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Lets see what you consider jewelry grade fossils

I think ill keep this one "Pulalius"

Im not sure if anyone still recalls, but Last summer I posted this picture, in hopes someone could guess its true identity. Well it is now prepared to reveal its true identity I will post the revealed specimen in the reply.

I was talking with a friend on the phone a couple months ago and mentioned that I liked serrated shark teeth. About a week later I received this sweet GW tooth in the mail, completely out of the blue, as a Christmas gift. I collected The large hastalis is from STH

These comparative specimens are lower cambrian inarticulate brachiopods from the lathem shale. I collected them in the classic locality at the marble mountains in the Mohave desert, over 40years ago. They too are a variety of PATERINA

A storm on Jupiter

Went for a fossil hike yesterday

Firstly-thank you John This PDF is an explanation of what I hope will become solidly embedded in 21st century building codes. Including archaeology sites. ESP 3rd page As you probably know by now, I am very concerned with the loss of these very fragile resourses, and would collect fossils from them almost every weekend. My concern with salvaging fossils from the foundation pads of buildings, landed me the first "official" job, and proverbial guinea pig, monitoring these construction sites for museums in the country. I found many varieties of fossils on site almost every day, all went to those museums. And I have continued donating many many fossils to this day. Over 40 years. 20_Murphey_et_al_FINAL.pdf

"Titula"

Back, many many years ago, I made my first trade, a bunch of sh th from France. All were relatively average except this one. The guy, from france said it was uncommon, possibly eocene, and It's the only one from that trade i have left. Anyone have any comments?

With all the mazon posts lately, it made me look closer at my material. What, if anything, are these little nodes?

This is what one looks like, as found !!

I know crabs are fairly prevalent in the oligocene Lincoln ck. fm. Does anyone collect any associated fossils?

I apologise, but I posted this earlier today, and realized it would be better as its own thread THROPHONS are an interesting gastropod from the miocene Astoria formation in Oregon, and quite rare with good preservation. I would invite others to show us their interesting fossil gastropods from around the world.

I can't find my last posting on this subject. I need it for chat. so Ill try again. all material is replaced with agate and jasper, and cut and polished by me

When they first discovered this area they wanted only jewelry grade fire opal, tossing out the lovely Miocene wood fire opal mix as what youall call shamers. Now the wood with the combination opal is the priority material

This Miocene wood was preserved in ash from a nearby volcanic eruption

One of my favorite Christmas gift

About ten years ago, Argentina put a ban on exportation of the fabulous jurassic Araucaria pinecones. can anyone here show us their personal piece, they were lucky enough to acquire before the ban? Or. How bout ANY fossil pinecones? edit: in your collection.

We decided to settle in the PNW, so after we packed up everything we could cram into our PU and cargo trailer, we headed north. It took us 5 days just to get from SoCal to Salem oregon, where we lived for 2 years. All because, when we acquired new tires for the trip, they forgot to tighten the lug nuts(only finger tight) and we didnt notice for a few hundred miles. When we finally pulled over 3 of the lug bolts were sheared off and needed to be replaced, and of course it was the weekend. Luckily it was only one wheel. The look of our vehicle and trailer reminded me of the beverly hillbillies. While living in Salem we learned there were occasionally, nice fossils found at the coast, a couple hour drive one way, and usually cold and wet. Being new to the area/state we had little time to wander about, and collect. But now and then we did get a break from the busy of new job, making a new home, etc. However we did, now and then, find time to get to the coast and gather some fossils there Most of the central coast is Miocene, Astoria fm about 15-18 m.y.o. These are examples of the giant volute MUSASHIA Before prep. After prep

Would anyone care to share pics of their favorite cambrian fossil?

Being a total fossil nut, and having excellent locality info, my new bride and I took a wonderful 7000mile expedition around the entire western half of the US, to see where we might want to settle. We visited a half dozen world class fossil sites. Along the way to Omaha and the badlands i took another sidetrip to Florissant co., this was before all the rules and regulations were in place. And ever since have had a GREAT affinity for fossil insects. Luckily she also loved fossils, and although we never returned to florissant, some years later we located another excellent oligocene fossil insect locality. I will share pics with you later. It was summer when we were at florissant, the fossil laden paper shale lies in some beautiful country up in the Rocky Mountains. It didnt matter then, but I kick myself now for not taking a pic of that beautiful countryside,. and ive heard it is not uncommon to have 4-5 feet of snow for 5-6 months there in the wintertime. We camped out at night and ended up spending 5-6 days digging in the Florissant area, long enough to get to know a lot of the locals. BTW, does anyone know a David knapp? He worked at the monument during the summers, and was another fossil nut. A nice guy and very helpful. If so, I would very much like to rekindle our friendship. Upon my return home, LACMIP put some of my florissant collection on display, and among many other pieces, here are a few of my favorites. note the fresh water ostracod on the ovipositor of the parasitic wasp. Hornet. Parasitic wasp. Sequoia branches/ berries. Flower/Chinese hatbox

