A YouTuber based in New Zealand discovered a 12-million-year-old crab fossil and filmed as he picked away at its rock casing.

Mamlambo Fossils uses an air scribe in the timelapse footage to intricately remove the rock surrounding the fossil.

He said: "I was out at a Miocene era (5 million-23 million years old) fossil site, that used to be around 300 metres underwater, looking for fossils when I saw a rock with what looked to be claws sticking out.

"I suspected this was a fossil crab as I have found a few at this location.

"Back home, I used an air scribe to carefully remove the siltstone from the crab over the course of 25 hours to expose the top and the bottom of the crab.

"The species is a Tumidocarcinus giganteus and this is quite a small one for the species.

"I don't actually touch the fossil with the stylus as the rock flakes away when you get close to the fossil. I use B72 paraloid to consolidate the fossil (the liquid I paint on) to keep the crab in great shape and to stop the shell from flaking away."

This footage was filmed in April 2020.

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