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Showing results for tags 'collecting'.
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Hi there everyone! I hope everyone’s having a fantastic day! I just wanted to get on here and ask y’all about your favorite/preferred magnifying tool. I recently acquired some burmite with some beautiful inclusions but my standard magnifying glasses aren’t really cutting it in order to really appreciate the specimens. I’d love to hear about your guy’s favorite magnifying tools that y’all use to appreciate your fossils and your overall recommendations. Thank you all so much!
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Today it was early and about 60 degrees and I decided to go out and do a little collecting. Here are pics of the concretions and some as I found them. As I saw it- As I saw it- As I saw it- As I saw these two- The next piece was large and flat. I do not bring these home, I try to open them in the field or I that is an issue, I break it in half and see if there is anything in the middle
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I decided to do a little collecting again this evening, not that I need any more concretions, but I hear them calling to me. Below is a picture of the concretions that I found this evening. I like big concretions, as most people do, but most do not contain anything, so I leave them alone, like I did to the one below. My favorite concretions to find are the smaller ones, like the ones below. The one pictured below is a nice shape, but not perfect.
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This will be my shortest post ever. I had some time after work to drive the 45 minutes to a site to collect some Mazon Creek concretions. I did not spend much time collecting and only found about 30 concretions, many that I cracked open for a police officer who had asked me how the collecting was going. He was interested and will give the fossils to his kids. Here are a couple pics of open concretions that were in the ground and how they looked after I got them home. Neuropteris ovata- You can see the split open concretion in the ground.
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I did a little collecting today, found a lot of nice concretions, below are some “in-situ” pictures of concretions and a few pics of some of the open stuff that I found- all Flora. Most of the concretions and the fossils that will be included, will be posted in my “Sometimes you have to whack it“ post. Hopefully this contains a beautiful fern. m
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What factors or interests, influenced the primary focus of your fossil collecting?
Rock Hound posted a topic in Member Collections
What factors or interests, influenced the primary focus of your fossil collecting? Was it the fossils you were able to find locally? Was it something you were fascinated by, when you were young? Was it the fossils your father or mother collected? Or something else? -
Hello all, Do you have any tips to minimise back strain while fossil hunting? We go home with stiff backs, weather we walk on the beach or scratch next to the road, and it takes a few days to fully recover. I tried to think of some solutions, like buying kneepads so that I can put more weight on my knees instead of my back while I scrach and hit at rocks.
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Anyone know of any spots I can go collecting? I’ve asked around a good bit but have found nothing of note. The only two places I know of is Hook head County Wexford which is definitely worth the trip and personally I have had some good finds there, the only other place I have found was a beach in County Cork beside spike island between Gobby beach and Lough Beg beach which as far as I’m aware is not known about by anyone really. So if you know of any decent places in Ireland let me know!
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Expectations for "Imperfect" Fossils vs. Budget
Mochaccino posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hello, As someone who has only started collecting fossils over the past several months and exclusively via purchasing, I wanted to ask people on this forum what their thoughts are on "imperfect" fossils; namely, their approaches and advice to tempering expectations for imperfections in a fossil given one's limited budget. It's no surprise that better-preserved higher quality specimens fetch significantly higher prices, and in general I'd rather spend more for a good, representative specimen than get a cheap, "bad" one. But prices can increase exponentially with increasi- 56 replies
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Hello FF members: I’m going out to visit Penn Dixie and go on a field trip with PRI in a couple weeks, and I was wondering whether anyone might be willing to point me to an additional collecting site or two roughly between Syracuse and Buffalo. I’m mostly interested in brachiopods, mollusks, and microfossils, but that’s not a hard limit. Don’t want to steal anyone’s honey hole, but I remember from (many) years back that there were sometimes creek or road cuts that could afford a few hours of leisurely collecting. I’m happy to trade issues of Fossil News magazine if that’s of any in
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How to Select a “Probable Area” to Begin Digging
Megalodoodle posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Many Needmore formation sites are located where I live. I was wondering how does one go about selecting a “probable spot” to begin digging/splitting shale. Is there some trade secret that I am unaware of or is it pure luck? -
Has anyone been to the Spanish Fork Canyon near mill creek for collecting Eocene shells recently. Is this area still accessible off skyline drive?
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I should have done this earlier, but my trip plans only just jelled. I'm going to be in the Canon City area next week, with some side trips to South Park. Any tips anyone cares to share on fossil hunting sites? I've already been pointed at Baculite Mesa and I'll be camping practically on top of the Ordovician beds north of Canon City. Also thinking of Box Canyon further west. I've heard there are good sites near Trout Creek Pass but I don't have a precise location.
