Fossil hunting with cement mixers and Fairy Liquid

["K and T Dykes" <ktdykes@arcor.de>]

If anybody's ever been concerned about putting odd bits and pieces to some 
interesting use, then a new paper by Eric Freeman could be of interest. 
Some will recognize him as a hunter of English Mesozoic mammals way back 
then in the 1970s, and especially the Middle Jurassic locality of 
Kirtlington, Oxfordshire.  However, less widely known is that Freeman, EF is 
actually an imaginative chemist.

Around a quarter of a century ago, he was turning his knowledge of chemistry 
towards a problem.  How do you cheaply and efficiently find tiny fossils in 
large amounts of otherwise dull sediment?  His mullings and experiments led 
him to conclude upon and demonstrate the possibilities of employing cement 
mixers, buckets, pillow cases, flour sieves, saucepans, Fairy Liquid 
detergent, keresene, paraffin wax...

A quarter of a century later, he seems to have decided it would be a good 
idea to again rush into print on these interfacial methods.  The enjoyable 
romp is presently freely accessible on line (surprisingly enough).

Freeman EF (2010), The large-scale extraction of microvertebrate fossils 
from sediment residues using Interfacial Methods, Proceedings of the 
Geologists' Association, 2010, vol.121 (1), pages 4-12.
Relevant journal webpage-link:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00167878

Article url
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B94SW-4YB687K-1-9&_cdi=56449&_user=10&_pii=S0016787809000753&_orig=browse&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2010&_sk=998789998&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzb-zSkWA&md5=87e6475f8fd9a235e340ef1273e25e74&ie=/sdarticle.pdf