Mathman Loc: Bellingham, Washington

I received several suggestions that this image has some potential for post-processing as a B&W. Any ideas would be gratefully accepted! The .dng original is attached.

Attached file:
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Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Use the Auto button, fine tune a little from there.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Related to the b&w you posted in your Gallery topic, my goal here was to bring out as much detail as possible.

I used Nik Silver Efex to remove the color, and to do initial tweaks. This included "amplify whites" under the contrast section, and raising structure of shadows. I also applied a red filter which lightens everything with some red in it, added a slight selenium toning and a little "burn edges" (similar to vignette, but subtle).

Back in my PS Elements workspace, I did a levels adjustment layer, brightening the whites and darkening the midtones - again, fairly subtle. I applied a little "unsharp mask" for more clarity, some selective dodge and burn, and decided to crop some from the bottom since it was out of focus.

Thanks for offering us your fascinating image to work!

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SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

Try inverting the image, convert to B&W, and then adjust curves to create high key image.

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Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

This is brilliant!!

RichardTaylor Loc: Sydney, Australia

Great!

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Thank you, Mathman! This was a FUN exercise! After spending a bunch of time turning this image to B&W, I finally went back to color and THAT is what caught my eye!!
My version using NIK Analog EFX Pro II - Wet Plate:

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fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

I tried it cropped, as more of an abstract image.

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fergmark Loc: norwalk connecticut

Along a similar approach as SalvageDiver

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jackm1943 Loc: Omaha, Nebraska

Give it +56 Texture, +28 Clarity, +13 Contrast, and Daylight white balance and leave it in color. Try that and check it out.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

To get detail out of it you want the contrast to be as high as possible, but you don't want to lose detail due to the darks becoming too dark, so what you can do is crank the contrast up full then lift the blacks to the point where the detail is revealed to your liking (and brighten overall if necessary).

The glare on the shiny parts could become too much, but if you lower Whites and Highlights fully that will take the edge off of the glare. At this point you can add Clarity to your liking, keeping an eye on that glare as you do.

I use the Masking slider in the Details section while sharpening and I usually have it up quite high but with this one I found that the textures were responding well to the sharpening so I left the Masking slider just over half way up. In the Details section I had the Radius at about 2.7 and the Details slider at about 35 (again higher than usual). Then I added regular sharpening to the whole image using the adjustments brush. I was surprised how much sharpening it could take. I also gave it a tighter crop to make the subject larger in the frame. It doesn't need a lot of background to provide an appropriate setting.

If I was to take this edit any further I would select the softer areas of the fossil and add more Contrast and Clarity. I suspect that if you avoid the glare you could add quite a bit more Clarity.
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Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I didn't see the B&W reference in the OP but this is a great way to go.

Mathman Loc: Bellingham, Washington

Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. I enjoyed all of your edits and picked up quite a few tips to add to my skill set.