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Hello, all! I am brand new to collecting. I have always had an interest in all things ancient, but it’s grown specific to dinosaurs and their kin. Recently, I made the plunge and bought my first ever tooth (megaladon). I have yet to receive it but want to make sure I display it properly. With two littles running around, I don’t dare leave it on the stand and was considering displaying it in a shadow box or a display case mounted adult eye level on the wall. Is this a huge, cringeworthy “just no” move? Also, if displayed in a shadow box I would obviously not use glue or sc
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As a later summer vacation we decided to do a road trip - Tour de France. France having many interesting destinations and things to do and collecting fossils would be one of them. As we usually don’t plan our trips beyond a few days ahead also the fossil locations were decided on the road. But when reading about Carniol it became clear it was one we had to include. Other non fossil highlights of the trip were Bordeaux, the Pyrenees, Toulouse (great museum of natural history), Lyon and of course Pont du Gard. When finding out about Carniol I did some further reading on how to get th
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I don´t know if I can find the time to prepare fossil hunting trip reports for TFF regularly. However, I will at least try to prepare them regularly for my personal website in pdf format. I would like to share them with you. They are in German, though: Fossil Hunting Trips 2021 (link to my personal website) Thanks! Franz Bernhard
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Hello all, I just wanted ask some advice from more experienced collectors about the direction I should take my collection in. I’m recently married and do cannot afford to by every fossil that takes my fancy anymore. As a result I’ll be saving up my money but I’d also like to take my collecting down a more specific route also. I had been collecting Proboscidean teeth for a while, but my heart is still set on dinosaurs. As I want to focus on a specific group but I want advice on which is the most worth my time. I’ve pretty much excluded theropods for a variety of reasons,
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Hello all For the last years, my main focus of collecting was the Kem Kem beds, where I tried to get every species represented in my collection. Something that's been going quite well, but is getting harder and harder to do. Some of my main bucket list items from there are extremely hard to get. Last year I started collecting stuff from the Elrhaz formation as well, which is also been going quite well. Now I want to start collecting a third ecosystem. The main focus will still be Kem Kem, but I want to start getting a bit more diversity in my collection. The goal is to
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So my wife has a business trip coming up in Sept. I'm going with her and want stuff to do on the few days she's at the office there. End of the week we are hitting up some museum places around Morrison. I'm also thinking of hitting up the Florissant Fossil Quarry, because that's at least one place I can go and find something myself. I mean I'm certainly going to buy a few fossils on the trip because well why not. So there are a few things I'll visit without her just because I don't mind the hikes. I'd kind of like to find a few things myself and I know absolutely nothi
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Hey everyone, I’m new to the forum but loved fossils all my life and recently got into building a nice collection. I have a chance to acquire a very nice Ammolite Ammonite at a decent price. I’m curious though are they more desirable in or out of the matrix? The one I’m considering has lovely colors including blue and purple and is out of the matrix. Was just curious before spending that kind of coin if I should consider in matrix. Thanks in advance! Lee
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I have several professional relationships with renowned paleontologists. Collecting ethics is a topic that I have discussed with them and other hobbyists at length. Note: I am a hobbyist and fossil collector. There appear to be a number of legitimate "scientific" concerns: 1. Do field "collectors" (hobbyists) know the difference between common and uncommon (rare) fossils they discover? 2. Do hobbyists know how to properly excavate and document fossil discoveries? This includes professional excavation techniques, proper formation and strata ID, pictures, field not
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Today was I was in a large Home Improvement store and in the flooring section I saw these cool little 8” by 8” pieces of carpet. Right when I saw them, I could see myself lying on the ground at St. Leon, Indiana, looking in the butter shale for trilobites and complaining about rocks digging into my elbows. I will place a couple of these in my pack when I collect. They don’t weigh anything, can be used for my elbows or knees and the best part is- they are FREE.
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I am always looking for different cases to take with me when I am collecting fossils (Non Mazon Creek). I picked this nice little, thin (2”) plastic carrying case. This case will be perfect for collecting road cuts that contain different species of fossils. I can’t wait to try this one out. Purchased at a large box home improvement store for $5.99.
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This has come up a bit around the forums lately, and with the shopping holidays just around the corner, I figure it is a good time to open up this can of worms! Well that and I am buying up equipment for my new earth sciences students to use, so might as well dig two trilobites with one hammer... But first, a few disclaimers: I will use brand names for some items. This is not an endorsement, but a statement on quality/price/durability, etc. With tools, not all manufacturers are the same. Why buy junk ten times, when you can buy the pro-grade once the first time?
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I love to use Plano plastic trays to store fossils at home or when I am in the field. Today I stopped at the Plano Outlet store in Plano, Illinois. I pass by Plano all of the time and never put it together that Plano, Illinois is where Plano Manufacturing was located- go figure, but enough about that. I stopped here last week to check it out and went back again today to get the below pictured item, I got it for $34.99, which is about 1/3 of the price on line, outlet stores are alright by me. I figure that I will keep the case in the car when I am out collecting and I will place fos
