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First time back at the beach in a month or two.... was a little foggy. I've never seen a crab on the "turtleshell" rocks before, man I wish I could drag these back and put them in the garden. Help wanted - this bugger is HUGE... if you want it, I think we need a chopper or boat to extract it. Anytime out with the family is great! Pretty sure I've seen these in someone's youtube before!!
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The little man and I went to the C&D canal. His first and my second visit. Nice adventure out with success.. Happy Hunting
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Do You Have Any Pictures, of Collections for your Kids to take to School?
Rock Hound posted a topic in Member Collections
Have you helped your kids or grandkids put together a Fossil Collection for School? Do you have any pictures? Please share!!! -
Some of you may remember my struggles with the COVID lockdowns and having to shutdown my event rental business. Sad times. Well… my wife is at it again! She recently started another business venture (about 8 months ago. I think…) This time it’s an imaginative indoor play area specifically for kids in the age range of 0-8 years old. It’s been well received by our community and she is doing great! Why does The Fossil Forum care? I’m glad you asked! Today my wife had her first Fossil Event for the kids. A private event with a limited number of tickets. The event consisted of kids getting to dig open a “dinosaur egg” which contained a plastic dinosaur toy that was hidden inside. A grab bag full of goodies, snacks, special fossil themed play areas, and open play to the entire facility. She also had a local fossil expert on hand to show real fossils to the kids. That’s me! All of the children were 5 years old or less. I spoke to each of them in turn since they had to come to me to get an identification for the dinosaur they just found in their egg. It was a joy to watch their face light up when I showed them the Megalodon tooth or petrified wood. I equally enjoyed their nose wrinkling in disgust when I handed them fossil poo**. The insect could go either way. I also gave each kid a real fossil to take home in their goodie bag. My meager fossil setup is shown below. It’s not much, but was enough for the 5 year olds (and younger). Showing them things they could understand and relate to was key. A big tooth, wood, a bug, poo. I also threw in a few local specimens that they may find in their own backyards. It was a fun time and I thoroughly enjoyed spreading a bit of my fossil enthusiasm to the younger generation. I will certainly do it again in the future. **I know that the “fossil poo” I brought is not likely a coprolite, and may even be strictly geological, but to a 5 year old, if it’s the shape and color of poo, then it must be poo!
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Hello hello all. My kids have come of age when it comes to being able to understand things and have become hooked on fossils. It's pretty tough to find places where I'm from theres limited information on sites / locations. We dont really have any fossil clubs or official sites etc, everything we've ever found are shells. Fossils online seem to all be prepared. Can anyone point me in the direction of unprepared fossils that the kids can work on, they don't have to be anything fancy. Thanks in advance!
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If this is too unrelated to the forum please let me know but I'm hoping to create a 'dinosaur' themed area of the garden for my son or any other kids who visit. Planning on installed more dinosaur nests with eggs (rounded chalk cobbles) and also some dinosaur footprints. It's the creation of the footprints I'm looking some advice on. I'm hoping to create a series of small paving slabs with a Dino footprint on each one. Wondering the best way to go about it. Perhaps a postcrete or a concrete mix into a mould of some type? It would have to withstand the elements but doesn't need to last forever. Any other suggestion for a Dino garden welcome :-) Ps I'm in the UK for product advice
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My kids found these at the beach posting for kidos. Feel free to reply so I can share with them. They named them drumstick, hand or mitten and chicken foot
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Back in about 1992 or 93and for many years later and still to this day I took the whole family fossil hunting. I always made it a priority to take the family on a fossil vacation. I use to do 7 out of state trips for fossil hunting every year with one of those for the family and always in the last week of june or first week of July. Always had to wait for the kids to get out of school. Used to do trips that last up to 3 weeks. Ha! Now a 4 or 5 day trip is about all I can do. The misses doesn't go with me nowadays but I cant help it, I need to get out even if I cant do much because of this stroke. Ive gone on 2 fossil hunting trips already this year and still have 2 more to go. One to the Fox Hills Formation in South Dakota for more of those super nice and high quality ammonites and then my last one to Washington to get more crab concretions and to aquire more of those rare and most beautiful agitized Aturia!!! I used to keep everything but nowadays I only want quality and to grow the collection. Trimmin down some fish slabs Abssolutely LOVE this place!!! This creek changed paleo history!!! Was told that there would be a dusting of snow and a bit chilly. It got down to -12 degrees and got 4 inches of snow that buried everything!!! and yeah, we camped in that weather. I didnt see it then but now I can see that I was one of the tuffest dudes alive!!!! This was after the -12 degree night and I had to trim all the fish slabs. once in the truck with the heater on my fingers and toes were numb and then came that god awfull stinging when they thawed out. Lots of pain but came home with lots of fish! This is back when I thought split fish were cool. Not so anymore. Just too spoiled now but sure had a heck of alot of fun back in the day!
