Mexx Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hi there, I always see pictures floating around in the internet with really nice looking fossil leafs. I would be interested to know what the usual prepping procedure for these is. Are they usually painted a bit to bing out the color? Often the matrix looks a bit worked out around the leafs. How much of them is usually real? I included a picture as an example. Also I see often very diverse looking leafs identified as the same species. Looking at leafs on recent trees they look much more similar among each other within a species. So there are probably quite some gaps in konwledge about them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexx Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Here the picture.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Dactyll Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Mex... With fossil plants there is usually a very good seperation layer where when the rock parts and it actually splits the leaf in half... The film left by the leaf prevents the sediments that buried it from actually bonding creating this plane of weakness across the fossil... Sometimes when you get prep marks around the perimiter of leaf's like this, it is because the rock broke wrong and some of the rock was left covering the edge of the leaf... So they remove this then maybe tidy up the rock to make it 'asthetically pleasing' to look at using an airpen and the vibration alone does most of the work loosening the rock... They may have used a matt varnish to bring the colour up slightly... I wouldnt think there are any fake individual leafs (so all of it is real) but maybe you do get the odd bit of 'restoration' on very high quality 'display pieces' to fill in gaps and match up the fronds etc... Species... If you look at any tree during various stages of growth the leafs may change profile depending on the actual position and maybe the maturity of the tree... Thats the trouble with trying to piece together a complete picture without actually having ALL the pieces to the jigsaw.. 'Paleontology' Its someones best guess until we find 'another ' piece of the puzzle... Cheers Steve... And Welcome if your a New Member... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mexx Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hi Terry, many thanks for the extensive reply. It sounds very plausible to me that a rock would probably crack along the plane where the biggest area of a foreign material lies that prevents the rock specific crystalization pattern to be formed out. I just thought that makes it also very easy to enhance the specimens a bit with color and they still look real. As for the species. I am no expert with plants or leafs. I still think though, that the difference I see with fossils of the same species sometimes is still larger than for example young versus matured tree's leafs. I go with you that there are still many jigsaw pieces to be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I've seen them look like a real leaf stuck to a rock and some with no color at all. The color depends on the preservation and minerals that stained them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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