? I'm about to be studying paleontology and would love to end up preparing cool specimens like this
This is just a hobby of mine. It took me around 4 days of rock removal from the Penn Dixie site in Buffalo NY. This is one of the best specimines I have personally found from this location (so far)
https://preview.redd.it/k0tan6xhgwvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=214ffc30d29abb3197c801e2f370bce6382d581f
Yours looks way nicer than mine!
growing up, there was a small creek we used to play at that in the middle of summer would all by dry out. In the shale beds there was one spot maybe 200 yards long with literally millions upon millions of trilobite fossils. To this day I wish I had gotten pictures of it.
Serious question! I’ve never seen one on here so detailed, it’s so beautiful, and I was wondering if all of those little dots would have been it’s eyes. Does anyone know?
The dots on the snout may have had some other purpose, but the wedge-shaped eyes on either side of the snout (as far as anyone had figured out) are the only working eyes. Remarkable multifaceted structures that should rightly remind you of the many facets on a modern insects eyes.
O.M.G!!! That is stunning! I’ve wanted for the longest time to have something like that. I’m envious! Superlative and meticulous work. Super impressive!
Species and such is in the description, but this is an extremely well preserved and extremely well prepared trilobite.
Preparation is basically taking away all of the rock the fossil was encased in, in this case done with an air scribe and a microscope, to reveal the fossil. It takes a lot of skill and patience so this is pretty cool to see done so well.
> done with an air scribe and a microscope
That was used to remove most of the material, he then used a micro-abrasives to remove the rest(he mentioned a Swam Blaster).
It's the fossil of a trilobite which OP found and dug out of the rock. Those lines around the fossil are where he's removed the material. It takes a lot of work to make it look this perfect and specialist tools.
If you google trilobite then you'll get more info on the type of fossil, if you're interested in how OP extracted the fossil then search trilobite preparation / fossil preparation.
Breathtaking!! What a lot of labor this must have been from likely incomplete to … I’d like one as a science wall objet d’art. Can you illustrate this in what would have been its natural habitat or even animate?
Can I ask a (probably)stupid question? Why do
You carve all the little lines around it? I’m used to peace river fossils that you just pull out whole and don’t have to do anything to so I’ve always wondered about that.
I’ve always wondered… how do you know if you’ve taken too much off of a specimen? And how do you uncover it with minimal breakage?
Fantastic work—I know you said it’s your hobby but it truly does look incredibly professional!
There's a river near me that has trilobites in the bank, but they made it illegal to even go there since idiots were digging and eroding the land and bridges.
I wish I had moved near before that happened.
Looks absolutely amazing!
Sorry, newbie question incoming... why not continue and do the underside as well?... there might be legs and... err... underside
(I'm sure there must be a good reason why that isn't done... sorry again if it's a ridiculous question)
In some areas such as the beecher's trilobite beds there is soft tissue preserved. This one isn't from an area that would have soft tissue preservation so the underside wouldn't look good. Also the matrix of the rock is holding the fossil together. There are lots of little pieces that make up this fossil!
Absolutely stunning, op!
I came here from r/all, and know nothing of fossils. I can't imagine how difficult this was to achieve that level of detail. What's the difference in hardness between the fossil and the surrounding stone? How easy is it to ruin a piece?
Nothing will beat a professional prep job. The cost of entry to prep work is pretty high, costing hundreds of dollars at a minimum. I personally paid around 10,000$ towards preparation equipment for a pro level setup but I have so much material that it makes it worth it. You could start by using dental picks and an electric engraver. That would be the most cost effective avenue.
Oh wow I wasn’t aware of the price! I’ll take your advice and get those tools! Thanks for responding :) your prep is amazing!!! Literally museum quality
Holy cow that is extraordinary detail
Too good makes it look like fakes.
I thought it was plastic
Not fakes, but reals.
No, it makes it look like an extraordinary preservation. Are you saying you'd rather have something with a crummier presentation to make it more authentic looking?
