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Hey everyone! I have a great selection of fossils at home but I still lack a great knowledge of my most local fossils. I rarely find more than Devil toenails here in the UK but have come across quite a few on my travels today. Initially they caught my eye because they look like my orthoceras but I also have crinoids that have similar markings. There are thousands on the beach with fresh finds every day. If anyone could confirm what I've found it'd be much appreciated. I assume I have a collection of various plant fossils?

Hello everyone, My name is Kyle. I am from the central Michigan area and very new to fossil hunting. I've always been interested in paleontology. As I got older the adults around me tried to tell me not to pursue it, but I just can't stay away. I joined the forum to have a solid community from which I can rely on when looking for information. For example, I'm constantly reading and I want to know what are the best books to read and learn terminology and hunting techniques. I want to know what are the best, yet reasonably priced, prep tools to use. I'm beyond excited to join you all here. Thank you

Hey TFF Members! I was able to do something very different from the normal Florida fossil hunting the other day. On the way up to Michigan for my Mother's wedding I stopped in Northern GA to hunt for Trilobites! I was saying the age wrong throughout the video, I thought they were Devonian. But turns out they are actually Camrian... even better! Hope you can check out the video when you get a chance. I had an amazing time doing this!

I'm gonna be around Summerville tomorrow and I was wondering if anyone knows of any promising spots to look for shark teeth and other fossils. I actually came here a few years ago and had no luck at all, but I found out I was looking in the wrong places. I know most people don't want to give out the really good secret spots, but if anyone has any hints for someone who's just coming to town for a day, I promise I can keep a secret. Heck, you could even join me if you want. Any hints or suggestions are welcome!

My first fossil hunting trip was a success! I have a tone of amazing material from Grand Isle VT! I have no idea what most of it is though. LOL But it's going to be so much fun learning what I have. I even got one complete 1.5cm trilobite! and some kind of head thing! Here are some of the pics!

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!)

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!

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

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.

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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!)

