What Fossils Can You Find Outside?

[Cyrus]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dyii4nndOMM

 

[B. Elliott]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dyii4nndOMM

"I think I found a dead cat."

 

[Evo]

Anyone else have any pictures of their fossils?

I dug around in the closet today and found a clump of matrix that I once had a few short and tall/thin gastropods still embedded in for display. The clump has since broken into two large pieces, so I plan on going ahead and removing every bit of matrix to see what's inside of it (if anything). I'm also going to try and fix a rare 'winged' gastropod that somehow fractured at one point. I didn't even know it was rare till one of the guides advised us to turn it in if we found one... not happening! I'll post pics when I'm done with them.

I can't wait. I went down into the creek today and found some beautiful fanned/scallopped shell fossils that were embedded in some larger rocks, but with the little camera, they did not come out clearly. There are some huge blocks dumped in a field nearby, almost as big as I am. I am tempted to take a pick ax and go chip some off.

 

[B. Elliott]

I can't wait. I went down into the creek today and found some beautiful fanned/scallopped shell fossils that were embedded in some larger rocks, but with the little camera, they did not come out clearly. There are some huge blocks dumped in a field nearby, almost as big as I am. I am tempted to take a pick ax and go chip some off.

Got for it, you might find something pretty neat. I'm definitely still interested in what that fleur de lis looking fossil you have really is.

Something I also just noticed about the video Cryus posted, is that they called the first dinosaur they found a 'small dinosaur fast' lol.

 

[Andre]

with the little camera, they did not come out clearly.

It's seldomly the size of the camera. Was it the light, contrast? Perhaps try a different time of the day with the sun coming from a different angle. Perhaps forced flash on, when in the shadow?

Anyway, I'm not much of a collector. But I have some mammoth stuff. This is the nicest

I'm told that this is a left upper M3 molar of a juvenile mammoth, about 4 inches long; it was found in the North Sea in the fauna group II, probably around 30-40,000 old. Still no signs of mineralisation (petrification).

 

[matthyaouw]

Here's some of the fossils I was looking at for my dissertation:

The field of view is about 2-3mm

They're mostly worn fragments of brachiopod shells.

 

[turbo]

I found this rock on the shore of the Kennebec river while fly-fishing. It had some striations, so I split it and voila! Some of the shells had not fully mineralized.

Here is fossilized stuff from the sea-bed in a matrix of limestone. I don't know what all that stringy-looking stuff is, but I assume it could be the remains of sponges, corals, etc. This rock came from the causeway between Clearwater and Tampa.

Another rock from the same causeway, except this one has a brilliant geode-like cavity.

Not a fossil, but a very interesting boulder. It consists of lepidolite (purple matrix) with cleavelandite (white feldspar) and red and blue tourmaline. This rock weighs well over a hundred pounds, and I carried it nearly 1/2 mile to my truck. I found it in the tailings-dump of a beryllium mine in western Maine. The mine was opened to provide beryllium to the weapons industry after Germany had cut off supply-lines from Africa in WWII.

Last, here is a boulder of jasper that I found partially exposed in a stream. It took me over an hour to dig it out, and a friend and I needed over 1/2 hour to get it up the bank to the road. It weighs probably 300 lb or more.

I've got LOTS more minerals and fossils, but these are the ones currently displayed on the front patio. When we sold our last place, I had to leave many hundreds of nice rocks - no place to put them all. I had bordered flower gardens, walks, etc with them and didn't want to tear all that up.

 

[turbo]

Here are a couple more interesting objects. The first is a nicely crystallized piece of petrified wood.

This one appears to be a fossilized bone or tusk fragment.

I bought these from a retired couple who had brought back tons of similar materials from out west. They found out that opening a rock shop with non-native specimens was not a good move, so they started liquidating this stuff - selling it by the pound. If they had spent time collecting Maine minerals and gemstones like tourmaline, beryl, etc, they could have had a booming business - those are very popular with tourists.

 

[Andre]

If they had spent time collecting Maine minerals and gemstones like tourmaline, beryl, etc, they could have had a booming business - those are very popular with tourists.

Commercial value, never mention that to http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/290/5499/2062?ck=nck, with Pleistocene fossil remains of Mammoths, woolly rhinoes, irish elk and other extinct megafauna http://www.boneroom.com/fossils/vertfossils.html . He is furious about that. Fossils belong in collections, well catalogued, administrated and preserved. The rush on these fossils severly hampers the research and reconstruction of the Pliocene - Pleistocene faunas. Himself, he lives at barely normal wealth standards, not even owning wheels because money goes to research.

But in his house you have to maneuvre carefully in between the stacks of fossils. He relutantly brought some of his collection to a storage area to regain some space. Reluctantly, because all of the collection should be at hand at all times for comparison studies.

He also knows exactly all details of about all available Pleistocene fossils anywhere. If you'd show him a bone, after about one milisecond, he would say something like: "That's a femur of a juvenile female Arctotherium latidens. I can tell because there is almost an identical specimen in the Nature History Museum in Nowaybay, second room, third closet, middle drawer."

Meanwhile I guess his collections weights a few tonnes. (see retail prize) But don't even think about that.