What Fossils Can You Find Outside?

[Evo]

Here are a few of my fossil rocks I picked up outside, they are everywhere.

I am going to post some large ones for detail, so sorry if you have to scroll. I was going to post this in Earth but images are disabled.

Bear with me as I add pictures.

 

[Evo]

 

[turbo]

Nice! There must be limestone everywhere around you.

 

[B. Elliott]

Nice Evo! The cylindrical ones in the first picture look like crynoid stems while the others look like fossil bryozoans ie; coral. I actually took a trip to an old limestone quarry in Alabama just a few days ago. If I can take some pics i'll post them up.

 

[Evo]

Yes, if you have fossil pictures, post them here!

It's sandstone and limestone turbo. Unfortunately I had to leave all of my fossil rocks except for these few at my old house, I had hundreds. I see some down in the ditch of darn though.

I have more pictures I am trying to find.

 

[Evo]

This one is quartz, but it appears to have formed around something that is not part of the quartz. If I had my old photo software,you could see how the quartz forms a lattice enclosure over something inside.

This is the other side.

 

[Astronuc]

Very cool!

You could set up a road side stand and sell fossils to tourists.

 

[B. Elliott]

I really need to scan the ones in my display case, but here's a few I have laying on my dresser and coffee table.

Brachiopods

Underside of the brachiopod at the bottom in the previous picture

Bryozoans

Crinoid Stems

 

[Evo]

Those are awesome B.Elliot! I wonder if mine are still at my old house? I had some crinoids as big around as my thumb and 8" long. <snif> Most of the really large brachiopods had slightly crushed tops where they had been exposed. Had what looked like shark teeth in some.

 

[B. Elliott]

Those are awesome B.Elliot! I wonder if mine are still at my old house? I had some crinoids as big around as my thumb and 8" long. <snif> Most of the really large brachiopods had slightly crushed tops where they had been exposed. Had what looked like shark teeth in some.

Thank you.

I'd love to find some crinoids of that diameter, especially that length! All of mine range from a 1/4" to 1-1/2" at most. If you can get a hold of the shells with the teeth, I'd looove to see them.

 

[Evo]

Thank you.

I'd love to find some crinoids of that diameter, especially that length! All of mine range from a 1/4" to 1-1/2" at most. If you can get a hold of the shells with the teeth, I'd looove to see them.

That crinoid stem in the middle of post two is one stem, you can see where it was broken, that one is about 10" long. Also, I should add that I can wear a size 7 ring on my thumb! I am positive that I moved with me a mid section of a crinoid inbedded in rock as big around as my thumb, very cool. I moved that one because it broke off from a larger piece and I threw it in the box. I will go crazy until I find it.

 

[B. Elliott]

I hope all theses pictures don't completely overtake anyones connection, so i'll only post a few more. Awesome thread Evo!

Trilobites: Dalmanites

Trilobites
Top: Calymene
Bottom: Ptychagnostus

Trilobite: Metacanthina

Bryozoan: Plumatella repens (Not 100% sure)

These are from a dig I went on at the Coon Creek formation in western Tennessee.
Top Right: Complete Pterotrigonia thoracica (Official Tennessee state fossil)
Others: Cyclina parva.

If you ever find any that are very brittle and you fear they might get broken, coat them in Mop and Glo with a small brush and allow them to dry. I treated mine over ten years ago and the coating is still very strong

 

[B. Elliott]

That crinoid stem in the middle of post two is one stem, you can see where it was broken, that one is about 10" long. Also, I should add that I can wear a size 7 ring on my thumb! I am positive that I moved with me a mid section of a crinoid inbedded in rock as big around as my thumb, very cool. I moved that one because it broke off from a larger piece and I threw it in the box. I will go crazy until I find it.

Good lord that thing is big. If you don't mind me asking, where was your old place located at? It almost has to be the southeastern area of the midwest.

 

[Evo]

Here are some brachiopods, you can see the different shapes and sizes.

 

[Evo]

I hope all theses pictures don't completely overtake anyones connection, so i'll only post a few more. Awesome thread Evo!

Trilobites: Dalmanites

Trilobites
Top: Calymene
Bottom: Ptychagnostus

Trilobite: Metacanthina

Bryozoan: Plumatella repens (Not 100% sure)

These are from a dig I went on at the Coon Creek formation in western Tennessee.
Top Right: Complete Pterotrigonia thoracica (Official Tennessee state fossil)
Others: Cyclina parva.

If you ever find any that are very brittle and you fear they might get broken, coat them in Mop and Glo with a small brush and allow them to dry. I treated mine over ten years ago and the coating is still very strong

Those are AWESOME! Unfortunately most rocks I pick up have been bulldozed by construction and it's hard to find nice whole specimens. I hate you!

I live in Kansas, we were undersea 440 million years ago.

 

[binzing]

Ugh, Kansas, the most boring state I've ever been...Too flat!

Cool fossils all.

