Fossil "Gifts" from Mother Nature! What did YOU get?

[JamieLynn]

There's no title I could think of that didn't sound odd....Show us your Nature's Gifts! Have you been Gifted by Nature? Show us!  Yeesh. WHAT I MEAN IS HAVE YOU BEEN GIVEN A "GIFT" BY MOTHER NATURE!??! In other words...show us your fossils that were just LAYING there...waiting for you to notice them! In perfect or almost perfect condition, highlighted by a little sunlight (or not). literally just sitting there waiting for you to pick it up!  Most of the time we hunt, scrounge, dig, scrape or otherwise discover fossil finds. Other times they are there just for the picking up,  but SOMETIMES....it seems there is just a little extra something, a special fossil that seems like it was just placed there for you to find. I have had this happen so many times it's just WEIRD and I just figure they are Gifts from Nature! My absolute favorite is this honking Cretodus Shark tooth. I stopped by a creek in downtown Dallas while there for a convention and just thought I'd see if there were any fossils there. Nothing to be found AT ALL until I went up the bank and I swear this monster was just sitting there looking just like this. Clean as could be. I seriously thought maybe someone had dropped it. Maybe they did. But I found it.  

 

Cretodus 2 inches

 

Most recently were these two echinoids from Bell County, at two different localities. The one Leptosalenia mexicana I'd been TRYING to find for some time.

I hunted around for about an hour, was getting hot, so turned around to head out and there the little bugger was, just sitting at my feet all pretty like. . 

Same for the Phymosoma. Had wandered around finding not much except a few nice gastropods and then boom....this pretty thing sitting right out on top, 

nicely cleaned up and everything! 

 

 

There's about a half dozen other things...a couple of ammonites, some gatropods and a Pennsylvanian brachiopod that was actually catching the sunlight

while stuck in the crevasse of a rock that caught my attention Fun stuff. 

 

So what has been your "gift" from Nature? 

 

 

 

[Bronzviking]

LOVE YOUR GIFTS OF NATURE! This was my incredible gift.

 

[PFOOLEY]

 

[Mediospirifer]

Here's a link to one of mine: LINK. I was looking for brachiopods and horn corals on that trip. The blastoid was an unexpected bonus!

 

 

My first (and to date, only) blastoid find. 

 

[JamieLynn]

@PFOOLEY - yep, exactly that! Sun shining on it, just sitting there waiting for YOU! 

 

@Mediospirifer - what a great gift!!! 

[Mediospirifer]

Thinking further, I have another one--or rather, Mr. Spirifer has one: LINK.

 

That slab of Plumalina brevis literally fell at his feet while he was looking over a cliff face for Plumalina-bearing layers. He heard a "thump" right behind him, turned to see that rock leaning on the cliff, and took a closer look. 

 

 

 

Under the microscope:

 

 

He's said a number of times since that if Mother Nature is going to throw cool fossils or other rocks at his feet, he's keeping them! 

 

[Misha]

I haven't gone fossil hunting in a while, but my best surface find probably has to be this brachiopod with a Crinoid holdfast attached, it's not perfectly preserved or complete but it is still one of my favorite pieces in the collection.

It was found at Penn Dixie just like you see it in the picture.

[Ludwigia]

If you ever get the chance to walk over the hilly marly shale exposures in the Provence in southern France, then do it by all means. The best time to do it is after a rainy day, where more pyritized ammonites have been washed out of the exposures and are ripe for the picking. Here's a small selection of what can be found there.

 

 

 

[Bobby Rico]

Hi
most of my U.K. find are surface find because that is the nature of fossil hunting in the U.K.. I could post some beautiful ammonites or nice trilobites , real eye candy but I thought your post was looking for the unexpected finds of chance . 
 

At a friends wedding on the Norfolk coast . I decided to go for walk to get some fresh air before the day’s events and I thought I could find some samphire in the marsh land. I sat for a little on the bank watching the birds , looking around me I spotted a little something white In the mud. Not an great find but it is not every day you go out and get a bag of samphire and some mammoth ivory. 

