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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!!

Just saying hello. Been doing adventures with my family in Colorado, but now branching out on taking my special needs son on further out trips. Once I figure out where to post, I’ll post less detailed places we hunt closer to Denver.

My grandma says she must've gotten them somewhere around 40 years ago, and though she dpesnt remember where exactly she got it, she did say that she's travelled all over Asia,including China, througout her life (in fact, she even lived there in the 90s). Also, I was curious if there was any ways to preserve the fossil; it's kinda been kept out in the open it's whole life and I was wondering if there was any ways it could be displayed, like idk framed, in such a way that it gets protected from future damages? Thanks in advance

I have been getting increasingly less active here and with fossils in general. A year ago I left the Gateway Science Museum to return to the Chico Creek Nature Center. I worked there as a naturalist and science educator a decade ago. I loved that job and it was a huge part of my life. It was so cool that I can say I trained an owl. Literally speaking lol I worked with very closely with a Western Screech Owl. It was awesome. I heard the CCNC was looking for a Director of Animal Care. I jumped at the opportunity to return. Working with wildlife is my true life passion along with my kiddos. I’ve spent the last year helping bring native species back to the center. We currently house more than 30 different species of critters and I’m insanely busy but so happy. Meanwhile, my kids are rocking life in the adult world. My daughter, who is only 20, is graduating from CSUC with two BA’s in the spring. Political Science and Criminology. She’ll be deciding between law school or grad school. Carter, who is 21, is steadily progressing toward his degree. He is going to be an evolutionary biologist and will study reptiles most likely. Both kids are volunteering at the center too. So basically we are all super busy, super happy and doing well. The super busy part is where the fossils come in. We simply don’t have time for fossil education work. It’s just not happening anytime soon and it’s not happening in the future. Knowing that we just can’t do the education work any longer, my kids had the talk with me. They do not see the fossils as any sort of heirloom or inheritance. If something unexpected happens to me, it’d be something unpleasant for them to deal with. We have an extremely open and honest relationship so I respect what they are saying. I get it. My dad left us various messes to clean up when he died and I don’t want to do that to my kids. It’s not an easy decision to me because I’ve enjoyed this immensely. I love sharks and I’ve really liked collecting fossils but it’s time to let it go. We educated a lot of people and oh boy did we give away a bunch of fossils. Close to 3,000 bags of shark teeth !! In the coming months, there will be some posts on TFF and some will be fossils being auctioned to support TFF and get some fossils to people who’ve supported us. There will also most definitely be some giveaways !! Im likely to hang on to Cow Shark, Squaliformes and some micro stuff for awhile but everything else is going to go. I am eternally grateful to all the folks here who’ve helped us over the years and been so supportive. It’s because of you that we were able to spread some fossil love and it’s because of you that we’ll be ending our fossil collecting days by giving back to say thank you !!!!!

Study found increased increased homozygousity suggestive of inbreeding with greater mitochondrial diversity than Y chromosome diversity suggesting that greater female migration between groups. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05283-y

Hey, a question I have always wanted to ask is about dinosaur relatives, more specifically what do we mean when we refer to two dinosaurs as cousins ? Do we mean that a kind of dinosaur(for example baryonyx ) lived in an environment but at one point a group got separated by land and this group got to live in another part of the world so that group resulted in adapting to another environment and becoming a different dinosaur (for example spinosaurus ) or do we mean that a dinosaur is an ancestor of another dinosaur (again for example baryonyx evolved into spinosaurus)? This may seem like a really basic question to ask but I haven't really been able to find an answer so if someone answered it would be great.

I've had a lot of friend requests on Facebook lately from my paleontology peers, but my personal page isn't really focused on fossils. So, yesterday I launched a new blog about my family's expeditions, details about our finds, and our experience sharing our discoveries and our passion with the community. Take a peek if you're inclined: https://www.facebook.com/I-Gotta-Rock-374330346479428/

I would like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I realize that not all forum members may celebrate this Holiday but I still hope you all have a good day. For me, this is a day for reflecting on what I am thankful for. I am Thankful for my loving family. My Mom and Dad who raised me. My wife and kids who are my life. I am thankul for my job. I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for The Fossil Forum and all of the wonderful members whom I have met, or atleast have interacted with in some way. I am Thankful for the generousity and kindness you have bestowed upon me. I am Thankful to have a place that I can turn to share my passion with others. As this year edges nearer to its end I look forward to what next year has to bring. Again I hope you all have a great day. Sincerly Dave

We live in Tulsa and I want to take a few day trips to look for fossils. We will be near Lake Gibson this coming weekend. I have read that there are good areas near the dam there but do not know where to look. Any help would be great! My kids are really excited about hunting! We have a lot to learn but might as well get started. Thanks!!!

