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Well In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm slowly moving north thru calif, fossil wise. Ive started with the LA area, probably becuase i lived there so long, and gradually am moving north. I have one more interesting fossil to share before leaving Califfornia. its from central calif, my limit of fossil collecting at that time was the southern half of calif I spent approx 32days digging DESMOSTYLUS, although not all at the same time, many trips, with no problems. And over 2 years preparing the material we collected. Back then ranchers were not concerned about some diggings by hand. BUT, when these "kind acts" are abused, -----trash, gates left open, insurance, inconsiderate dirt bikers,etc.---- it Erks the rancher. We all just need to be more considerate. He doesn't have to let people onto HIS property, so when this privelage is abused, he simply shuts his property down for everyone. this is the problem with many sites I'm showing lately. especially in calif. It seems when I "haven't" been to a site for a while, when I do return, someone has ##### off the rancher, he no longer allows anyone on his property, and shuts down the area to off limits for everyone. So another great site down! This seems to be happening more and more ferquently. I can understand his dilema, Fossils aren't the reason he is there anyway. This is one of those sites. The last time I was there, the rancher had the entire area fenced off and posted " NO TRESSPASSING", and he can see this area from his ranch house kitchen window. I was friends with him but he passed. Now his son strictly enforces this decision. More abuse would REALLY ###### him off. So BE SURE TO at least ask permission, when you enter ANY private property. Here are just a couple of my favorites. Again the rest went to a large museum. Desmostylus hesperus These are the smallest complete juveniles that I found and to this day have never seen anything like them. probably nursing teeth. And probably lower and upper.

One of my favorite Christmas gift

Just before I left calif permently, I did another paleosalvage job in Orange County for the hiway dept. It was on a weekend, and in a low miocene roadcut, approx 20-30ft. About halfway up the cut I found a nice piece of pecten(scallop) shell in situ (in place), in some unindurated softish sandy material, and flairly easy to dig. This softer layer was sandwhiched between two thick, very solid and resistant layers of limestone?. As it was pretty easy diggin where the pectens were, I explored further, i started burrowing/digging, following some decent pectens into the hill along the bedding plane. Before to long, I realized I had dug a small horizontal shaft into the hill directly into that layer, about the size of my body. I was by then 3-4ft into the hole, and i was laying on my back looking up at a celling of beautiful pectens. As I dug in further the pecten bed started to broaden until it was approx 6 ftx5ft, of solid overlapping pecten, and 3 or 4feet into the hole I had started. There were probably 50 giant perfect shells each 5-6 in across. The entire celling was covered with giant perfect pectens. What a sight!! Truly a work of art? Not knowing just how to handle this one, I squirmed out to take a breather and assess the situation. Just as I sat up outside the opening, I heard a horrible ground shaking THUD, and dust came billowing out of the hole which I had just vacated. The entire ceiling had caved in. I would estimate a couple tons of rock had collapsed, including the fossils. WHEW!!! EEOW!! WHAT A CLOSE CALL !! Out of ALL those lovely pecten I had uncovered, I was only able to salvage these TWO,--- pictured below. And like I said, they ALL had both valves and ALL were this good. It seems i was the only one to see this underground treasure. Ohh, if I only had a camera? WAIT !! i mean, I'm sure glad I didn't have a camera Last time i was there they had sprayed the cut with asphalt to ensure slower weathering AND to discourage fossil collectors. I now stay well away from rock overhangs. Pecten mIguelensis. Pliocene. S.Calif

I traveled to china (hunan mining district) with a mining advisory group back in the '80s. I was with a group on how to improve mining techniques. As I am not a mining specialist, I just tagged along in a paleo capacity, and to be a tourist. Although we did tour many mines, including the famous antimony mine where those spectacular stibnite crystals are found 600ft underground. So deep it was uncomfortably warm. As it was a working mine,it was a look don't touch situation, but lots of massive antimony pockets, however i didn't see any of those lovely crystals that day. On this particular day we ended up at the small museum in a mining school. They had some eye popping fossils on display, including huge mass mortality plates (some were 3x4ft) of giant trilobites, 4or5 giant trilos to a plate, some trilos were over a foot in length, with smaller 3or 4in trilos scattered in between. I had never before seen anything like them! when it was time for our group to leave, one of the chinese overseers tapped me on the shoulder and took me aside. Remember we could not communicate(Chinese). however we did seem to communicate thru fossils. He then shoved a wrapped package into my hands, and let me know, somehow, this was a friendship gift from the school, so don't open it till later. When I got back to the "hotel", I peeked. Wow! unexpected! it was a beautiful single 11in trilo. needless to say, I hand carried my new treasure back on the train, then on the plane, home. ill treasure it, with that story forever. It all seemed to happen so fast, with so many unfamiliar distractions, 25 yrs later, I don't even remember exactly WHO or WHERE! Even with my notes.

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

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.

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.

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?

I lived in calif for a goodly part of my younger years, and therefore collected STH many years. then I moved a thousand miles away and raised a family. My youngest son(now 30) had grown up hearing stories of STH, and my STH collection itself, and so, was quite interested in the area. When he was old enough he couldnt wait to be out on his own. We don't spend a lot of time with each other lately On one return from Tucson ('05)we decided to stop by the locale for a few hours. Everything, luck wise, seemed to be lining up. The car coincidently turned over 200k right when we drove through Bakersfield, and my son was with me his one and only time there.