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Showing results for tags 'California'.
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Howdy all, I'm a Midwest native currently living in the Central Valley of California. After 15 years as a zookeeper, I transitioned into a middle school science teacher. My five year old son is crazy about dinosaurs and fossils. We recently took a productive fossil hunting trip (his very first!) to a site near Coalinga , California. This forum is where I heard about that location. I’m a novice to fossil hunting, but I have a passion for learning about all life and I want to grow my son’s budding interest.
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Hello everyone, I'm currently in California driving through many of the national parks, and other beautiful sites of the state. I saw that we may be driving through Bakersfield from Sequoia National Park while going towards the LA area and I was wondering if it would be worth paying a visit to the famous Shark tooth hill location, but immediately a few questions came up that I decided to ask here. First of all, does anyone know how accessible the site is? Does one have to walk far to reach it or is it pretty much accessible by car? I'm with my family who are unfortunately not very excited by fossils and if it's not that accessible they won't want to go. Additionally, what kind of equipment is needed? Since I came here from across the country I obviously don't have any gear with me. Do you need to actually dig, or is it possible to surface collect? And finally, I saw a few things online about valley fever, how big of a concern is this? If it's something you need to protect yourself from, what kind of mask would work? Thank you to everyone who looked, Misha
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Hello, I just joined the fossil forum - I have an amateur interest in fossils and a few items I have purchased or been given over the years (I received several fossils form my late grandfather). Most of the items I have came without information (identification, age, locality... etc.) My goal is to learn a little bit more and see if I can ID any of these items to a passable degree. Thanks, - Connor Long
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Hi All; I found this in a stream bed in Northern California. It looks like a heart and had some unusual indentions & stippling that caught my eye. Any help to let me know if this is a fossil would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! Q
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Found this in a stream bed in Northern California near Yosemite. It caught my eye & I thought it looked interesting. Looking for assistance in identifying if its a fossil. 57EAE5E6-0341-4DE9-9DF5-C71DE7B950BA.heic FBA4D04A-EF8C-4B88-8A9A-0F439E55C6C1.heic A2410DFD-DA95-47D2-AB7A-766C1C114715.heic 4AD3902D-2405-402A-9232-B803429A37B7.heic C0F44A10-076A-4277-AED5-7A45106DD5FF.heic EC820CA1-3224-4942-816C-F54A218DFE45.heic 7436F5F0-3137-4FEF-B29E-7A7CAE0B567C.heic 64BAC714-E8A3-4740-B1AD-4C5F30B4D2E1.heic 0ED11F6F-D6E7-4B81-BE3A-A5237C4CF3BB.heic 773F2539-F2FA-403F-9B0D-6DDC047905AB.heic
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Hello everyone I need help IDing these shells and more importantly the age. I have had these for 25-26 years, I got them when I worked offshore the Gaviota coast California about 7 miles and they came from about 3-4 thousand feet deep into the formation (maybe deeper, I cant remember its been so long ). They have to be millions of years old, the water depth there is 1000 feet and like I mentioned earlier they come up from 3-4 thousand feet deep into the formation., Thank you
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Two bones found in my backyard planter roughly 1ft/12in below the surface. Location: Orange County, Southern California, United States. The larger of the two bones has one side cleanly cut. We have never buried any animals/pets nor placed any bones in our backyard in the 30+ years our family has lived at this property. Perhaps they are from the previous owner. It's a little unsettling not knowing where they came from and what they belonged to. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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Brought my son out to my new secret spot in Contra Costa County, SF East Bay Area, CA (thankfully NOT within any park boundaries). The spot is a deep creek bed around a border where Eocene (Tdu/Domingene form.) and Early Cretaceous (Kbs) meet. There are lots of nice gastropod fossils in large masses of sandstone, a few brachiopods here and there, but my favorites are the many quite large bivalve fossils and whole oyster fossils we found. Today my son spotted a really nice cluster of large bivalves peaking out the wall of the creek bed, and he found another whole oyster! He was so thrilled.
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I've been living in Chinese Camp, California for five years. I wouldn't have moved here except that I took my wife and two children looking for ammonite fossils. We found none that day, but we ended seeing an old country store for sale (only business in the abandoned town) and eventually bought it and live on the property. The fossils around here are all late Jurassic, but because of the forces that created the Sierra Nevada mountains, the fossils are very rare and in poor shape. Finding a whole ammonite, no matter small is a cause for great celebration, but this doesn't dampen my enjoyment at all. For several years we found some ammonites and a few Buccia (Jurassic brachiopod) but on rare occasions we found something long and tapered. I founds parts of these and they were segmented so I suspected belemnites. They are never (never ever) found alongside (in the same layers) ammonites, but they are in the same general formation (Mariposa Formation). Here are the fist ones I found, when I wasn't too sure what they were:
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Someone else mentioned finding oyster fossils in the SF East Bay area CA, What you you guys think of this one? Area is a creek bed draining a diverse ranging from Miocene to Jurassic and in between. Thanks in advance for lending your experience and knowledge to hep me I.D. fossils.
