Wants for 2020

[paulyb135]

As 2019 is coming to an end I am curious what is on people’s want list for next year. Did you get everything you wanted or is there still that elusive fossil eluding you?  

It’s been a varied year for me and a lucky one at that as I think it has been for many other members looking at some of the incredible fossils you have obtained this year. 

 

Hopefully 2020 is as successful if not more successful than 2019.

 

I hope you all have a Happy New Year and bring on 2020!

[Pterygotus]

Mine would probably be that ichthyosaur vertebrae at Charmouth that still hasn’t turned up . 
 

Happy New Year! 

[grandpa]

3 hours ago, paulyb135 said:

what is on people’s want list for next year

I want to get back out in the field and do some hunting.  It's been way too long since I've enjoyed a good hunt. 

 

A very happy 2020 to all. 

[Kane]

Extensive planning and prospecting for new sites (and revisiting long neglected ones) so that I can hit the ground running once spring has sprung. The motto for my 2020 will be "breaking new ground." As this past year has been punctuated by rare finds, some of which are not reported in the literature, I aim to build on that for this coming year. So my wish list for 2020 is more, and rare, trilobites. 

 

A prosperous 2020 to all! 

[FossilNerd]

I want to focus my personal studies.
 

Like others, I have new prospective hunting grounds to check out, and a bucket list fossil or two I’d like to get, but my big goal is to focus my study efforts on something. 
 

One day I’d love to be the “go to guy” for something here on TFF. Similar to how we go to Frank @Troodon for all things dino, or Scott @piranha for all our trilobite ID questions, or Tony @ynot when it comes to geology. That is a lofty goal to be sure, and would take years of study and experience, but you gotta start somewhere. One day, or in this case, one year at a time! 

 

Now if I could just figure out what I wanted to focus on... 

[RJB]

  Would love to find that 2nd fossil crab that has all its legs all the way to the tippy tippy's!   Fingers crossed.  1st one took way over 20 years!

 

RB

[FranzBernhard]

Nice topic!

 

I don´t know what life will bring to me next year. Fossil hunting has to fit within all my other duties. Here is a wish list that I can freely choose from:

- Collecting at some totally unexplored sites in the Miocene "Florianer Schichten" (at least a dozen sites I know of are completely untouched).

- Some micro-prospecting in the nearby Campanian (a few acres/ha are still unprospected!!). I think, I will do this first.

- Some digging in my old nearby Campanian sites (It seems that I cant resist rudists...)

- There is a Serravalian plant fossil site described in the literature not far away from me - maybe?

- Visiting a few fossil signs on the geological map within the Eifelian Plabutsch-formation.

- ??? - you never know what will happen!

No publication is planned for the next year, so I can do what I want .

 

19 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

Now if I could just figure out what I wanted to focus on

Maybe on something you can find on your own without much driving? What is not well-explored in your area? What is not very well known?

 

Happy hunting and Happy New Year 2020!

 

Franz Bernhard

[FossilNerd]

1 hour ago, FranzBernhard said:

Maybe on something you can find on your own without much driving? What is not well-explored in your area? What is not very well known?

Good suggestions! Your study of the rudists in your area is certainly inspirational! Fortunately, I live in an area with fossil exposures from different Paleozoic time periods, all within an hour drive of my house. Unfortunately, that means there is a lot of things that I’m excited and curious about so it’s hard to choose just one. Although, lately I have been enamored with the Upper Ordovician.  

[Ruger9a]

I want my wife to stop complaining about "all those nasty looking rocks that stink up the house and collect dust"....  Is that too much to want?

[Praefectus]

I want to get more organized. I've had a great year collecting, but I really need to work on adding labels, organizing things in riker boxes, etc. 

 

As for elusive fossils, I would love to find a megalodon tooth on my own. Acquiring a whopper T. rex tooth would be pretty nice too.

 

Happy New Year!

[Dinoguy89]

I was lucky enough to get 3 new Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth and some tyrannosaur teeth, and a nice big meg. Still looking for a nice sized carch tooth. Your collection is looking great. A real nice variety. Hope you have a great new year  

[paulyb135]

12 minutes ago, Dinoguy89 said:

I was lucky enough to get 3 new Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth and some tyrannosaur teeth, and a nice big meg. Still looking for a nice sized carch tooth. Your collection is looking great. A real nice variety. Hope you have a great new year  

 

Thank you! Your rex teeth are very impressive. The huge one is one of the best around and certainly a centrepiece to any collection. Carch teeth I am finding less and less common, especially nice ones but I’m sure next year at least one will pop up. 

 

Have a great new year yourself!

[caldigger]

2 hours ago, Praefectus said:

I want to get more organized. I've had a great year collecting, but I really need to work on adding labels, organizing things in riker boxes, etc. 

I'm with you there buddy, I seriously need to crack down and sort things out.

