A gentle touch.

One of the more common fossils from the Ashley and Chandler Bridge Formations is Billfish. I've collected hundreds of vertebrates over the years. Another common Billfish fossil is their rostrum. They tend to fossilize well because of their density. I've collected a few partial, articulated skeletons that will be published soon as new species. One specimen is unique in that it had the atlas vertebra. It actually has a ball on one end that fit's into the skull like a reptile. In 2001 I uncovered a few vertebra that were in the Chandler Bridge. I decided to take a large block back home in case there were additional bones. After the block dried I carefully exposed a line of articulated vertebra that were complete. They were the first vertebra found that showed the wide neural spines associated with a wide sail from an Early Oligocene Billfish. A lot of careful preparation went into exposing the delicate spines. It's included in the new Billfish publication.