Cleaning up the Fossils

14th November 2022 

The Haul

I had a great haul from my trip down to the Jurassic Coast – one of the most successful fossil hunting trips I’ve had down there. I got a good selection of ammonites, some whole and some fragments, as well as a few nice belemnites and some bivalves. I made sure to pick up some crystal pebbles and rocks with assemblages of shells in as they would be interesting rocks to put in the garden for the girls to look at (and hold down picnic blankets!). There were a few finds that had been damaged so needed repairing, as well as a couple that could do with a bit of cleaning. I’m sure is more that could be done with an air gun or dental pick, but for starters I wanted to keep things simple and just sort out what I had found. More work could be done later if I felt any of the pieces needed it.

The haul

A complete beef rock ammonite, nice
scallop shell and ammonite fragments

A very big partial ammonite, a nice quartz
pebble and some shell assemblages

Small beef rock ammonites and other
ammonite fragments

Belemnites and coprolites - fossil poo

Close up of Seatown scallop

Ammonite from Seatown

Broken bivalve, possibly Gryphaea

Nice large rocks for the garden and some iron pyrite

I’ve collected quite a few fossils over the years, which have been stuffed in various boxes, left in the shed, maybe wrapped in newspaper. I decided that these finds deserved to be stored with a bit more care – I figured that if I properly documented what they were and where they were from then they could become something useful for the girls as they get older. Not that I’m trying to push them into being palaeontologists, but at least an appreciation of the science would be good! With that in mind, I ordered some various size cardboard boxes. The jewellery boxes come with foam already in them and are perfect for smaller fossils, and I’ve got plenty of foam to pack out the larger boxes. If I could get all of these fossils organised into one larger box, all in their individual boxes, then it would make it much easier to show them off in the future. Then I’ll have to dig out my other fossils and do the same, if I can remember where and when I found them! 

Boxes galore

Can We Fix It?

Yes we can!

I had three fossils that were broken. One large ammonite had been in two pieces on beach – shame we couldn’t find the rest of it, it would have been an enormous beast! Still, two pieces are better than one. The scallop shell from Seatown fractured as I was chiselling it from the rock surface. The shell was so delicate that it was translucent when held up to the light, so I was very careful to wrap it properly to bring home. Fortunately, it made it here without further mishap and looked like it should go back together without too much difficulty. Finally, there was the oyster shell, which I think is a Gryphaea, that lost a couple of bits of the shell just from the chisel hitting against the rock nearby. That one is very delicate, but again looked like it should go back together fairly well (except for the piece that was already missing from the middle when I found it). 

Two parts of a large ammonite

The broken scallop shell

A bivalve jigsaw - luckily only three pieces!

I used araldite 2-part epoxy to fix them all. I use this stuff for a lot of terrain building and it is incredibly strong. I did question whether it would hold the big ammonite, but I splodged a load of it in the join and it did the trick! The scallop went back together with barely a noticeable crack in it, and the bivalve jigsaw worked nicely too. It’s very satisfying seeing these three fossils back together. 

Prepared for repairs

All fixed!

Clean Up

Although I think that more could be done on some of these fossils to full prep and clean them, there were two in particular that were quite filthy and should be quick and easy to sort out. One had a lot of mud on it, the other some loose sandstone. Phil recommended soaking them both in some water overnight and then going at them with an old toothbrush, so I did just that – and even had my little helper giving them a bit of a scrubbing too! 

Soaking the filthy fossils overnight

My excellent assistant loved scrubbing the fossils...

...once I'd explained we wouldn't be using her
toothbrush to do it!

Another bivalve shell from Seatown (this one definitely is a Gryphaea) looks much nicer now some of the sediment has been taken off its shell. This one came out without getting damaged, so I didn’t want to overdo the scrubbing and cause it to get damaged now it is home! But I do think it might be worth coming back to this one later on, maybe with a dental pick as I don’t have an air gun, and carefully removing more of the sandstone to reveal the shell a bit better. For now, I’m happy with it, so it can be packed away in the box until I have a chance to look at it again.

The other one is a bunch of quite nice looking ammonites. Maybe there is scope to get some of them out fully, but I quite like seeing them all jumbled up together. Again, I'm happy with that for now.  

Scrubbing the sandstone off the bivalve

There is potential to remove more sediment
from the shell, but I would want to do that
carefully to avoid damaging it

There are some quite pretty ammonites in this
rock, now that the mud has been removed
so you can see them!