Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'fossil hunting'.
-
Going out to look for trilobites for the first time!
Trinitydraco posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
So I just found out about two good fossil sites for trilobites only and hour away from my house! This is my first time going out looking for fossils ever and I am so excited! I gots me a spade, large flat head screw driver, thin pry bar, gloves and claw hammer. For prep tools I have an air scribe and compressor, steel dental/sculpting tools, mini files, polishing papers, and other small tools as I work with silver. The site is in Vermont and I am expecting wet, cool conditions. I wanted to get any tips or advice you may have for a first timer to help make my afternoon trip a success. Tri-Lo-Bites! (read as dine-o-mite!)- 10 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- fossil hunting
- trilobites
- (and 1 more)
-
Hey, So I was planning on going on a fossil hunt this summer in Oklahoma. I thought "Black Cat Mountain" would be a great place to start but I can't find anything on how to contact the owner "Bob Carrol". I've been on their website which has a phone number but it says its no longer in use. If anyone has contact information like a email or phone number that would be great. Anyway thank you for reading this message and have a nice day. Sincerely, Carson Betancourt
-
Hey everyone, Glad to see a site of devoted fossil hunters like myself. Happy Hunting. Chris
-
Hello everyone. I have been a collector for a long time, but I think it is pretty sad that there is a very limited amount of fossils in my collection I have found myself. I want to start fossil hunting more often!! I often take my fossil collection to schools, and I think it would be special to be able to share things I've found myself. Right now I am visiting family in the Canonsburg area, which is outside of Pittsburgh, PA. I am going to try to get some geologic maps for the area. But in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone has any other resources for me or any favorite spots around there? Thank you all! (Not sure if this was the right section for this post, if not please move)
-
Hi there, I was wondering if anyone knows where to go fossil hunting in Oklahoma? I tried looking everywhere but don't know where too exactly start. Like what papers do I sign and who do I contact to get permission too. If anyone can help that would be great and thank you for reading this. Have a nice day.
-
Hey guys, after hunting in Gainesville for a while I want to know if there’s any other places I can hunt? I’ve already done the beaches on the coast and some private sections os spring runs, but I’m ready for more. Anyone interested in heping me? I’m craving fossils like crazy. I’m not afraid of creeks, streams, springs, diving, and water up to my waist.
-
Hey everybody, I'm planning on going to do a day's worth of nodule collecting at Mazon Creek in a few weeks with a buddy of mine. Any tips on where to go? Also, anyone know of a hotel that's reasonably close to where we can start collecting? Thanks for any and all tips!
- 3 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- fossil hunting
- hotel
- (and 3 more)
-
Believe I'd heard somewhere it's illegal to hunt north of bowling green, or at least there's less fossils? Also heard someone had hunted near Bartow many years back.. so many questions marks here but I know hunting in the state park boundaries is not legal
-
Open Access Fossil Hunter's Guides to the Geology of Florida
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Rupert, F., 1994a. A Fossil Hunter's Guide to the Geology of Panhandle Florida (No. 63). Florida Geological Survey. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267999223_A_FOSSIL_HUNTER'S_GUIDE_TO_THE_GEOLOGY_OF_PANHANDLE_FLORIDA https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Rupert http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00003731/00001 http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/search/fossils?type=edismax&collection=palmm%3Aroot Rupert, F., 1994b. A Fossil Hunter's Guide to the Geology of the Northern Florida Peninsula (No. 65). Florida Geological Survey. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00003729/00001 http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/search/fossils?type=edismax&collection=palmm%3Aroot Have Fun, Paul H.- 2 replies
-
- 2
-
-
-
- florida
- fossil hunting
- (and 4 more)
-
Hi all fossil lovers, I am not just an amateur collector but absolute newbie to this field. I just started my new interest and I am glad I found your forum with so much interesting information. You guys have a great forum over here and looks like lots of interesting people. Great work I enjoy traveling, mountaineering, diving and basically anything what involves outdoors. This year I want to go and start fossil hunting, have to wait couple of months because right now we have about a meter of snow over here. Hope luck is on my side and I will have some pics of my own finds to post here soon. Please if my spelling gets doggie take it easy with me after all English is not my first language Thanks
- 15 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- czech republic
- fossil hunting
- (and 1 more)
-
Hey TFF members! So big news, I hit 1,000 subscribers on YouTube which was a big goal for me, so I'm happy to have made it! Thanks to everyone who has checked out my videos, it really does mean a lot. I put together a video of some of my favorite shark tooth hunting moments since I started making videos about 6 months ago. This one is full of action, I promise! Give it a watch if you are interested and have some time
- 14 replies
-
- 11
-
-
- florida
- fossil hunting
- (and 4 more)
-
To all of TTF member’s “start as you mean to go on” I hope you reap the rewards from all your fossil hunting adventures. Happy New Year.
