Protosphyraena find

OK - so I've found the Protosphyraena before. It's one of my favorite finds because of the beautiful teeth-like ridges along the pectoral fins. It's pretty amazing, in my opinion. I came across one (and actually 3 total were found over the course of one day - JUNE 2011) and we had high hopes it would be the complete girdle, but almost immediately after removing some of the overburden, we could tell something was weird about it and it would likely not be complete. BUT we pressed on anyway. 

Here is my father clearing away debris and overburden while I take a quick camera break. We had another little bit to go at this point, but it was apparent the whole fin was not there, let alone the whole shoulder girdle!

The knife is there for perspective. That's about the size of a regular old kitchen chopping knife.

 

Here is my shoddy attempt at preservation. Using Butvar on the bones (an acetone-based glue) allows the fossils to harden up for transportation. I did not stay between the lines...

Tool of the trade - pick hammer :)

Here we are ready to take the thing out. The matrix was such that it would not come out in one piece, so we ended up just removing the fossil from the rock completely. It was a sad, sad end to the Protosphyraena's 80 million year old legacy.

Here's what we walked away with. The majority of one pectoral fin and some jumbled pieces of the pectoral girdle. Nothing glamorous, but it was a satisfying find, nonetheless.