Toby (my 10yo son) and I at the site for a group #BlackFriday #Fossil hunt #optoutside #outddoorresearch, Nov 25, 2016 There's a particular creek/ditch site my son and I like to frequent. It's not the easiest site and not always as productive as we'd like, but it's a good site nonetheless. I've been studying the stratigraphy to better Vertebra understand what could be there as I get to know the species of the fossils we find. We have found a number of things from micro shark teeth like tigers, to bigger items like rib bones and other bone frags, various Partial whale/dolphin skull vertebrae from sharks and fish, marine mammal teeth and bones, and more. I've even consulted one of the paleontologists at the College of Charleston, where I'm studying to become a geologist. It appears to be Chandler Bridge and I'm looking into what is underneath it (what we walk on in the creek). It's super hard and I was told by more seasoned hunters yesterday it's likely either marl or limestone. This would be consistent with our finds and with the idea of a marine/estuarine environment. It would be interesting if the marl/limestone underneath is Ashley formation, though. That would mean we are a bit older in the timeline than thought. Chandler Bridge is late Oligocene (~23-24 mya) and Ashley is early Oligocene (~26.5-30 mya). The top section of the site has a lot of artificial fill, however, so there is no telling where it comes from. After storms I have found a huge mako and huge Angustidens tangled in the roots only a foot or two from the surface so it had to be artificial fill. Odontoceti tooth Rib bone However, lately when we go we've seen something pretty horrible going on. Normally, the fossil hunters we encounter are good, honest folks. They are hunting for personal collections or to make some money and are pretty good about taking care of the sites they hunt at. After all, if we do not take care of these sites, they will be destroyed and stop producing fossils. There's the logos of the matter, right? There is also the logic that if we destroy sites, that are public lands, those that administer and care for them can shut us out, much like the town of Summerville was compelled to do. It is my understanding that some fossil hunters were so - um, "enthusiastic", shall we say - about their hunts, that they were digging into banks (which I usually refer as creek and ditch walls as many are very steep and deep) that they were breaching private property lines and risking other people's properties. So basically, just take care of the sites and they will take care of you. Makes sense, right? Well, guess what, folks - it's happening here. One of the several dig outs I found Looking for micros despite the fall When I first went to this site in about Aug/Sept of 2015, I had spied it on Google maps as a new fossil hunter (and am still quite the novice). Another experienced hunter told me it had promise but was a site he didn't like to go to for various reasons. I decided to give it a go. I went alone as I tend to do when checking out a new place I'm unfamiliar with. I'd rather not have my child with me in such a scenario. When I arrived, I walked to the edge of the creek bank and my use of the word "wall" couldn't be more appropriate. It was a nearly 90 degree vertical 15-20 foot wall to the bottom. I found a spot with what I thought to be some decent hand and foot holds and started my climb down. However, when I put my full weight on the foot holds, the wall gave out and fell straight to the bottom. I was pretty scraped up from the thorny flora overgrown on the wall but didn't break any bones, so I went ahead and did my little fossil hunt for a couple of hours only coming up with some micro shark teeth. I would later learn that I had a blown disc in my neck. See, I already had one fusion in my neck about four years prior to this and apparently a disc below that fusion had herniated. I suspect, though admit it is only conjecture, that this fall caused the disc to give out because I began to have symptoms just after this fall. While conducting my hunt on this particular trip out, I saw that people had been digging into the bottom of the wall and wondered if I had been climbing above such a spot, which caused it to give out when I tried to climb on it. It was some time before I returned to that site, in part due to the fact that I was diagnosed with that blown disc and required surgery in December 2015 to fuse more vertebrae. It was disheartening. I can only have one more fusion and I'm only 39 years old. It's depressing to think about. Therein lies my pathos. Many people have other various emotions tied to fossil hunting and how to go about it. I've found it to be a very charged subject, for sure. Black Friday 2015 there was a group hunt. I was going to join them, however I had just received that diagnosis of a blown disc and didn't want to risk further injury. I gave the organizer of that hunt the location and warned about the difficulty I had getting to it. I had also let him know that there was a massive wash out in one part because of the "Thousand Year" flooding in October 2015 (I may write another blog on why that phrase was massively misused). Apparently, there were some really cool finds, or a really cool find there, so after my recovery, I went back. I went with my son and it was overall uneventful - no falls thankfully. Angustidens teeth I found that day I did find a nice Angy (and a second at another site) but then we only found a couple of micros. We met and conversed with a seasoned hunter that IIRC was there with a group he brought on a hunt tour. There was a lot of digging but nothing that seemed very destructive and certainly nothing that was undermining the slopes that would cause them to fail. We chatted and I learned a few things. It's always nice to talk to people that have been doing this for so long. Angustidens teeth I found that day Later, in I believe April 2016, I took a friend of mine on his first fossil hunt and he killed it! The Odontoceti tooth and the rib bone above were among some of what he found there that day. The water level was low compared to the previous times I had been there and he's pretty adventurous, so we went places at that site I had never been