- 6 replies
-
- 6
-
-
- collecting fossils
- finding fossils
- (and 1 more)
-
Has anyone been fossil hunting at, in or on Little River, SC? If so, where is a place to hunt that is legal and not on private property? I've never hunted a river before and don't know how to go about it. Any suggestions welcome. Or if anyone knows other rivers near North Myrtle Beach to hunt? Thanks!
-
Cliff Falls and Mud Slides With More Rain Coming to VA
SailingAlongToo posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
This past Sunday Mrs.SA2 and I ventured out for what was going to be my last opportunity to fossil hunt in 2018 due to my work schedule. Sunday's weather forecast was for upper 40s F, light rain - mist, 15 mph Nor'east winds gusting to 20 mph, 3 foot waves and water levels along all the rivers running double normal for this time of year due to all the recent rain and snow melt. Obviously, not ideal for fossil hunting along any of eastern VA's swollen rivers but it was the last day I could hunt this year, so we were going to make the best of it. Mrs.SA2 is quite the trooper and always up for an adventure. (I think she was just humoring me since she's off work from Christmas Eve till after NYs and plans on doing lots of fossil hunting with some of our fossil friends.) We hit the beach at high tide and hoped we would get at least some water level drop moving towards low. No such luck, wind picked up and waves started crashing the beach. We spent about 5 hours walking what little beach there was and found plenty of (several hundred) small sharks teeth, but nothing exciting, not even large broken teeth. I did manage to find a worn dolphin periotic, which are always nice to find and we pulled out quite a few Chesapecten nefrens from recent slides/falls, but that was about it. Nothing worth even posting photos of on TFF. Before hitting the beach we had discussed the cliffs being super-saturated from all the rain and recent snow, and the need for us to stay together and to pay particular attention to the cliffs as we moved along. There were even a few places we walked out in the waist deep water instead of under some nasty looking spots. On our way back to the entrance point, we stopped so she could put the teeth she was "hiding" in her mitten, into a plastic bag, as we knew we were approaching one of the spots where we needed to walk in the water. As we did that, 10 feet in front of us the cliff broke free and dropped about 4 dump truck loads of material and 2 very large trees down on the beach. Photo below from the upstream side. Thank goodness we were on the downstream side at the time it fell since you can see the trees covering the beach on the upstream side. Downstream side looked much more dramatic with all the cliff material, but smaller falls were still occurring there, so we went into waist deep water and moved around the danger area fairly quickly yet carefully. Eastern VA has experienced its wettest year on record and it's still going. We are forecast for another 1.25 - 1.75 inches of rain tonight through tomorrow night and 2 more significant rain events before years end. It will all be storm runoff as the ground can't absorb anymore water. There is standing water everywhere. I can only imagine what the Freeze - Thaw Cycle will do to all the cliffs and bluffs this winter given how saturated the sediment and stratigraphy is. This made the 4th cliff fall we have seen since March along various VA rivers.
- 8 replies
-
- 10
-
-
- cliff fall
- cold
- (and 9 more)
-
Stansbury Island Fossil Hunting Research Part 2
Earth Chemistry posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
This is a continuation of my last post with @UtahFossilHunter going back to the island last minute before the snow flies. This time we tried another outcrop of the Undifferentiated Cambrian (now determined to be the Chisholm Formation) on the search for fossils. Link to Part 1  Here is the map on my last post.  This is the Chisholm Formation at the foot of the mountain.  We went up farther on the mountain and found a contact zone. Being a large dipping anticline going down the slope at an angle, the rock layers get older on the bottom then the top. Other places on the island the rock layers are rotated sideways so we kept going right and slightly down more.  We kept going up and we found some Bonneville gravel.  Further along we found lots of a good structural rock with en echelon fractures from nearby faults. But no fossils. We decided to check a few other rock layers again just in case. The Ordovician Garden City Formation had absolutely nothing. So we went back down and drove to another place where the Silurian Laketown Dolomite outcrops so we hike up and.....  We found our first Silurian fossil! We didn't expect anything to be in this formation. Unlucky for us, it was on a boulder so we thought we had to take out a chunk of it. UtahFossilHunter and I had forgot our chisels but we had our hammers. So for ten minutes we kept trying to break off the chunk it was sitting in. You can see in the pictures the fossil was on a ledge. The bedding layer below was a large chert nodule layer so every time we hit it you could hear little shards zooming by like ricocheted bullets. After that ten minutes while watching the snow clouds make their way across the Utah-Nevada border, we decided to take a risk and try popping the fossil out just underneath the shell. That risk payed off and it came out whole. The lesson here is if you know you might be looking in hard rock layers don't forget your chisels. 
