3D Fossil Crab Pulalius - Washington State

This is a very 3D example of the fossil crab Pulalius vulgaris from Southwest Washington. These crabs are found within hard concretions (a mass of rock that forms around organic manner) which must be broken open to find the crab. The crab must then be prepared from the hard concretion using air tools, a very time consuming process. A crab like this probably took on the order of 15 hours of preparation work.

Unlike the majority of specimens this one has most of it's legs preserved and it pretty good sized for the species. The claws have also been prepared so they are totally free of the rock.