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Hi. This fall I will be teaching a paleontology class for 5th and 6th graders. We will meet once a week for 55 minutes. My plan is to teach up front for about ten minutes and then for the remainder of the class to be hands on activities. I have come up with some ideas, but would love some feedback on them and any other ideas that you all might have. The first session will be an introduction to paleontology, possibly including fieldwork methods, fossil prep, ichnology and trace fossils, adaptations, cladistics, plate tectonics, etc, while the second session will be more focused on the actual organisms that we find in the fossil record and how they changed through time. The second session will build a fossil kit as the session progresses to take home at the end. Here are the topics I have come up with so far: 1. What makes a dinosaur a dinosaur, addressing the dinosaur-bird connection 2. Cladistics- using either coins or candy or both 3. Fossils and sedimentary layers, layer cake stratigraphy (not sure about using food, depends on allergies) or could use colored sand and plastic cups with animal shaped beads to be the fossils 4. Dinosaurs and speed activity, have students learn to calculate their own speed over a given distance and apply that to dinosaur foot impressions 5. Plate tectonics and fossils, have the kids reconstruct the earth 220 million years ago based on fossils found on the different puzzle pieces that the land masses have been broken up into 6. Dinosaur teeth, learning the difference between meat-eaters and plant-eaters and discuss the size of dino teeth 7. Chocolate chip cookie excavation exercise, to teach how difficult fossils can be to extract from matrix and to prepare for study 8. Activity using a pant tray covered in dirt, rocks, and some sand. Sprinkle glitter (glitter= dead animal bones) over the dirt. Then gentle rain water out of a paper cup over your pretend hillside and watch the dirt absorb the water. There is a greater chance the glitter bones will be make it into the fossil record vs. the desert. Put plastic wrap over your hillside to simulate the desert. Sprinkle on your glitter and rain over it...glitter washes away into the arroyo, bones are separated, lost, broken, etc.... --> trying to develop into a way of showing how fossils end up getting in to the fossil record more easily in a forest environment vs. a desert environment. Still only just the beginning of an idea.
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Hi, I've just struck up a new interest in fossils (thanks Thermopolis, WY!) and I want to share it with my nephews (6 of them!). I know the fossil sorting kits you buy don't have the most exciting of specimens (Ammonite, brachiopod, clam, coprolite, coral, crinoid stem, crinoid star, dinosaur bone, gastropod, orthoceras, petrified wood, sea urchin, shark teeth, stingray teeth, and fish vertebrae), but I thought it would be a fun start if I bought a pack of them to make some DIY dig kits. The recipe I found for it is 1 part plaster of paris, 1 part water, 2 parts sand, though I'm open to other suggestions if someone knows a better mix! http://longlivelearning.com/2012/11/homemade-geology-dig-kit/#comment-164564 A few questions: Will the plaster mix damage the fossils? What is the best way to clean off the excess plaster once the kids dig them out? I've heard vinegar, is that safe/will it work? Can you recommend some other inexpensive but interesting fossil types that I could buy to mix in? Anyone have fossil/dinosaur/prehistoric life book recommendations for ages 4 - 9?
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Hi friends! I'm new, I just stumbled across this forum and it's awesome content while searching for fossil localities near Charleston, South Carolina. I was hoping to get some tips on looking for shark teeth anywhere between Columbia and Charleston. I am taking a road trip from AZ with my family and thought it would be really great to stop and search for fossils along the way. I just can't seem to really pin down any nice spots to find some. I know fossil hunting grounds are a very hush-hush type of thing, but I was hoping that I could be pointed in the direction of somewhere where I might be able to take the kids and hopefully find 5 to 10 teeth. Is anyone willing to share a location that is easily accessible where we can find a few neat little fossils? Maybe somewhere like a road cut, an easily accessible creek, or even a pile of excavated dirt...? Thanks so much!
