A fossil-hunting YouTuber demonstrated the process by which they turn an innocuous-looking rock into a stunning record of the far distant past.

MamlamboFossils found a rock with what looked like a bit of bone sticking out of it. While prepping it, he encountered a shark tooth and decided to prep that instead. Using a combination of air scribes, which are like miniature jack hammers, he carefully removed the rock from around the tooth. The tooth is already fractured and one wrong move can cause it to shatter into many pieces.

A quick dip in some vinegar removed more of the rock, making it easier to see the tooth. The tooth is protected by a layer of B72 from the acetic acid (vinegar). B72 is like a type of plastic that gets painted on and can be removed afterwards. It also consolidates the fossil, stopping it from falling apart from the air and vibrations from the air scribe.

Once the majority of the rock was removed, a smaller air scribe was used while looking through a microscope at 6.5x zoom. This enables one to remove minute amounts of the rock with little chance of damaging the fossil itself. The air scribe should never touch the fossil, merely chip the rock away from the fossil surface.

When all the rock was removed, it was possible to tentatively identify the tooth as being from a cookie-cutter type shark -- a smallish shark that usually lives in deep water. It bites chunks of flesh out of whales, dolphins, seals and any other type of animal it encounters. It has even been documented as biting humans!

This prep took around six hours in total.

The fossil will be made available to any local museum that is interested in adding it to their collection. The tooth is quite rare and they aren't found that often.

Malambo's social media accounts share their fossil-hunting adventures.
YouTube: youtube.com/Mamlambo
Instagram: instagram.com/mamlambofossils
TikTok: tiktok.com/@mamlambofossils

MamlamboFossils found a rock with what looked like a bit of bone sticking out of it. While prepping it, he encountered a shark tooth and decided to prep that instead. Using a combination of air scribes, which are like miniature jack hammers, he carefully removed the rock from around the tooth. The tooth is already fractured and one wrong move can cause it to shatter into many pieces.

A quick dip in some vinegar removed more of the rock, making it easier to see the tooth. The tooth is protected by a layer of B72 from the acetic acid (vinegar). B72 is like a type of plastic that gets painted on and can be removed afterwards. It also consolidates the fossil, stopping it from falling apart from the air and vibrations from the air scribe.

Once the majority of the rock was removed, a smaller air scribe was used while looking through a microscope at 6.5x zoom. This enables one to remove minute amounts of the rock with little chance of damaging the fossil itself. The air scribe should never touch the fossil, merely chip the rock away from the fossil surface.

When all the rock was removed, it was possible to tentatively identify it as from a cookie cutter type shark. A smallish shark that usually lives in deep water. It bites chunks of flesh out of whales, dolphins, seals and any other type of animal it encounters. It has even been documented as biting humans! (https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/shark-attack-documented-cookiecutter-shark-attack-human-hawaii/story?id=14001710)

The photo at 01:48 is from NOAA's Flickr account is has a creative commons with attribution license.

The photo at 02:00 is of a harbour seal that has suffered some bites from a cookie cutter shark. The photo is from wikipedia.

This prep took around 6 hours in total.

The fossil will be made available to any local museum that is interested in adding it to their collection. The tooth is quite rare and they aren't found that often.

The music is royalty free from Bensound.com and requires attribution if used.

Social media accounts:
YouTube: youtube.com/Mamlambo
Instagram: instagram.com/mamlambofossils
TikTok: tiktok.com/@mamlambofossils