 

[rewebster]

Those are AWESOME! Unfortunately most rocks I pick up have been bulldozed by construction and it's hard to find nice whole specimens. I hate you!

I live in Kansas, we were undersea 440 million years ago.

Kansas?---Kansas has got some great places to go on the western side


I thought it would be fun to go to the Dakotas in the area where Sue was found if its available to the public

 

[Evo]

Can anyone identify the fossil toward the top right?

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/3229/pdr00301fn1.jpg

Arrgh, I had reduced this to e-mail it and hopefully the full size image is stil on the camera, but I have no way of downloading it right now.

 

[binzing]

You should go into Paint and circle it...If its the one I think it is then it looks like a tiny trilobyte

 

[Evo]

I can enlarge it on my computer to see it beter, but I can't save it enlarged. It looks like a fleur de lis, not a trilobite.

rew, if you can view it enlarged on the Win 98 computer of yours, i'll e-mail it to you.

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/6439/pdr0030redev6.jpg

 

[rewebster]

sure, send it-



(--I'll try anything at least one time)

 

[B. Elliott]

I thought it would be fun to go to the Dakotas in the area where Sue was found if its available to the public

Sadly, the US government is really starting to crack down on what fossils you can take from the land... unless it's a dig site that you go to with a university group or special organization. Even then, if you find anything spectacular, you're supposed to 'hand it over' (and that's if you even mention finding anything).

One that I always wanted to go to is u-digfossils in Utah. A Trilobite lovers dream...
http://www.u-digfossils.com/

Can anyone identify the fossil toward the top right?

It's pretty hard to tell because of the size. Given the ones you've shown so far it sounds like they'd range from the Carboniferous way back to the Ordovician. Here's a couple of quick reference charts...

Pennsylvanian
http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/penfos.gif

Mississippian
http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/misfos.gif

Devonian
http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/devfos.gif

Silurian
http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/silfos.gif

Ordovician
http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/ordfos.gif

 

[rewebster]

If it is, what the heck is that pattern? I can see if pretty clearly on my computer.

Hopefully the original is still in the Toshiba.

well, sugar----it sort of like goshawks-----one of a variety of them -chewed up and spit out and then put 10 million pounds of pressure on and cook for a couple hundred million years---


-------

get a REAL close close-up--that may help a little

 

[Evo]

well, sugar----it sort of like goshawks-----one of a variety of them -chewed up and spit out and then put 10 million pounds of pressure on and cook for a couple hundred million years---


-------

get a REAL close close-up--that may help a little

Look at the nearby fossils on the rock, they aren't changed...

I need to get that cable for my camera.

 

[rewebster]

Look at the nearby fossils on the rock, they aren't changed...

I need to get that cable for my camera.

All of those fossils are not the full animal/plant---they are all parts and pieces

They were only selling for about 3 bucks on that link I posted---(and I would bet they sell them at RadioShack or Wal-Mart even)

(I got to go pop some microwave kettle corn --Dr. Who is starting in about 10 minutes)

 

[Evo]

All of those fossils are not the full animal/plant---they are all parts and pieces

They were only selling for about 3 bucks on that link I posted---(and I would bet they sell them at RadioShack or Wal-Mart even)

(I got to go pop some microwave kettle corn --Dr. Who is starting in about 10 minutes)

You don't buy them, they're laying all over the ground here. The fun is finding some nice ones like B.Elliot's. But I still love mine.

 

[Moonbear]

You don't buy them, they're laying all over the ground here. The fun is finding some nice ones like B.Elliot's. But I still love mine.

He was talking about the camera cable. He must've been in a rush to get his popcorn, because the edit garbled it from what I saw before the edit.

 

[lisab]

It's pretty hard to see on my computer...does it have a tail?

 

[B. Elliott]

See if you can identify some other specimens within the same matrix. It might narrow down the environment and help give some better ideas... process of elimination.

Are those criniod stems in the same chunk? Can you narrow down what the species the shells might be? Do they look more scallop or clam-shaped?

 

[Evo]

He was talking about the camera cable. He must've been in a rush to get his popcorn, because the edit garbled it from what I saw before the edit.

<snork>

 

[Evo]

See if you can identify some other specimens within the same matrix. It might narrow down the environment and help give some better ideas... process of elimination.

Are those criniod stems in the same chunk? Can you narrow down what the species the shells might be? Do they look more scallop or clam-shaped?

I can't find my little brachiopod that had all of the tiny little raised dots all over it. I have never seen anything like it online or in any books, I was going to take it to KU to see if they could identify it. WHERE IS IT?

 

[B. Elliott]

Anything like this little guy?...

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/images/d/d8/Brachiopoda-16.jpg

 

[Evo]

Anything like this little guy?...

http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/images/d/d8/Brachiopoda-16.jpg

Nope.

 

[~christina~]

The closest thing to a fossil that I found was an old, looks like bleached snail shell. (maybe I'll post a pic) and mineral wise, mica.

 

[B. Elliott]

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.

 

[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.