Eastonian Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 This is probably a rookie question, so I ask for your indulgence. I have several thousand fossils collected over 50 years. I have a couple of hundred that I keep in plastic storage boxes in the house (crinoid stems and segments, bivalves, some horn coral and other corals, the one trilobite that I purchased that is probably a fake). But the rest are outside in a rock garden in the backyard. We're talking about a lot of fossils. The first question is: When you have so many fossils, what do you do with them all? And secondly, I have many fossils found in clay (see images). Will the elements have any negative effect on them? I live in Michigan, so we get lots of rain, snow and freezing temperatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDAWG Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 The short answer is yes, being exposed to the elements will eventually (some more quickly, some more slowly) have an adverse effect. However, in the sort term some may improve, in the sense that natural erosion may actually remove matrix and help expose the fossil. Of course if that process continues eventually the fossil will also erode and crumble. What I would suggest is to select a manageable number of the best examples of each type of fossil to keep indoor/protect from erosion. Leave the rest outside but check on them from time to time. If you find some that have been improved by weathering, exchange those for the least nice one that you decided to keep indoors so you always have the best 3-4 examples in your indoor collection. Also keep an eye out for surprises, sometimes as rocks weather fossils that were previously hidden pop out, and they may be real treasures. One time I had collected some fresh shale that refused to split along any kind of bedding plane, and preferred to split through rather than around fossils. I put it out by my driveway and forgot about it for a couple of years. Eventually I noticed that some pieces had developed splits along bedding planes. The first piece I picked up opened along a split to reveal five complete trilobites and a nautiloid! None of the other pieces were as spectacular, but I did get a couple more trilobites and some graptolites from them. Don 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arizona Chris Posted November 2, 2017 Share Posted November 2, 2017 Depends on what the base rock is. Shales do very badly and fall apart, limestones are pretty much good for decades. Dolomite limestones last a long time too, and silicified fossils last 1000 lifetimes... we store our fossils in a purpose built shed, with about 2000 pounds of rock in it now on massive shelves. That keeps the labels on each rock intact over the years. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona Chris Paleo Web Site: http://schursastrophotography.com/fossiladventures.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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