before. We also found a spot to climb out of and now, Toby and I use it to get into the creek. It's not steep at all and it's not as deep there either. Well, I've only been twice since I started at CofC in August and that has been this month, November 2016. We've had some great finds, especially since the water is really, really low (we've had nearly no rain at all since Hurricane Matthew hit in October). However, the practices that are being used by one or more people at this site recently leave utter destruction. I'm not exaggerating when I say that either. It was so bad when we went yesterday for the group Black Friday Hunt that the creek was almost blocked off as both banks had been horribly undercut and the rubble nearly met in the middle of the creek. This isn't a natural erosion process. This is clearly the work of a human or humans; you can clearly see the shovel marks in the bank. This is far worse than even the dig outs that I witnessed when I first was here that caused me to fall and blow a herniated disc last summer! What may be another real kick in the pants is that this undercutting is not well understood by me as they are not sifting what they are leaving behind. We have even pulled micro tiger shark teeth out of the huge chunks of rubble they left behind. It's confusing and I don't understand it. I can only assume they are looking for very large teeth. The biggest I've found are 2-2.5 inch Angustidens. There are no megalodons that I've ever seen and Angies and Megs are not in the same time period. Angies lived in the Oligocene (appropriate for Chandler Bridge and Ashley formations) and megalodon lived during the Pliocene and Miocene Epochs. As far as I know, they did not overlap so there shouldn't be any megs here, especially if this is closer to the Ashley formation than I thought. This undercutting is extremely destructive and dangerous! It will cause these slopes to fall and the banks will wash out again after we have heavy rains. Maybe that is what the person/people doing this hope to achieve? However there is a massive flaw in that thought process. Several, actually. First off, it will cause other fossils to be lost. I get it, people want the big boys. They want 2-3 inch Angies, they want big whale teeth, they want full skulls - but by doing this, when it rains, when this slope fails and collapses, all the other fossils will be washed away, the likelihood of finding any "big boys" will still be slim, more sediment will be in the creek covering the fossils that are settling and being deposited by the water in the bottom of the creek (where we have found our great finds, by the way), and you are destroying the area. This may very well get tools and digging banned everywhere we hunt. Then what? What will you do then? I hope you are reading this. I hope you are hearing what I am trying to say. I get you probably don't care for the environment as much as others but I hope you hear your bottom line shrinking. As the people that live there start to see this, they may very well go to their city and county councils and follow Summerville's model. Or they may go with what other area's outside the Lowcountry have done and ban hunting altogether. And that is sad. There are not enough paleontologists here to find all that needs to be found. Whether they are in people's personal collections, up for sale, or being donated to museums, it is far better that people are out finding fossils and bringing those bones to the light of day than for them to remain covered for the world to never see again. Here comes the ethos: no matter your philosophy there should be the inclusion of proper care of the sites where you hunt. If you dig into the banks/walls of creeks and ditches, please consider slope failure in your process. Remember that other people use these places and a slope failure can harm, even kill people. There are massive crevasses in the slopes now and cracks appearing in the top where people walk and ride 4x4 vehicles. There may be service vehicles accessing this dirt road as well. This is extremely dangerous! Aside from that, destroying where you hunt will not provide better fossils. It will close off the site and keep fossils buried in the rubble that is left behind instead. View from the top of the bank - you cannot even see the slope has been undercut When you sift gravel, make sure live creatures such as fresh water claims and dragonfly nymphs are immediately returned to the water. After sifting, if you toss the gravel onto the bank, please return it to the water after you are done for the day. How can the gravel capture more fossils from the water if it's sitting on the banks? Aside from those smaller creatures we have also encountered deer, snakes, and seen evidence of dogs, raccoons and other animals. Remember this is their home. Please, respect that. Destruction of their habitat will affect how they survive (such as relying more on going towards human homes for food sources). If we tread more lightly and leave their ecosystem in tact, they can keep their own food sources and shelters without needing to encroach on ours. And please, for those that don't understand, it's not necessary to kill a snake just because you see it. Snakes will prefer to escape so give it that chance to get away. You will be fine. I know this has been a long read and people prefer short status updates instead. But this couldn't be condensed more. I'm a somewhat "wordy" person and am working on trying be more concise; however, this had several points of view. People fossil hunt for many different reasons and I hoped to appeal to everyone's points of view without making it sound like this is how all fossil hunters behave. We don't. This destruction is caused by one person or a very few number of people. But the rest of us need to make sure we are educating people about why this sort of destruction is unnecessary and uncalled for. I am not trying to be rude, "holier-than-thou", or trying to offer a lecture (though I clearly have). I just wish to inform. I hope that I have. Please feel free to share and comment. Thank you.

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, 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.

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!!!