Search the Community

Hi, After a few month's of being busy with other stuff, this weekend i finally found some time to do some prepping again. Since i now have an abrader i started working on some older finds. Most of these were found in La Verpilliere in France. Hope you like 'm....

....or something to that effect, in this case just one mouse: yours truly I spent some more time in the Danube Valley today digging in the mud in the Kimmeridgian divisum zone again. I only spent about 3 hours at it this time, since I wanted to be sure to leave in good time to get back home to the wife who needed the car later on, so I was prepared for a comfortable return cruise. However, on the way back a little bit down the road I noticed that a good number of blocks had come down from above and were just lying around in the ditch. Ok! A quick smash and bang episode was in order in the few minutes I had to spare and a few nice things came out. But then I had to switch over to Daytona mode and just managed to get back home with 2 minutes to spare. It would have been quicker if it wasn't for an inordinate number of trucks and tractors and even a slow-going learner. I didn't think to take my camera along, but here's a snap of the finds after a quick wash. The dark ones are from the divisum zone and the lighter ones out of limestone blocks. There's a nice big gastropod at the top right, which is not a common find for this site. Looks like I've got something to keep me busy for a while.

...over a few fields. With a bit of driving in between. Although spring has not officially sprung yet, I noticed that the farmers in my area are behaving like it's already arrived and are beginning to plow up some of their fields, so yesterday I figured I'd head out to the ones around Blumberg and Geisingen to see if their colleagues are doing the same. Sure enough, some of my favorite fields were freshly plowed. I also stopped in to the old clay pit just for nostalgia's sake. The productive layers there have been unreachable unter meters of debris for a long time now, but I managed to find a couple of weathered blocks which contained a few small ammonites. Prepping wasn't all that difficult, so I got most of the finds done today, although there are still a few bivalves to work on. Prorsisphinctes pseudomartinsi. ø8cm. Caumontisphinctes sp. ø 6cm. Pressastarte sp. 4,5cm. wide Ludwigella sp. Graphoceras decorum A small Prorsisphinctes sp. ammonite, Pygomalus ovalis echinoid and a rhynchonelloid brachiopod.

I've been working at this site on and off for several years and decided it was time for another visit. A colleague of mine joined me in my efforts a year or so ago and he's been working diligently at it ever since. He recently informed me that he had opened up an exposure one zone higher up (koenigi) above the one we have generally been working at (herveyi) and had freed up what seems to be a promising row of blocks, judging by the finds he was making. So I figured it was time to have a look. Sure enough, after a couple of hours of hammering and prying, I managed to extricate a good sized Macrocephalites and several Choffatias which were amongst the ever present shell breccia in these turbidites. There was what appeared to be a nice surprise after I removed the next block. I was nevertheless a little wary, since the preservation at this level isn't always optimal, but the only way to find out is to get down to it, right? After about a quarter of an hour, I could see that the outer whorls were pretty rotten and in no condition to be saved. But I figured I might as well remove the overburden and at least try to save the inner whorls. This took about another hour. As you can already see, there are cracks running every whichway through it. No good sign. And once I had extracted it, it became obvious that it wasn't worth saving, particularly since the innermost whorls were nonexistent. Normally if they were there I would have tried to glue it all back together, but like I said, it just wasn't worth it to me. Well, that's the luck of the draw, isn't it? You'll never know until you've tried. I decided then and there that I'd leave that row of blocks for another day and began to hack down through the soft marl below to the row of blocks in the herveyi zone where I managed to dig out a few nice little ones. I found a few more later on, but didn't think to photograph them, since darkness was beginning to set in and I was starting to think about the can of Red Bull waiting for me in the car. Despite the disappointing giant ammo, I must say that this was one of the more successful digs I've done recently. I'll start posting more here once prep is under way.

I visited the Kimmeridgian ditch again this week and just finished prepping the finds. I didn't do too badly this time, I'd say. Parataxioceras sp. & Ataxioceras hypselocylum on matrix. 16x12cm. Involuticeras involuta with a Pseudolimea sp. bivalve ø7cm. Laevaptychus obliquus with a small Glochiceras sp., an even smaller and pyritized Aspidoceras sp. and a sponge. 7x7cm. Two more Laevaptychus obliquus, parts of the jaw from Aspidoceras ammonites. Both are 5cm. long. Taramelliceras compsum. ø7cm. Aspidoceras sp. phragmocone with part of the living chamber. ø14cm.

