Hi,
Firstly, apologies if this ends up going through twice. It didn't seem to
post the first time.
Among the many delights I've encountered since starting at Bolton was a
partial plesiosaur skeleton, cast into a hard yellow-orange resin. It's
been used as a handling object by our education department for many years
now.
Well, I've now found the rest of the skeleton and come to two conclusions.
1.It's an Icthyosaur. The resin cast "head" was among the pieces I found.
It's basically the tip of an Icthyosaurs jaws. The rest of the skull is
missing. This didn't stop the intrepid caster however, who attached the
jaws to the last of the vertebrae and then sculpted the outline of a head
around the whole mess!
2.I'd really like to get it out of the resin, giving me the opportunity of
displaying what would probably be a pretty decent specimen.
So, the actual point of all this. Has anybody any idea how to safely remove
the fossil from the resin? anybody encountered this before?
I'm guessing some form of heat treatment is my best option, but any
advice/offers/suggestions are most welcome.
Cheers,
David Craven
Bolton Museum
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