A fossil hunter discovered an ancient jaw on a secluded beach in New Zealand. The man was out looking for fossils when he spotted the piece of bone sticking out.

"This area is of late-Miocene age, around 6 million years old", explains the fossil hunter.

He said that there was a large crack running through the fossil, so he used some very thin cyanoacrylate glue to repair it.

"I was lucky in that the fossil was not firmly attached to the rock so I was able to lift it away from the rock. The rock was stuck to the fossil so I had to use a much slower acid process for the last 1mm. The acid prepping uses 5% strength vinegar to bathe the fossil after any exposed bone is covered in B72 paraloid. B72 paraloid forms a protective plastic layer over the bone which stops the vinegar from affecting it".

The filmer explains that the vinegar dissolves 0.3 - 0.5mm of rock each cycle. After each cycle, it has to be left in water overnight with the water being replaced a couple of times. Then a new layer of B72 is put on and the cycle repeats until all the rock has been removed.

"It turned out to be the tip of a mandible from a baleen whale. It will be donated to a local New Zealand museum along with my other significant finds", he said.

I was out looking for fossils on a secluded beach in New Zealand when I spotted a piece of bone sticking out. This area is of late-Miocene age, around 6 million years old.

There was a large crack running through the fossil, fossils are often broken or cracked when found, so I used some very thin cyanoacrylate (CA) glue to repair it. I was lucky in that the fossil was not firmly attached to the rock so I was able to lift it away from the rock.

An air scribe is used to remove most of the rock, unfortunately the rock was stuck to the fossil so I had to use a much slower acid process for the last 1mm. The acid prepping uses 5% strength vinegar to bath the fossil in after any exposed bone is covered in B72 paraloid. B72 paraloid forms a protective plastic layer over the bone which stops the vinegar from affecting it.

The vinegar dissolves 0.3 - 0.5mm of rock each cycle. After each cycle, it has to be left in water overnight with the water being replaced a couple of times. Then a new layer of B72 is put on and the cycle repeats until all the rock has been removed.

Some of the sediment was tricky to remove after being in the acid so I gently scraped it away using a toothpick - a very slow process.

It turned out to be the tip of a mandible from a baleen whale. It will be donated to a local New Zealand museum along with my other significant finds.

The whale skeleton photo at the end is from wikipedia so can be used commercially. (CC0 1.0 Universal)
Music is from bensound.com and requires attribution.