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Hi, The USGS water gauge for the Brazos River at Highway 21 (Whiskey Bridge) shows the water level at 35 ft. https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=08108700 Will any of the fossil beds be accessible with the water this high?
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Funny commercial for parents (no fossils at all, but hilarious!)
Monica posted a topic in Members' News & Diversions
Hi all! A little while ago my husband and I saw this commercial for Maple Leaf Foods - we found it hilarious then and we still laugh out loud whenever it comes on, so I thought some fellow TFF members might also enjoy it. I think parents will find it especially funny... Enjoy! Monica -
I'd like to make an announcement that a new species of stegosaure has been found in Indiana... A young grad student has uncovered what appears to be a baby stegosaure that can glow in the dark! I'm sure this find will be published in all the big name magazines and that National Geographic Channel will cover down on this scientific discovery. It's great when you can share your hobby and teach your children
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Good Morning! Newbie here, I am bringing my 4 and 5 year old grand sons down to Florida over Christmas break. I would like to take them to the Peace River for fossil hunting. Is there any kind of guided tour that could help. I have never been and honestly have no clue where to start.If anyone could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful. Thanks in advance! Darlene
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When I go fossil hunting it is always with my 4 kids who are 7 years old and younger. I've been trying to find books and read posts on here about fossil hunting etiquette to make sure that we are following the rules of the land. I recently read the one post about people digging out massive holes on a creek bed, leading to people falling as well as devastation to the wildlife in the area. When I'm with my kids I always try to get them to hunt in a way that leaves the slope of the area natural so that one doesn't create unstable areas where people can get hurt. I understand sometimes that fossil you want though is in the middle, and you might just have to chisel it out, versus taking down an entire wall. My biggest question is this I guess.... Is it ok for the kids to do a lot of excavation? My kids find the part of digging and hammering limestone more fun than just looking at what is lying around on the ground. Sometimes this can be a decent chunk of material. They aren't digging up anything really scientifically significant, so from a science standpoint, I don't think it is impacting anything. I make sure like I said that they are not destroying natural sloping. One place we collect sometimes is under a bridge so I make sure that they are not digging anywhere that will affect the structural integrity of the bridge(although unfortunately it is apparent that others do so). I always try my best to raise my kids right with good manners, and just want to make sure I'm doing the same when we're out fossil hunting. When I went to Minnesota this last summer they took down a good size chunk of wall with some other children, and it just got me thinking. I was sorting through their pile, and they looked through it some too, but I just wonder what the community's view is on kids and their activities.
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Great Plains Dinosaur Museum - Dig Programs
Opisthotriton posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Hello everyone, If you will be traveling through Montana this summer, you are invited to visit the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum in Malta, Montana, part of the Montana Dinosaur Trail. The museum has many great dinosaur exhibits including a real articulated Brachylophosaurus duck-billed dinosaur skeleton and the skull and neck of a new species of sauropod. We are also the home of the famous "Leonardo" dinosaur mummy specimen (currently on tour at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, but we have an impressive 3-D printed replica and lots of informational displays). The Great Plains Dinosaur Museum also offers dinosaur dig programs for adults and children 11 and older, as well as Junior Paleo Digs and Lab programs. Please visit our website for details on our programs, dates, and rates. http://www.greatplainsdinosaurs.org/index.php/museum-programs/adult-field-experience This summer the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum will be partnering with the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center for our adult dino digs to excavate a Triceratops skeleton south of Malta in the Hell Creek Formation. We are hoping to find the skull this year! The specimen is being collected on private land, and all material collected is donated to the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum for research and display. I will be working at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum all summer, so I hope some Fossil Forum members will come by to say hello! No matter where your travels take you, I hope you have a great paleo-filled summer!- 2 replies