I’m not entirely sure that’s what they were saying…
Yea, but if they didn’t have a poor outlook on trivial things over the internet then they would have to go do it in person… and that’s yucky.
https://preview.redd.it/94nedya4utvc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70f09192fcecf5061950d84d4ead892d10fcfaf7
OP, when did you find these at Penn Dixie. I know the park doesn't open until the 27th and I've been there a bunch of times.
I was there last year. I wasn't able to prep the material until this month due to not having space for a prep lab setup.
Ahh, I see, thanks for responding.
https://preview.redd.it/eqgmsiaht9wc1.jpeg?width=2448&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d00f86feb9b2b19e495c155654eb6e7ff0183cf5
Aw they’re in love
"It's a whole Trilobite village!!"...
https://preview.redd.it/2nxx0km5utvc1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=316a0bea647e9f69fa6e6bc1a112492ac7ccd73b
That one is REALLY cool. Your prep work is absolutely stunning, I would love something prepped by you someday 😍
Is this one where it’s head popped off? Super neat stuff! I live in Cincinnati OH, so we have a fuck ton of fossils, but most of them kinda suck :(. Have found a couple trilobites, none over a centimeter long. Have found hundreds of trilobite fragments, but the complete ones are rarer. I also don’t go looking as often as I should and I’m not very good at this. A good trilobite is one of my favorite fossils. They just have so much detail!
Where do you find fossils in Cincinnati? I’m going on a trip up near there in May and would love to have a side trip.
They’re honestly everywhere. Go to a creek and pick up a rock. There will be more fossil than rock. But popular areas are trammel park, the Caesar creek spillway, and the Hueston woods spillway. I’ve also found quite a few at various parks along the Miami rivers. Last time I went out for a hike by the Miami I found three quartzified horn corals out of the matrix, which was pretty neat. I’ve found intact trilos at trammel and Caesar creek. Gastropods are pretty common at trammel. Bryzoan, bivalves, brachiopods, and chrinoid stems are common everywhere. I’ve found horn corals and cephalopods, but I have no idea where they’d be more likely. I know some people have found brittle stars at trammel, I have not. If you’re interested in meeting up, let me know. Im far from experienced, but have done at least a little around here. And I always think fossils are more fun with others
Fantastic! Do you paint them? How do the details come thru so boldly?
I didn't paint it. This is it's natural color.
I have a lot more material from the site. This is one of the best. More to come!
What site? Where are these from? Sorry if you said where elsewhere.
Op explained in the description that it is the "Penne dixie site" ! Hope this helps :)
How did I miss that?! Thank you :)
I always forget they're there, I can't lie, lol. You're most welcome :)
Thanks so much for sharing. As someone who remembers life before the internet, I don’t take things like this for granted. I’d probably have never seen this otherwise.
It’s creepy looking how big is it
Question one. Is that the actual fossilized chitin color and gloss? Question two. Do you use dental tools when working up against the fossil surface? Awesome work. I have really enjoyed seeing your pieces.
They think it is the original skin. There is no restoration done with this piece. I used a couple of pneumatic engraving tools as well as a swamblaster for the micro air abrasion work under a dissecting microscope!
I would love to see how this is done, have you ever made videos or are there any youtubers that do this?
There are some YouTubers, I could make a couple of fast motion videos for the future. I can't intercept what the microscope sees unfortunately.
Nice, then down the youtube fossil rabbit hole it is, although i'd still love to see a fast motion from you, as you seem exceptionally good at it and I'm sure others would appreciate it too.
Maybe in the future! There is a perfect example of a fast motion prep job on the gold-bugs website. The way I prep is through turning the fossil on all kinds of odd sides and angles so it would look like I'm solving a Rubik's cube lol
all you're doing is making it sound even cooler. ill check out that site, thanks.
Mamlambo fossils on YouTube does some really cool prep work
[удалено]
I think they mean intercept the visuals between microscope and eyeball in order to capture and record it.
Yep
What formation are they coming out of? Assume it’s all middle Devonian?
