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Heating and quenching of fossils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2017

John Pojeta Jr.  and
Marija Balanc
John Pojeta Jr.
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 22092
Marija Balanc
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia 22092
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Extract

Rapid temperature change can be used to free fossils from some types of rock. Using this method, rocks are alternately heated over a gas burner and quenched in cold running water. The method is especially useful for obtaining specimens of small species (5mm–7mm), but whole specimens up to 50mm long have been released from rock. Heating and quenching should be tried on those limestones that break through both fossils and matrix when the rock is struck with a hammer or broken with a rock splitter. In such limestones, it is often difficult and time consuming to remove specimens using needles and grinding wheels (Sohl, this volume, chapter 19). Many more specimens can be obtained for study more rapidly by heating and quenching such rocks than can be obtained by mechanical preparation. In most instances, only one side of a specimen is exposed when limestone is split mechanically, and the opposite side of the specimen adheres tightly to the remaining rock. In such cases, heating and quenching can free the entire specimen of all rock.

Type
Techniques for Megafossils
Information
The Paleontological Society Special Publications , Volume 4: Paleotechniques , 1989 , pp. 218 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Paleontological Society 

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References

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Pojeta, J. Jr. In press. Preparation of Fossils. In Webers, G. F., Pojeta, J. Jr., and Yochelson, E. L. (eds.), Cambrian Mollusca from the Minaret Formation, Ellsworth Mountains, West Antarctica, Geological Society of America, Memoir 130.Google Scholar
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