My youngest son and I left for a fossil hunting trip this last thursday and hit many a fossil site in South Dakota. Because there will be lots and lots of prep from this trip I have decided to put all this on this one thread. This is gunna take quite awhile!!! We drove the first day 12 and 1/2 hours. Had some serious road buzz. Only way to take care of that is some 'road buzz liquid'. The next morning we met up with my buddy that ive been working on for 18 months. Didnt find a whole lot, but did come away with some crab concretions of the rare Dakota cancer. 3 of these for certain has crabs in them, the rest? What kind of preservation they have? Complete? But whatever happens with these, I most certainly have none so far, so this is quite exciting for me. Ive only ever seen one that was in a concretion and the poor guy absolutely butchard it!!!! Gunna be very interesting to say the least. Our second camp site. The next day was another 5 hour drive to a freind of mine where we went last year and decided to do that again for some more Fox Hills ammonites. We went to a certain river and picked up some rocks that look promising. Then the next day went to a different river and picked up some more rather nice rocks. Very private land, but nice to have a freind with permission. More to come. RB

I ran into this box of stuff today while at my other property. Im going to keep one of these specimens, but my kids will get the rest for christmas. Nice that I can do this for them. I bought this stuff many years ago and this box never made it to any of my fossil shows. So glad now. RB

Been a very long time ive been this excited about a fossil hunting trip! This upcomming trip has been 18 months in the making. Going to find lots of ammonites, but thats not the exciting part for me. I should find some rather rare fossils that ive been after for quite some years!! All private property. Cant freakin wait! Gunna be losing some sleep tonight!!! Oh the mystery. Im not gunna say anything about what im after, but i will post a trip report once I get back. Believe you me my fingers are crossed!!! I should be making a trip report by the 1st of June? Oh the mystery!!! RB

The misses and I went to Colorado to visit family. The day after we got home, I noticed some rocks sittin by my small garage. Ammo rocks! Ha! I dont even have to go fossil hunting any more. They just majically appear!!! HA!!! I must be doing something right? RB

A friend of mine and myself took 4 hours to clean up and organize my fossil garage. What a freekin job! But its amazing to me all I forget. I found 2 big milk crates of crab concretions, and lots and lots of unprepped ammonite material and I do mean lots, probably 10 boxesl! Wow!!! Im getting very forgetful nowadays. Ran into about a dozen or so lobsters that still need to be prepped out! Lots of fish slabs! Lots of odds and ends too and some very special things that need to get into my collection display cabinets. I don't really want to push the 'envy' botton, but being in the clean up mode, when he asked me "what about this" I simply would say, "take it" or "its yours". He left for home with lots of fossils to say the least. But what for me that really got my attention was a small box with a lobster conc in it. Its a lobster Ive seen before, but only pieces and this one appears to be somewhat complete even though a bit crushed. Very cool to me being a lobster colletor. Here is a pic of the box. Now ive got tons more prep work to do.

While the misses and I were at the Quartzite show we would go out to breakfast in the morning and then go look around. Lots to see. Ive been looking for a certain piece of coral and a certain ammonite since last year. I couldn't find the coral, but I did find where it was at. I have to make a phone call before I go next year and hope this guy will let some go? Anyways, I did buy some ammonites. A fairly large Perisphinctes from Madagascar and some other smaller ammos and that's all I bought. Im really happy for the large Perisphinctis, 15 inches, but its not the best prep job, but Ive been looking for one of these larger ones for some time now. I wont say, but I got it for a song!!! RB

I aquired this rock last summer. Didn't think too much of it at first. Been working on it off and on for quite some time now but the more I worked on it the better it got! Believe me it took waaaaaaaaay too long! Im not sure but I think its hoploscaphites Nicoletti? Well,, and along with quite few little other squid critters. I was going to blast right through all the little stuff but decided to prep them out too. Not sure if that was a mistake or not. Because of those little critters it took me much longer than anticipated. But it came out purty dang good.. In fact,,, one of the best ive done in some time even though they are all small. Im actually quite happy with it. If I ever do sell this rock I might make as much as $8.00 per hour? Ha!!! But really, a super nice A-Grade multi specimen. RB

If someone wants to trade some fossil(s) for one or all of this ammos, I´m open to ideas. All of them are Duck Creek Formation except the bigger one which I believe is Fort Worth Formation.