GeoLogic

Collecting fossils is fun in its own right, but what should you do with your newly collected hoard, and how can you get it home safe and sound?

The value of a fossil - both academically and financially - increases manifold if the fossil is stored and labelled correctly. So it's worth taking a couple of moments to give your fossils the best treatment possible!

Storing your specimens

Cataloguing

Fossils are beautiful and interesting in their own right. But they are of little interest or value to museum curators or scholars on their own - a little extra information goes a long way in identifying and interpreting them! Those looking to make a profit from their fossils will also be aware that serious collectors will want to know as much as they can about a fossil before they part with their cash!

What you will want to know - and why

The most important thing to record with each fossil is exactly where you found it. Be as precise as possible. If you can, note your grid reference. Better still is a precise latitude and longitude, taken from a GPS. You should also note which horizon, or geological bed, the fossil came from, or if it was from a rockfall. A sketch may help.

By correlation with a geological map of the area, the location will enable you to find out how old the fossil is. If you already know this age information, be sure to jot it down! Keep eyes peeled for information boards near commonly visited sites. Since certain organisms were only alive (and being fossilised) at certain times, the age of the productive strata can be very helpful when identifying a fossil.

If your fossil is very interesting, an expert may well wish to study it further. They will almost certainly want to visit the exact site it came from. Careful study of the source bed can allow them to deduce what environment the creature was living in, and often how and why it was fossilised.

In some cases, nearby rock strata represent hugely different environments, and working out exactly which one the fossil came from can be very important.

In the same fashion, collectors will want to assess the rarity and value of specimens - and the same information will help them calculate this.

There's one more reason that it's useful to know where your fossil came from: it makes it a lot easier to go and collect more at a later date!

If you want to do a really good job, you should also note down the nature of the productive bed.

Useful characteristics to jot down include:

• The bed's colour
• The size of the grains
  This is usually recorded on a scale of gravel - grit - coarse / medium / fine sand - silt - mud - clay
• Any other fossils or features found in the bed
• The thickness of the bed
• Any ripple marks or bedding patterns

These features will help you to work out more about what environment the organism was living in. Their interpretation will form the subject of another guide (coming soon!).

How should I record this information?

The best way to record your information is to keep a log in a separate notepad. This allows you to make detailed records about each specimen, and leaves you room for sketches of the fossil and its locality. To link each fossil to your notebook, you can mark the fossil or its container with the date and an identification code.

If you mark the fossil itself, be sure to do it somewhere inconspicuous. Sticky labels are preferred to Tipp-Ex or permanent marker, as they are more easily removed if necessary.

Far better is to keep the fossil in a unique bag or compartment. This container can then be labeled without marking the fossil itself. There is, however, always a danger of removing the fossil and forgetting where it came from!

Know your enemies

Proper storage is essential to prevent damage and degradation of your fossil. What has survived for hundreds of millions of years can degenerate surprisingly quickly!

The biggest problems, fortunately, are simple enough to avoid.

Moisture

A buildup of moisture can cause a combination of problems.

The most immediate is fungal growth. A variety of moulds and mildews can proliferate in a damp atmosphere, covering and potentially degrading fossils. This can be controlled to a degree by keeping fossils in a sensible environment. Avoid keeping them near plant-based materials - for example, wrapped in newspaper or in cloth bags. However, many rocks contain organic content, some of which can provide sufficient nutrients for fungal growth.

Another issue is the degradation of poorly consolidated fossils. Mudstones, and rocks which are weakly cemented, are often prone to disintegration, which can be accelerated by fluctuations in humidity. The best way to avoid this is to keep atmospheric moisture to a minimum.

The best way to remove airborne water is through the use of a desiccant such as silica gel. (This product will be available from us over the next week or so. We can e-mail you when it arrives, if you ask us!)

5g of silica is usually considered sufficient to guard a cubic foot against moisture. In other words, half a gram would suffice to protect a lunchbox-sized container. The effectiveness of the gel is greatly enhanced if the area to be protected is relatively airtight.

Dust

Another perennial issue is the accumulation of dust on fossils. This can be avoided to a large extent by keeping fossils in a secure box, but if it does build up, it can be very difficult to remove without damaging the fossil. Air guns are usually recommended; these are often sold in PC shops for clearing dust from computer innards. But these can also blow off layers from the surface of some fossils.

We recommend that fossils are stored in Tyvek bags. Tyvek is a high-tech fabric designed to be entirely dust and lint free. It is also breatheable but waterproof, helping to safeguard your fossils from mould. Being tear-resistant but flexible, they are the perfect way to store, protect and label your specimens.

Damage

The final, and perhaps most obvious, danger to your fossil is that of damage through being bashed about. This is most readily avoided by packing fossils into sturdy boxes with about 1-2cm (½in) of clearance on each side of the specimen.

Fragile specimens especially should be placed first into a Tyvek specimen bag, to protect them from abrasion with other packing materials.

They should subsequently be mounted on a supportive medium. Ideally this would be a soft foam of similar consistency to a kitchen scourer; good model and hobby shops tend to stock this. This can be cut to the shape of the fossil.

An even more expensive alternative is "Oasis", a soft polystyrene-like material used by flower arrangers. It is full of bubbles but retains its shape when squashed, and is ideal for absorbing impact.

However, for those on a realistic budget, non-glossy newspaper or bubble wrap are more than ample. Note that newspaper can form quite sharp edges when scrunched, which can scrub away at the fossil. If you can't protect from this with a Tyvek bag, you should be sure to crumple and uncrumple the paper a few times before using it, to soften the fibres. Bubble wrap is less damaging but harder to come across, and is a long-lasting blot on the landscape when strong winds take loose sheets! Cotton wool and wadding is to be avoided, as it leaves dust on the fossil, which is difficult to remove.

Finally the specimen should be placed into its compartment. The thumb's width space between the fossil and the edge should now be firmly filled with some form of wadding, and the fossil should not be free to rattle around. The construction of the case is then of little consequence. If you skimp on the wadding, however, it is well worth knowing that wood is a lot more forgiving of accidental jolts and drops than plastic, as it can absorb some of the impact of a knock.

Display

With your fossil safely transported from the field to your home, you may wish to think about displaying it.

That's a topic we will come to consider in the near future!

While you're waiting for us to write this guide, why not check out some of our other buyer's guides? Do let us know what you made of this one, too.

Sending fossils through the mail

It's always painful letting your valuable fossils into the hands of the postal service, but sometimes it's necessary: for example when selling them, or sending them to an expert for identification.

To minimise the pain, we recommend packing them as you would a valuable china vase.

We echo the advice of the Florida Museum of Natural History, who post and receive large numbers of fossils each month. You are advised to wrap each specimen in its own bag, then surround it with bubble-wrap or soft paper. Next, place them inside a further padded box, and put these boxes in a larger, sturdy box cushioned with packing material, so they can't shake around, but are not too firmly packed.

Be careful to mark your parcel with a returns address in case of problems!