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Recently, I found myself visiting my family because they were camping not too far down the road at Edgar Evins State Park in DeKalb County, TN. I had heard that Center Hill Lake is a great place for fossils, so I was eager to see what I could find. My youngest sister who is ten years old (15 years age difference between us) was THRILLED to be A ) hanging out with big sister, and B ) going fossil hunting! I made sure she knew ahead of time that we could not actually *take* anything we found since we were in a state park. Honestly, I did invite everyone else come along too, but all the other grown-ups wanted to do was sit around the fire. We picked our way down to the lake. The water was high and there was not a nice beach to speak of. However, there were lots and lots of boulders. My sister said that she and our dad had climbed on them the day before to see how far they could throw sticks and nuts into the water. I immediately started spotting fossils embedded in the rocks. This was the first sign that we were in for a fossil-filled afternoon: The boulders in some places were practically made of fossils. Her reaction: "I can't believe I was out here with Daddy yesterday standing on all these fossils and didn't even notice!" We found lots of nice little cephalopod fossils. These were the biggest cephalopods we found. She was amazed! I told her that people have found truly enormous ones in other parts of the world. The fossils are weathering away with the limestone. Druzy quartz appears to have filled this one! Not sure what kind of fossil it is. I explained that this was an extinct relative of squids etc. I also pointed out the brachiopods all through the rocks. After hearing what kinds of creatures used to live here as evidenced by the fossils, she exclaimed with wonder, "So all this used to be under the sea!" She's quick! All in all, it was a very fulfilling afternoon, even though we didn't take a single fossil home with us. We still have photos and memories (and some silly sisters-with-fossils-selfie shots not posted here). I'm a pretty enthusiastic person, but there is something about seeing a kid get excited about something that makes it all even more fun! It was my little sister's very first fossil hunt. She could not stop talking about it for the rest of the day. I think I've successfully infected her with fossil fever!
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From the album: Fossils in the Wild
Sharing the joy of fossil hunting in ordovician limestone with the next generation. "So this area used to be under the sea?" Leipers-Catheys limestone -
Hello everyone, I love this site. Just joined and I would love to explore the bay area looking for fossils and the like. Any great places where we can find some even if they are not easily accessible. I am going for a deep hike in the sierras late in July and we have not determined exactly where we are going and would love to search for some distant area that might have some cool finds, if anyone has some advice. John
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Mother Of A New Fossil Hunter In Ny (Hudson Valley Region)
Kcrowley posted a topic in Member Introductions
Hi all, I decided it was time to finally say hi as I am coming to realize that I am definitely in over my head. While I have always had a fondness for fossils my passion was minerals and crystals (I once convinced my parents to ship 70 pounds of rocks, minerals, and gems back from Idaho to NY that I collected on a trip ). That said, I never dreamed that one day my own daughter would to find herself immersed in rocks and I immediately took out my boxes of them! Unfortunately for me, while she thinks crystals and minerals are "cool" she is truly driven to find fossils. To the point that she is counting the days until her 5 year old sister turns 8 (the age that I said she has to be before I plan a trip to Hell Creek!) This Christmas the elves brought her all kinds of fossils including her coveted Megalodon Shark tooth, which is holding her over until she finds one. But it also only drove her to want to dig holes in my backyard to look for her own Mastodon which she knows were common in our area... All that said, as a mom of an 8 year fossil hunter any and all support would be great. While still pretty new we have; Search for and recovered teeth from Big Brook in New Jersey Recovered some shale from Carbondale, PA but didn't have to much luck finding any fern and have a trip planned for Poricy Park in NJ for more teeth hunting (as soon as it warms up a little - lots of snow still on the ground in NY) We are also headed to Williamsburg, VA in April and she has made it very very clear to me that we must make time to fossil hunt for at least two days! So far it has been great fun, but I realize I know so very little and have a very very curious and determined 8 year old who would search every day if she could! Anyway, thank you all for reading! I look forward to posting pictures once she starts to find her own! -Kristin (Mother of Ella - fossil hunter age 8) -
Hello everyone, I'm here because of my son Alex, who is only four years old, but for many months has been obsessed with anything prehistoric, including fossils. He stuns everybody with his knowledge; he can already recognize and name tens of land and marine creatures, he knows most of the names of geologic periods, and lots of other scientific terms. He was the one to teach me about weird creatures like dunkleosteus or postosuchus, and how to distinguish indricotherium from elasmotherium... I believe he'll make a great paleontologist one day. But going back to this forum, we own couple of specimens that we believe are fossils, and because you, forum members are such experts in this field, we hope you could help us to identify them. We would also like to learn new things, especially about fossil hunting, so we could plan our next mini expeditions to find some more specimens for our prehistoric collection. I'm looking forward to hearing from you, Diana
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