 

[Coco]

@Ludwigia if you know the names of your ammonites, would you write a post about them please ? Thanks

 

Coco

[JamieLynn]

love y'alls finds!! Yep, sometimes they are just so obvious, sometimes they are thrown at your feet, or noticed while you are just taking a rest (or if I remember the story correctly, one of the Paleontological Society of Austin members making a great discovery of a "rare" fossil while going over the hill for a bathroom break....). hahahha

 

@Ludwigia - I was in Provence about 14 years ago....If i had known then what I know now...I would have made that trip last a couple of extra days to go fossil hunting!! Now I MUST visit again! 

[Ludwigia]

9 hours ago, Coco said:

@Ludwigia if you know the names of your ammonites, would you write a post about them please ? Thanks

 

Coco

All of the ammonites in the first photo are Dufrenoyia furcata.

I've re-posted the other photo with numbers.

 

Here are the names that I've given them, although I can't absolutely guarantee that they are all correct.

1. Holcophylloceras guettardi

2. Neocomites neocomiensis

3. Dufrenoyia furcata

4. Acanthohoplites milletianus

5. Phylloceras serum perlobatum

6. Olcostephanus asterianus

7. Neolissoceras grasianum

8. Lytoceras julieti

9. Jauberticeras jauberti

10. Holcophylloceras guettardi

11. Aconecerus nisum

12. Neocomites neocomiensis

13. Aconecerus nisum

14. Eucymatoceras plicatum

15. Tetragonites depressus

16. Lytoceras sp.

17. Olcostephanus sp.

 

[Sjfriend]

Not mine but a cool.story:

 

the 1st dinosaur track found in Denali National Park Alaska was found during a break (I think college class trip) while the leader was talking about none being found in the park that one of the students, while looking around, asked "like that one?"

 

My best is my slab of bird tracks found on the beach near home. Just happened to be walking by at the right angle for the sunlight to catch them.

[PaleoNoel]

I found this tiny theropod tooth (may be small Nanotyrannus or dromaeosaur) at a North Dakota microsite (Hell Creek). The photos I took were from it's original position that I found it in, a beautiful gift from the fossil gods!

[FF7_Yuffie]

9 hours ago, PaleoNoel said:

I found this tiny theropod tooth (may be small Nanotyrannus or dromaeosaur) at a North Dakota microsite (Hell Creek). The photos I took were from it's original position that I found it in, a beautiful gift from the fossil gods!

 

 

Wow! That looks to be in lovely condition too. Great find.

[PaleoNoel]

1 hour ago, FF7_Yuffie said:

 

 

Wow! That looks to be in lovely condition too. Great find.

Thank you!

[musicnfossils]

All three of the Dino teeth I found were basically sitting there begging to be discovered. Much like PaleoNoel’s photo above actually! The Tyrannosaurid tooth I found was on a small hill I decided to check out while taking a break from riding my street bike, and the hadrosaur teeth I found were sitting right beside where I parked by pedal bike before I started hiking. When I got back and was ready to leave, I noticed these two oddly shiny rocks right beside the bike, and they were teeth. 

[Vieira]

Some examples of gifts from mother nature:

 

Nice echinolampas exactly this way in the field.

 

[Vieira]

One more:

 

[Vieira]

And some shark teeth:

 

[taj]

On 5/19/2020 at 5:29 AM, Ludwigia said:

If you ever get the chance to walk over the hilly marly shale exposures in the Provence in southern France, then do it by all means. The best time to do it is after a rainy day, where more pyritized ammonites have been washed out of the exposures and are ripe for the picking. Here's a small selection of what can be found there.

 

 

 

... but do a little bit of intel before . Geoparks ( restricted fossil collecting areas ) have been popping up these last years down there ...

[taj]

btw , there seems to be a mix of Valanginian and Aptian ammonites  in the lot , do you find them mixed in the same spot ?

[cngodles]

A small highway on-ramp outcrop I've been vising has all sorts of eroded matrix at the base. I usually walk it and search for shells before I head up to pick at the rock. Found this one the 2nd time through.

 

Shansiella carbonaria