Seawater and Fossils

diverdad

Hi,
I was given a gift of a fossil sharks tooth by my daughter. She was visiting some relatives in Pappenheim, Bavaria, Germany. The excavation site was not far from there. The site rented out tools for fossil collecting and people went about chipping them out of the rock.
The rock appears to have been a softish sandstone. There is a large lump of it on the top of the tooth where the gum/jaw was.

I recently had the fossil shark tooth put into a silver holder and now have it around my neck. As my name suggests I like to go diving.

Would sea water affect the fossil?
Would it affect the sandstone it is embedded in?

It could be rinsed in clean water after a dive along with all the other dive gear which is the practice.

Thanks
diverdad

Wibbs

Sandstone should be pretty impervious I would have thought and the minerals that replaced the original bone/enamel should be equally robust. I'd reckon rinsing after would do it. Doubtless better knowledge than me will come along though.