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So let me preface this by saying I'm a hypochondriac. A hypochondriac who loves fossils. To my dismay a few months back I discovered that some fossils can be slightly hot and despite assurances from the lovely people here that my pterosaur (Alcione Elainus) radius from the phosphate beds in Morocco was almost certainly safe, I bought a cheap Geiger counter to do a completely unscientific experiment to test some of my fossils for radioactivity. These are all measured in microsieverts/hour: Normal background for where I live: Range after 1 hour: 0.10-0.17 Average: 0.11 Bag of No-sodium salt: Range: 0.15-0.21 Average: 0.18 Alcione Elainus radius from phosphate beds in Morocco: Range: 0.18-0.35 Average: 0.26 Partial oreodont skull from Nebraska: Range: 0.14-0.16 Average: 0.15 Partial mastodon tooth from Florida: Range: 0.13-0.17 Average: 0.14 Partial carcharodontosaurus tooth Kem Kem, Morocco: 0.12-0.15 Average: 0.13 So it looks like the phosphate bed fossil is somewhat radioactive but nothing overly dramatic if I'm reading that correctly? Anyway, I plan on testing my other fossils and adding to this list out of curiosity!

See this very interesting video that takes us around the world looking for historical sites with high radiation levels. Which persons do you think encounter the highest radiation levels: paleontologists collecting radioactive fossils; astronauts; nuclear plant workers? The answer shocked me.

Hello everyone, So I recently became serious about my collecting, but have had a few fossils for years now. I keep them in my room in an open bag (for now). My room is small and I usually have the door closed. I just learned some fossils could have uranium which could produce radon gas as it decays. Being someone who is paranoid about everything connected to the big 'C' word, I was wondering if my small collection poses any health risk. I have two fossilized shark teeth, two amber specimens, an alleged dinosaur bone fragment, a trilobite, an ammonite, a cephalopod, a mammoth tusk shard, a dino eggshell piece, and some non-fossil artifacts. It's a very small collection in a very small bag. But...being quite paranoid due to my father passing from cancer (he smoked A LOT) I became kind of scared and it actually made me want to stop collecting fossils altogether and just focus on artifacts. Anyone know anything about the safety of collecting?