- 15 replies
-
- 2
-
-
- fossil hunting
- gastropod
- (and 1 more)
-
Hey folks! I had posted in the Fossil ID section regarding a little boi I had found some time ago, and a few of you guys really gave me the urge and confidence to go try my hand at some first time collecting of my own! I read a few guides on this site, did some research, and intrepidly went wandering around a large public forest here in Ottawa; I had read some very old reports that there were some old exposed fossil rocks to be found there. After a lot of confused wandering, and almost calling it quits as I was losing the light (and hope), I did eventually come across a very large rock poking out of the forest floor which was studded with spiral shelled fossils which were almost fist sized! The host rock was far too large for me to just drag out of the forest and I didn't manage to get any pictures as it was getting dark and spooky out, but I noted the spot and returned home. My question is what do you guys think about the best practice for something like that would be? Leave it in-situ for future explorers to go see or have at a few sections of it with a hammer and chisel? I would love to take a few samples home and try my hand at preservation and presentation techniques, but I'm not sure whether removing parts of something like that would be considered poor form and my inner archaeologist cringes at the thought of removing items from their original context. The rock in question was quite a ways off the beaten path however, and I doubt anyone would stumble across it out of sheer coincidence so I was thinking maybe chipping away at a few wouldn't be too damaging, but I would really like your much more informed opinions. If the type of fossil/rock makes a difference in the final considerations I can go snap a picture or two the next time I have some free time! (apologies if any of my terminology is erroneous or nonsensical, theres so much to learn!)
-
I need help with where i should go for for fossil hunting in the uk
Milo posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hey im new to this site so im not sure on how anything works and if im doing anything correct but anyway i am going on a fossil hunting trip to the uk next year for about 1 week but i have no clue where to go. This is my first ever time going on a trip just for fossils so idont know what to do and where to go so yeh i need a bit of help. Thanks -
Hey y'all! I've been wanting to go hunting for dinosaur material for a long time now - problem is I'm in eastern Texas (I also can't travel too far). Most of the stuff around here is marine. I've been doing some research, and I've found the Antlers Formation in southern Oklahoma which has deinonychus and tenontosaurus, among others. Where would be the best place to actually go hunt? Do I need to go on private property, by the side of a river, or what? It'd be great if anyone has gone hunting in that formation, I'd love to hear your tips! My primary goal would be to find deinonychus teeth. The first deinonychus in the antlers formation was found on the grounds of the Howard McLeod Correctional Center in the late 90's. I'd think around that area would be a good place to start. This is the bulletin (from the Oklahoma geological survey) I found that reports the finding of deinonychus antirrhopus in the antlers formation: http://www.ogs.ou.edu/pubsscanned/BULLETINS/Bulletin146.pdf Address of Howard McLeod Correctional Center: 19603 E. Whippoorwill Lane, Atoka, OK 74525 Any other general fossil hunting tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
-
Hi Everyone, this is my first post and I like to thank you for your information. I will be traveling to the US in October. I'm going to travel in my car from Los Angeles, las vegas, Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma, Memphis, New Orleans, Panama City, Sarasota, and Orlando. I want to take advantage of that to do little fossil huntings across that sites. Obviously, I don't want to do something illegal or wrong while collecting. I was talking with some guy from natural science and tell me which is legal and which not. The original idea is to fossil collect near the road. Do you know where to find good fossils like ammonites, corals, shells, echinoderms, etc near roads? This will be my route. I'm not professional or the next Alan Grant or Charig. I only want one specimen or two from every place if possible. Thanks to everyone, sorry for my English. If you tell me where to stop near the road or taking a detour for a mile will be alright. I have already some point marked but you're the bosses, boys and Girls!!!
-
I got out for a very short fossil hunting trip for Pleistocene fossils a couple days ago and recorded the hunt. I labeled everything I found as I found it to help others know what is being found, and went over what everything was at the end. Check it out if you get time:
- 16 replies
-
- 5
-
-
- florida fossil
- fossil hunting
- (and 1 more)
-
Hi Everyone, I'm a new member on The Fossil Forum and looking forward to using this site a new resource for learning about paleontology and responsible fossil collection & identification.
