Sunday, September 26, 2010

Progress on Calymene

Over 400 million years ago, the muddy seafloor stirred below a deep tropical sea.  Slowly, the armored headplate of a multi-segmented creature emerged from the muck.  Today the fossilized remains of that creature is slowly emerging from its stony grave... behold the Calymene trilobite.



Yesterday, the matrix with this fossil was profiled today more of the remains are revealed.  Using a dissecting needle, toothbrush, water, and gentle prodding the matrix is slowly being removed to expose more thorax and cephalon detail.  The pygidium is hanging over the matrix so pressure applied there could snap it off.  That section will need to be abrasive cleaned.  Trilobite is a little over 5 cm long.



Here is a close up of the cephalon section.