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Hey guys. Thought this was suspect enough to post up. Fossil or just rock? Area is a fossil-rich creek bottom draining a diverse area ranging from Miocene to Jurassic, California SF East Bay area. Thanks in advance. RCD
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Hey guys, yet another I..D. request from new fossil spot, which is a deep creek bed which drains a diverse area ranging from Miocene to Jurassic. Wondering if this could be fossilized wood. Any thoughts?
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Help Identifying Several Fossil Impressions on Small Slab Collected North of Santa Barbara
G.Pedersen posted a topic in Fossil ID
Hello: Would like to know if anyone can help identify the several impressions on the rock in the attached photos? I am guessing that the roundish impression could have been made by a crab shell, but the other one is a mystery. There are also numerous tiny white all over the rock surface and wonder if these were left by small creatures. The "crab shell" measures 1.5 mm across. The other impression measures approx. 4 mm in length and approx. 2 mm tall. It was collected years ago just north of Santa Barbara. Thank you.
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Hello: Would like to know if anyone can help identify the attached fossil image? This fossil impression was collected years ago north of Santa Barbara. The impression measures approx. 10.5 mm long. Thank you.
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Found these along a creek bed about 30 miles inland at about 500 ft. elevation. Any ideas?
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Would love to know the species of these spirally shell fossils. I think they are from the late Miocene but not sure. I'm also curious if the oblong rock intrusions in the first pic might be fossils as well? The location is the East Bay Hills in between the San Francisco Bay area and the Central Valley of California, USA. Thanks!!!
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Found this rock at half moon bay in California. It leaks out a black tar substance and I have no idea what it is. It has 4 little prongs that look like tooth roots and it’s shaped like a molar. Any help would be appreciated.
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Eocene Saber-Toothed Mammal Fossil Unearthed in California
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Saber-Toothed Mammal Fossil Unearthed in California Sci News, Mar 16, 2022 Paleontologists Uncover the Oldest Sabertoothed Predator Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, March 15, 2022 The open access paper is: Zack, S.P., Poust, A.W. and Wagner, H., 2022. Diegoaelurus, a new machaeroidine (Oxyaenidae) from the Santiago Formation (late Uintan) of southern California and the relationships of Machaeroidinae, the oldest group of sabertooth mammals. PeerJ, 10, p.e13032. Yours, Paul H.- 1 reply
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Does anybody know of some decent hunting sites in California? I know of Latham shale, but I'm not sure if it's very beginner friendly.
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Hello all. I found this on a beach in Santa Cruz, CA earlier today. No idea what I'm looking at - all of the similar teeth that I looked at online didn't have a base like this one. Thank you for any help.
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Found this today, which I think is a fossil of leaves? Thanks! Location: Monterey Formation shale, Monterey County, California (Miocene) Outside of Carmel Valley, near Garland Ranch, among pea crabs (Pinnixa sp.) Description: About an inch and a half in length (I could get exact measurements). It looks like they have a complete margin(?) with a central midrib and veins that alternate. From a single split, so, positive and negative sides.
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Reconstructing 1856-7 California Mining Patterns from Shipwreck Placer Gold
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Rocks & Minerals
VonSydow, Kathryn Ruth, 2021 Reconstructing 1856-7 California Mining Patterns From Placer Gold Recovered From The Wreck Of The Ss Central America, California, MS thesis, California State University - San Bernardino Open access archive search Yours, Paul H.-
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Found on beach north of San Francisco. Area has Merced deposit fossils, mostly marine sediments Pliocene-Pleistocene but I believe there are also terrestrial fossils in the area. What is it? It looks vaguely like lichen. or possibly a seed? Part of the attached rock was very black and shiny and flinty and had a sulphury/smokey aroma.
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From the album: My Collection
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Kinda a late introduction, as I’ve been a member here in October, but I’ve just remembered that I’ve never introduced myself. I’m a 14 year old dude, and I’m mainly interested in Cambrian fauna and Ordovician soft bodied fauna, my favorites being Vetulicolians, Lobopods, and Marrellomorphs. I also collect theses fossils when the opportunity arises, along with fossilized teeth. I’ve only relatively recently rekindled my interest in fossils, when I stumbled across a PBS Eons video during early 2021. Before this, I’d always loved fossils but physics was my main interest. I didn’t even learn of the Burgess Shale until March or so, but ever since I did, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the bizarre forms that animals took on during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. I’ve joined the forum to talk to other people about fossils, and to learn more about them. Here’s my favorite two fossils from collection: Here’s Sigil, my massive rooted Spinosaur(us?) tooth from Morocco. It’s about 5.55” long. I saved up for way too long to get the money to buy this, but was totally worth it. It’s my favorite fossil in my collection. And here’s my fossil plate from the Burgess Shale. It contains 2 marrellas (there’s one on the back) and two other fossils I can’t identify. By a stroke of absolute luck, I managed to get this for free from an auction house.
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