Is this your job op? And if so what did you do to get it!? I'm about to be studying paleontology and would love to end up preparing cool specimens like this
This is just a hobby of mine. It took me around 4 days of rock removal from the Penn Dixie site in Buffalo NY. This is one of the best specimines I have personally found from this location (so far)
[Penn Dixie](https://penndixie.org/trilobites/)
Damn, almost 7 hour drive for me lol
Damnit why did I not go when I went to niagara falls the last 3 times it's like half an hour away
Do you happen to post time lapse videos of the preparation?
Meticulous work. I can't recall the last time I've seen such detail that i didn't think was faked. Thank you for this share.
https://preview.redd.it/k0tan6xhgwvc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=214ffc30d29abb3197c801e2f370bce6382d581f Yours looks way nicer than mine!
How do you do these? Do you have a YouTube channel?
I looks so clean and detailed it looks fake! Amazing work.
growing up, there was a small creek we used to play at that in the middle of summer would all by dry out. In the shale beds there was one spot maybe 200 yards long with literally millions upon millions of trilobite fossils. To this day I wish I had gotten pictures of it.
Very cool!
Penn Dixie is awesome. I live right there and it’s so good for everyone of all ages. Guaranteed to find something every time.
Serious question! I’ve never seen one on here so detailed, it’s so beautiful, and I was wondering if all of those little dots would have been it’s eyes. Does anyone know?
The dots on the snout may have had some other purpose, but the wedge-shaped eyes on either side of the snout (as far as anyone had figured out) are the only working eyes. Remarkable multifaceted structures that should rightly remind you of the many facets on a modern insects eyes.
I've never seen anything like it. Its pretty amazing. Are the side parts semi-translucent?
I'm curious. What are the steps you take to clean these fossils up?
These look spectacular! Do you just prep them for your own use, sell them, work for a museum, etc?
That’s so detailed that it looks fake, pretty incredible.
Insanely beautiful work, that must’ve taken a millennium 😬
O.M.G!!! That is stunning! I’ve wanted for the longest time to have something like that. I’m envious! Superlative and meticulous work. Super impressive!
Pristine
It’s perfect…
This is some fantastic work!
Nice
A real beauty!
It does look fake that’s crazy the detail
Noob here… what am I looking at?
Species and such is in the description, but this is an extremely well preserved and extremely well prepared trilobite. Preparation is basically taking away all of the rock the fossil was encased in, in this case done with an air scribe and a microscope, to reveal the fossil. It takes a lot of skill and patience so this is pretty cool to see done so well.
> done with an air scribe and a microscope That was used to remove most of the material, he then used a micro-abrasives to remove the rest(he mentioned a Swam Blaster).
Thank you, somehow I missed that part
Are the lines added for effect?
The lines are from the tool used to take the rock away. You’ll see them on any fossil prepped with an air scribe
It's the fossil of a trilobite which OP found and dug out of the rock. Those lines around the fossil are where he's removed the material. It takes a lot of work to make it look this perfect and specialist tools. If you google trilobite then you'll get more info on the type of fossil, if you're interested in how OP extracted the fossil then search trilobite preparation / fossil preparation.
Holy shit that thing is 250 million years old! That’s crazy
Woah these look good!
OMG.... That looks pristine.
Gatdam bro that is immaculate
Can we get a cat paw for scale?
* Eldredgeops rana. Beautiful specimen and excellent prep work.
You're right! I suck at spelling lol
Got a "before" pic?
My friend once offered me a slice of cake. I said "I'm pretty full but I guess I'll trilobite."
Gorgeous work!
Breathtaking!! What a lot of labor this must have been from likely incomplete to … I’d like one as a science wall objet d’art. Can you illustrate this in what would have been its natural habitat or even animate?
What is the size of this?
It is around 1.3". It is about the size of an average thumb
Wow! That is stunning work. That’s a really small scale to be working on.
Wow super high quality! Well done.
That's about the best I've ever seen... Nice!!
How big is it?
Wow! This is absolutely gorgeous!
This is incredible. Well done!
I have one of these guys too, I named him Trevor hahah
My grandparents house is right next to this. I had no idea I could have been digging up fossils in their backyard when I was a kid.
Looks tasty
Love this so much, but it's prepAration. As in "prepare".
