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Hi! New member checking in from Columbus Ohio! A few months ago I came across a large, recently-split chunk of limestone at a local park, and noticed it was full of shells. Somehow I made it to adulthood without realizing that fossils are all around us, and not just in books and museums, so these little shells shocked and interested me immensely. Fast forward to a few weekends ago, on a whim while driving through central Kentucky I pulled over on the side of the highway next to a rock face that had been blasted out decades ago and found countless rocks just laying around full of shells and other fossils. After googling furiously for hours to learn more about the geology of central Kentucky, I came across this site and decided I definitely need to be a member! I currently have no tools and still know next-to-nothing about how to find fossils without relying entirely on luck, so I plan on hanging around, reading a bunch, and asking some questions.

Hey, all! I would like to hunt for fossils in or near Columbus, Ohio. Do any of you have any recommendations for locations to hunt or resources that I could consult? Thank you!

Hello friends! Thix summer, after visiting the Orton Geological Museum (you can find my post about it), I paid a brief visit to another museum in Columbus, Ohio. It was the Ohio History Center, that featured an extensive history of Ohio from the geological past to present. Focusing on the fossil exhibits, they are predominantly educational, for children I'd say and sadly most of the label lack specific informations (scientific names, origin). Nevertheless, there are some very peculiar fossils, that I'm going to show you now. Let's start with one of the highlights of the whole museum, the Conway Mastodon, a complete skeleton found in 1887 in the Ohio countryside. The Ice age exhibit features three other bone remains: those of a stag moose, a flat-head peccary and a woodland muskox skull. The other cases display fossils from the Palaeozoic. the Ordovician section consists of an Isotelus trilobite (state fossil of Ohio), a large crinoid slab and other fossil taxa (like bryozoans and nautiloids). From the Devonian you can see large colonial corals, nautiloids and a huge trunk (or branch, I'm not sure) from a tree of the genus "Callixylon". The Carbonferous section features fossil plants, like the well-known calamites, sigillaria and the fern "Pecopteris". Finally a huge fossil tree stump of the genus "Lepidodendron" concludes the exhibition. Overall I was satisfied, for you have an overview of all the kinds of fossils that you can find throughout Ohio, from the Ordovician trilobites to the Pleistocene proboscideans. the exhibition is rather small and labels and boards are far from being techincal, but fossil enthusiasts won't be disappointed, at least I was not! So tha's it, Let me know your impressions!

Hello everybody! This summer I spent a couple weeks in the U.S. and besides the famous museums (Smithsonian, Carnegie), I enjoyed a few less knwon destinations. I want to start with the Orton Geological Museum, that exhibits the geological collections of The Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. In the hall you are welcomed by a reconstruction of "Cryolophosaurus ellioti", a Jurassic Theropod found in Antarctica by a geologist of the O.S.U. you can see a reconstruction of the skull in the museum itself. Fossils are given the most space. I found very interesting the cases exhibiting the local fossils of Ohio, ranging from the Ordovician to the Pleistocene. the Ordovician case featured trilobites, brachiopods, nautiloids, bryozoans and other clades. the carboniferous featured also plant fossils. the Pleistocene specimens were Mastodon teeth and other bones. Besides this, a case showing the latest acquisitions kept a very large and well preserved Isotelus trilobite, the state fossil of Ohio. another case displayed fossils from the notorious Jurassic lagerstatten of Solnhofen, Germany. Other highlights were a reconstructed skeleton of a Megalonyx found in Ohio and of a Glyptodon from Argentina. Overall I found the museum really intriguing, because it displayed both fossils from nearby location and from all over the world. the museum layout is a bit aged, but it does not prevent having fun! Don't forget to visit the adjoining library, where a few large specimens are kept (including a slab with two set of prints made by a Carboniferous amphibian). I hope I was clear enough. let me know if any of you has already paid a visit here of you are now intrigued to! Thanks, Fabio

Found this Sept 23 along Scioto River in Columbus, Ohio. Any thoughts appreciated.