[Abstraktum]

Wonderful fossil year for me. My collection exploded compared to 2018 and I was able to get my hands on some superb stuff I'm so glad to have

Unfortunatly I did not much digging by myself and was only at Holzmaden Quarry once in 2019. Next year I definetly want to do some more digging at Holzmaden and also return to the Solnhofen Quarry. 

Hopefully I'll get some nice stuff out there  

 

And of course the most important event for me: In July 2020 I'll be digging for a week in Wyoming at the Lance Formation legally and guided in an Dinosaur rich soil. As I cant bring any bones by plane back to Germany, I'm hopping for teeth. Will definitely open up a topic, when I'm in the US  

[paulyb135]

29 minutes ago, Abstraktum said:

Wonderful fossil year for me. My collection exploded compared to 2018 and I was able to get my hands on some superb stuff I'm so glad to have

Unfortunatly I did not much digging by myself and was only at Holzmaden Quarry once in 2019. Next year I definetly want to do some more digging at Holzmaden and also return to the Solnhofen Quarry. 

Hopefully I'll get some nice stuff out there  

 

And of course the most important event for me: In July 2020 I'll be digging for a week in Wyoming at the Lance Formation legally and guided in an Dinosaur rich soil. As I cant bring any bones by plane back to Germany, I'm hopping for teeth. Will definitely open up a topic, when I'm in the US  

 

Awesome! Sounds like you have an exciting year ahead! Bring me back a nice tyrannosaur tooth please

[Runner64]

Goals for me would be a few new dinosaur teeth. 
 

However, my biggest goal is to find a site to collect fossils in central Iowa and become well-verses on how to ID them properly .

[Misha]

I don't generally set goals for myself of what I am going to get, but I really want to go to the Deep Springs Road Site in central NY and maybe find a partial Dipleura, I would love to explore more Devonian sites around here in general, maybe go into PA and some other NY sites.

[dinosaur man]

Mine would be a Tyrannosaur tooth from the Dinosaur Park Formation!!

[Randyw]

With the help of some of the great members here I have marked off several things on my want list but I think Identifiable dinosaur material would be on my next wish list. I only have 2 spinosaurus teeth a partial ceratopsian tooth and a couple bone fragments so far. And of course more white river stuff to prep! LOL! Heck more anything to prep...

[Joe_17]

I want to actually find some cool things myself. I also want to learn how to prep . But also want to get a fossil I've been waiting for, for years to finally come in the mail .

[PaleoNoel]

I'm doing several weeks with Paleoprospectors in Wyoming this summer, one of which will be spent entirely in the white river formation, so I hope to find an Oreodont skull or a tortoise shell in good condition along with some predator material. In the Lance fm. where we'll spend most of the time, I want to find a good size complete bone. I feel like I focus so much time on channel deposits and microsites that I never get any larger dinosaur bones when I'm out there. I also don't think it would be too much to ask to find a Nanotyrannus tooth of a decent size and condition. Since ceratopsian material is so common in the formation, I hope to find a good chunk of horn.

 

[caldigger]

43 minutes ago, PaleoNoel said:

I also don't think it would be too much to ask to find a Nanotyrannus tooth of a decent size and condition.

Why stop your dream at just a tooth, hope for the whole enchilada!  

[PaleoNoel]

14 minutes ago, caldigger said:

Why stop your dream at just a tooth, hope for the whole enchilada!  

You got me there! I'm just being realistic. Although it would be nice to single handedly end the Nanotyrannus debate lol. 

[Nimravis]

As far as my goals, I want to get out as much as possible, I don’t have an issue driving 5-6 hours one way to collect, get a hotel room, collect more and head home.

 

I also need to continue to whack open my Mazon Creek concretions so they are all gone, with the exception of a couple 5 gallon buckets of nice ones that I will freeze and thaw. 
 

I wish I could organize better, but that may have to wait for a couple years until I retire and move to Georgia. At this point I have so many fossils sitting around, that it is hard just trying to get containers to store them in until later.

 

Lastly my biggest goal is taking my 6 year old grandson out collecting for the first time, we should have a blast.

[Ludwigia]

Well, now that I'm fully retired, I have a bit more time on my hands, so I figured I could go out to the Midwest and dig up a complete T-rex skeleton, take a run up to Siberia for a Mammoth and maybe extricate the next Archaeopteryx from the Solnhofer Plattenkalk .....but seriously...

I suppose I could say that I have enough ammonites, but I would nevertheless like to get a hold on some decent hereromorphs and some Pierre Shale and Fox Hills ones to add to the collection. And although I already have the common Knightia and Diplomystus, I'm still drooling over the likes of Priscacara, Mioplosus and Phareodus which I don't have yet. A Chubutensis tooth would also be nice to fit in between the Megalodon and the Great White.