Currently the company that I work for has temporarily layed us off while we move into a brand new building. Unfortunately we are not getting payed during this time by them. We had a choice of going on unemployment or using some of our vacation time. I opted for using vacation. December 14 was our last day until everything is up and running. We are hoping to be back to work by January 14 but may not be back till later if problems arise. Anyways, I have been trying to keep busy while I have been off. Christmas and New years was nice time with family. I also enjoyed my trip to New Jersey last week. A couple days this past week I was helping a friend off mine who has purchased a house to fix up and flip. Thursday I went with a friend to look for arrowheads. Though we didn't find any, we found some stream worn horn corals. Yesterday I went with my wife to the Salmon River to hike and enjoy nature. Later on last night we celebrated my oldest son David's 19th Birthday. Today we took our youngest two boys skiing. Dylan has been going through school for about 4yrs. This was Devins first time and he had a blast. I am not sure what the rest of my time away from work will bring but I am trying to fill it with as much as I can.

I joined this group as my Daughter is dinosaur mad. She had the opportunity to fossil hunt along the Dorset coast and came away with lots of Pyrite ammonites. She and my husband also went Fossil hunting along Brazos river and found lots of Petrified wood and other interesting finds. Joined group to help ID a large find.

Want to wish all a very Happy Thanksgiving! I hope we all can find something to be thankful for, and can enjoy a little fine food and friends. Peace. Ray

Hello, I was thinking of taking my kids to Purse State Park in Maryland in the coming week while the weather is still this warm, but I have not been there before and was wondering if jellyfish are as much of an issue when the water is warm as is the case in the Chesapeake Bay and places like Brownies Beach. I know very little about the Potomac and the water type and whether it is brackish enough to support jellyfish, hence my question :) Last thing I want is for a family outing looking for shark teeth to go south due to some floating menaces. Looking forward to getting to this location and sharing the finds with the forum. Thanks, Matt

I wanted to wish all Fossil forum members Happy Holidays! No matter where you are from, what you celebrate, or how you celebrate. I hope everyone has a great holiday season! Hope you all get to spend a special time with family and friends! Sincerly Dave

On the winter solstice, we took the family out for a 7-mile winter hike. Luckily it was winter in name only, as the temps got up to almost 50 degrees. We found a nice trail near Roanoke, Virginia, that took us into the Appalachians. As the kids are still excited about our giant fossil hunting trip out west this summer, I decided to pick a location where I knew there were fossils to be found. All I know is that these were Paleozoic formations, where 450mya it was swampy mud flats. So I could tell them we wouldn't be finding dinosaurs, but we might find some shells. So they enjoyed the hike, and spent tons of time looking around for fossils when our climbing reached the tops of the ridgeline. Then we had to tell them they'd be carrying these rocks with them for the next 6 miles.... 1st kid's finds: (large flat-ish shells) (these seemed to be the most common finds) (trace fossils?) (crinoid stems? - Near the 1" mark, top/bottom)

We are planning a vacation in June to the Badlands area in South Dakota. I am wanting to do a fossil dig. Somewhere that is not expensive or and would like to keep what I find. Is this just a pipe dream? Where do I start? I am studying to be a middle and high school teacher in Kansas. I have always love fossils. I even have a T-Rex skeleton tattoo! I did contact the Badlands Park and they said you can keep up to 25 lbs as long as it is not a vertebrate. Please help! Thank you!

Hi there - Quick question for everyone. My wife and I will be out West with our 10yr old triplets during the 2nd week of July, and we are looking for a multi-day dinosaur dig to join. Our family previously worked a "Citizen Paleontologist" event where we spent hours unpacking and cataloguing the summer's finds by the paleontologists at Virginia Tech, and the kids always have their eyes glued to the ground, trying to find cool rocks, arrowheads, and fossils. There's not much in our area, so we're indulging their interest this summer. While finding dinosaur bits would be great, I'm sure they'll love any era of fossil hunting. We think we'll be in the Wyoming/South Dakota/Montana area. Do you happen to know of any good, *affordable* programs/sites?