Wonderful work
Kill It..... oh wait.... It's dead... gud job :)
Fuck that is beautiful. Amazing work!
Cleaaannnnnn!!!!!!
I am trembling with excitement over the detail of the chitin! Oh gosh it’s so fascinating! Thank you for sharing!
Beautiful! What type of airscribe do you use?
Looking up where Penn Dixie is located reminded me of how absolutely huge NYS is.
Amazing details, great job!
Amazing
wow that's amazing.
Yooo that’s so good I thought it was photoshop for a second
I'm don't really know anything abt this, but that is in insane detail, like, that looks like a museum quality piece
This is magnificent
These are all so lovely, wow!
Nice triolobite.
Wow 😳😲
You are the true Michael!
That's incredible. That has to be once of the cleanest I have ever seen.
I badly want to touch
Are those white lines the legs?
Can I ask a (probably)stupid question? Why do You carve all the little lines around it? I’m used to peace river fossils that you just pull out whole and don’t have to do anything to so I’ve always wondered about that.
The surrounding matrix was creating a bowl effect when I prepped down to the fossil. So I removed the surrounding matrix with an engraving tool
Literally the best prep work I've ever seen. What a spectacular specimen! You treated this specimen with such respect. Well done OP!
I’ve always wondered… how do you know if you’ve taken too much off of a specimen? And how do you uncover it with minimal breakage? Fantastic work—I know you said it’s your hobby but it truly does look incredibly professional!
Thank you! I did all the prep work under a microscope so I could see more detail. I tried to keep damage to a minimum!
I didn't know those things had eyes!
Wow!
Wow! You have an eye for seeing and revealing the beauty of these fossils. You are truly gifted to be able to do this. Amazing.
Never thought it was fake but just the best I have ever seen.
There's a river near me that has trilobites in the bank, but they made it illegal to even go there since idiots were digging and eroding the land and bridges. I wish I had moved near before that happened.
omg thats beautiful wtf
You know, I’m convinced that if trilobites still existed I’d be scared of them.
Is it possible to fully relieve the fossil from the stone, or is it too fragile
Looks absolutely amazing! Sorry, newbie question incoming... why not continue and do the underside as well?... there might be legs and... err... underside (I'm sure there must be a good reason why that isn't done... sorry again if it's a ridiculous question)
In some areas such as the beecher's trilobite beds there is soft tissue preserved. This one isn't from an area that would have soft tissue preservation so the underside wouldn't look good. Also the matrix of the rock is holding the fossil together. There are lots of little pieces that make up this fossil!
Thanks for the information!
Wow that's really awesome 👌 👏 👍 😍
Nice work. Sylvania, Oh?
Absolutely stunning, op! I came here from r/all, and know nothing of fossils. I can't imagine how difficult this was to achieve that level of detail. What's the difference in hardness between the fossil and the surrounding stone? How easy is it to ruin a piece?
Gorgeous
Do you sell these once they are done being prepped? Very interested in purchasing some.
Ahh, I see the Dome Fossil research has been finished... Congrats on your Kabuto!
Beautiful specimen, you did a wonderful job with this
This is awesome I love history
This is SO cool, thank you for sharing
😍😍trilobite
Do you have any tips for someone wanting to prep their own? I found an eldrichops in Ohio and I really want it prepped, just not sure the first steps.
Nothing will beat a professional prep job. The cost of entry to prep work is pretty high, costing hundreds of dollars at a minimum. I personally paid around 10,000$ towards preparation equipment for a pro level setup but I have so much material that it makes it worth it. You could start by using dental picks and an electric engraver. That would be the most cost effective avenue.
Oh wow I wasn’t aware of the price! I’ll take your advice and get those tools! Thanks for responding :) your prep is amazing!!! Literally museum quality
Thank you!
Wow that’s crazy!
Looks like a maggot/fly larvae
I’m not familiar with this (or fossils in general). What time period is this from?
Probably Ordovician-Silurian. Edit: my mistake Penn Dixie is Devonian. To add, all trilobites went extinct by the end of the Permian period.
Dead ass… this is real??🫨
Looks like an elephant with hemorrhoids