-
@Cris and myself went on another brutally hot fossil hunt to the creek yesterday. We went for just a few hours, and were very pleased with the results! We found a couple roughed up Megalodon teeth, some very nice Mako's, a big crocodile tooth, and my favorite find of the day was a killer three-toed horse tooth! I'm gonna go rest my back now
-
Hello Fellow Forum Members, I am a rank amateur from New Jersey, twenty minutes south of Trenton on the Delaware River. While maintaining an extensive rock collection since I was a kid I just recently started looking into collecting fossils. I started this primarily with my 13-year-old daughter as a way to generate interest in our fascinating world and to spend time with her doing something a little atypical for that age range. Being an avid outdoors person, hiker, photographer, and plein air painter I figured that this would be a great way to teach her some important outdoors skills with a really cool reward system. I, of course, go out on my own now and I am hooked. My daughter, caught up in the binary world that most teenagers are so prone to dive into readily, initially found the idea unappealing. However, upon finding a series of sharks teeth and many other interesting fossils (many of which we had to put back due to limits), I know she's hooked as well. Her reaction when she found her first tooth was nothing short of priceless. It's too long to include here but let's just say it was equally rewarding for the both of us. I hope some of the finds on our hunts and the validation (hopefully) of those finds we might find here might spur her on to further interest in whatever capacity she determines is appropriate for her. In the meantime, I'll keep taking her out on hikes and fossil hunts despite her hesitancy. She really is the best kid in the whole world and I am clearly a doting father.
- 13 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- amateur
- fossil hunting
- (and 1 more)
-
Green Mill Run, NC Trip and Some Unidentified Fossils on 8/26/2018
krobinson511 posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hello! This is my first time posting on the forum. My family and I got into fossil hunting about a year ago. My two sons (ages five and seven) love dinosaurs just like many kids their age, so while on vacation in Florida, we made a day trip to Venice Beach to look for shark teeth. We didn't even have sifters, but we found a handful of shark teeth and were hooked! We've enjoyed making day trips to Aurora Fossil Museum in NC to "dig the past." We decided to change things up a little and explore Green Mill Run in NC. We live in Chesapeake, VA (near Virginia Beach), so Greenville is about two hours and twenty minutes away. Aurora is about two hours and forty minutes away. We brought a large shovel and a few screens. I have a couple of small hand sifters (intended for baking) that the boys can get a good handle on. We had a medium screen that we bought in Aurora and we zip-tied a pool noodle around it so it would float. This past April, we went fossil hunting in the Peace River in Florida, so hunting at Green Mill Run was similar. The water level was pretty low (a foot high or less) and there was plenty of shade so the boys could take a break from the sun. At first, I tried digging around a rock to see if any teeth were caught up in there. I would get about an average of three teeth per shovelful. It was great to be finding so many teeth like in Aurora while also keeping cool in the water! After about an hour, I decided to try moving around to different spots where I saw lots of rocks instead of sticking one place. This approach yielded even more teeth. We walked away with lots of shark teeth, squid pens (they're called pens, right?), and other fragments that seemed significant. We hunted for about two hours until the boys were ready to go and a bit hangry (I did pack a lunch...). I could have stayed all day, but they were a bit tired after the long car ride--and we still had to go back in the car to get home. It was a great first trip there and I'd love to go back! My husband was a bit worried about the possibility of snakes, but we didn't see any at all. I would definitely recommend water shoes because there was A LOT of glass in the sand. My seven-year-old son makes videos of our fossil hunting trips for his YouTube channel, which he calls Dino Study. If you want, you can watch it below. My five-year-old son doesn't like making as much of an appearance on camera, so there is a little less footage of him. The best finds included a nice, large sand tiger tooth (found by my seven-year-old) and a large great white tooth (I believe) that I found from the surface. Most of the teeth from the day. I saw this and thought it could be a molar of some kind or perhaps just a conveniently-shaped rock. I have a photo of the top and bottom.
- 8 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- fossil hunting
- green mill run
- (and 2 more)
-
Greetings Guys! I had a question for you guys if you don't mind. I'll try to keep it simple. ---I am a Newbie at this. ---I finally got to take my first road trip to look for fossils. ---I'm from Louisiana, so not much rock formation around here so I went to the Appalachian foothills in North Carolina. ---I stopped at multiple locations where there were streams, rock formations, etc. --Couldn't find a thing until my last stop, which was and rock slide. ---I found a ton of Crinoids, pretty much every few feet. --I looked for multible hours for trilobites or anything else I could find. This is the question--- Do you guys think I should revisit that place and look a lot more, and be more patient, or should I move on. I only stayed within a 100 yard radius but got wore out. I made two trips to the same spot that weekend. I don't really need anymore Crinoids, but I don't want to pass up what could be a honey hole, and I don't realize it. i don't really know what a honey hole is in fossil hunting. This fall, I would like to go back, but I don't know whether to move or not. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