Ive been collecting fossils for 45 years and still have my FIRST fossil treasures, nothing great but--- 1st pic: This is Before I even knew what a fossil looked like (seems like back in the Pleistocene). I used to peruse/play in the tidepools near my home. when i was very young 4th grade. i had heard there were "fossils" found now and then in the same area, so I always kept my eyes pealed for fossils. on this particular outing i finally found a great fossil (so i thought). i was soooo happy and showed it off regularley. even took it to show and tell at school. In the years since ive concluded it is probably NOT a fossil, and to this day i cant figger WHAT it is. although it does have a special place in my fossil cabinit. Any ideas? 2nd pic is a shot of my first "real" fossiI. I went to the mountains on a 6th grade camp out. one sunny day we went for a hike up a small dry river bed. On the way up the cobbely "path" I kept noticing odd contrasting marks in the stream worn rocks. So on the way back I convinced the leader to slow down so I could look closer at the fossils in the rocks. I was very excited, as these obviously were FOSSILS. I found a small clam that I could carry easily. And brought my treasure back to camp in my pocket. And to this day too I love my sweet little first real fossil. I do know now, it is a Miocene pelecypods with well defined dendrites. But I didn't then. it seemed a lot bigger back then too. I realize this topic was asked only a few months ago but I didn't know how to post pics then. Does anyone else have a "first fossil" story? We'd love to hear it.

A few years ago, I flew back to Missouri on business, and to visit. I had a heavy carry-on pkg of fossils/rocks to show. While there I had a free day, so my friends and I decided to do some sightseeing around town. My friends were not at all "fossil people", and when I told them that fossils were prevelant in their area they were astonished. As we drove around, just sightseeing, on the outskirts of the city, near a park, I noticed the foundations of a housing tract being built. and being the weekend there were no workers to annoy, and I still had a couple of hours of light left. I had a hunch exposed rock inthis area could produce fossils. So I proceeded up the dirt road to the tract area. It was obvious the construction crew had been blasting the solid rock into more easily removable rubble. There were piles of it everywhere. luckily the workers hadnt even begun to clear it yet, and I guess no fossil collectors had been there to gather the fossils from the large piles of rubble. And lemme tell you, there were quite a few fossils laying exposed all around the area. I was very astonished also! As I didn't have any tools, i could only gather what was exposed and easy to pick up. Being so out of my element I had/ have no idea what was considered "good pickins". So I just started gathering, and near the end of my time there even started to find crinoids in one area. And, of course, right as i started finding numerous crinoid pieces, it was getting dark and cold, so we had to leave. I spent my one day shot there. I must have carried out 50-60 pounds of giant brachiopods,. and being from the west coast had never before seen such mammoth brachs; along with many other smaller fossils back to the car and home. I certainly would have liked to spend a couple more days there, to zero in on some crinoids NOW,--- I had the problem of not only bringing my firstly heavy package of rocks back on the plane, but my luggage, and now an extra added large and heavy quantity of rocks. Remember, i did not even know what "good collecting" in that area was, and actually still don't, for all i knew i was wasting my time. so I decided to higrade and bring back only what I happened to like. I narrowed it down to about a half dozen pieces.( about 25 more pounds). I left the other pieces there with my friends After quite a looong day of schleppin, and fast talking, I made it back to my home on the west coast that next evening. Here are some pics of those brachiopods---- can anyone advise me? The two larger shells I am relatively sure are. Spirifer grimesi-- but the smaller. ?? And are they as cool as I thought?

Way back when I was doing paleosalvage for the county, I ran across a thin 2 in, coarse sandy grey layer that had been exposed by a bulldozer, and leveled off for a housing pad, for a housing tract, . This thin layer was an obviously different color from the rest of the soil. So when I investigated, lo and behold it was chock full of Carcharodon sulcidens, a rather uncommon shark fossil in the area. Since I was digging for the county and on their property, I quickly salvaged what I could and moved on.I couldnt do much digging as the house pad was finished, It was after shut down time, and they are very strict. On the long car ride home I was admiring the teeth i had gathered that afternoon, and only one stood out as "perfect". It even had the tippy tip serration. Not a point, but a lovely huge and broad single semetrical crescent shaped serration at the tip, and razor sharp. Looked REALLY cool. A bubble razor shape. Could even have been a pathalogic tip? I was so happy with this tooth. Pliocene C. sulcidens from calif are a prize, and this one was shiny and flawless, and with a beautiful crowning serration. It Was that tip serration that made this tooth very special. I've now had that tooth for 35years. But about 10 years ago, one afternoon as I was showing off the tooth, right then, something came up. So I quickly, temporarily put that tooth on a shelf on a rag to protect it. About half an hour later my x needed a rag for something and grabbed that rag, of all the rags, and guess what fell off the rag and hit the hard kitchen floor, right on the beautiful tip serration. I must confess, it was an accident. She didnt know the tooth was there. GONE! Now it's just a nice average tooth and a fond memory.