A Blind Hunt Trade to honor Caldigger

[thelivingdead531]

On 5/21/2020 at 7:27 PM, joshuajbelanger said:

Went out today, beautiful day, found some goodies.  Not nearly enough for everyone!  I’ll have to add some past finds in there.  Also, apparently the main post office that handles all mail for Wyoming and Colorado has a huge covid outbreak, and is shutdown...so, hang tight I guess guys!

I just saw this posted in a local group on Facebook and thought I would share with you. I don’t think they are actually shut down, unless there were further updates. 

https://1063cowboycountry.com/denver-postal-center-to-stay-open-despite-orders-to-close/

[Max-fossils]

At the Zandmotor (Netherlands), I'm hunting a mix of mainly late Pleistocene sediments:

• The Eem Formation, Eemian stage (130'000 to 115'000 years old) contains a huge amount of fossil shells and many saltwater fish remains 
• The Weichselian (approx 40'000 years old) contains megafauna from the last Ice Age (mammoth, woolly rhino, etc) and some freshwater fish remains

However at my hunting location, there are a lot of reworked fossils, meaning that it is not uncommon to find fossils from other ages:

• vertebrate remains from the Middle Pleistocene (which had a more jungle-like environment, with jaguars, hippo's, elephants, etc; but these are quite rare fossils)
• shells and shark teeth from the late Pliocene
• shells from the Eocene

But about 95% of the fossil finds are late Pleistocene, and it's not guaranteed I'll find any of the older stuff. However I will likely include other fossils (not from the hunt) and these will probably be older.  

 

By the way, @joshuajbelanger, your location tag says Florida but you say you're hunting White River. Does the formation also occur in Florida? Or did you recently move?

[minnbuckeye]

I normally hunt the Ordovician of SE Minnesota and NE Iowa including Decorah, Platteville, Galena, and Maquoketa. But for my part, I took a two day trip to SE Iowa and collected in the Mississippian, including the Warsaw, Keokuk and Burlington formations for which I promised my samples from. 

 

Mike  

  

 

        @Max-fossils,  @joshuajbelanger just got tired of finding megs all the time so decided to move to Colorado for a new hunting style!! No kayak and sifters. Anyways, I checked on current postage to the Netherlands. Small box $39, medium box $75, and large $99.  

 

 

[Notidanodon]

I’m hunting the paleocene of Kent, england, I’d be really interested in trading for younger stuff

[JamieLynn]

I"m hunting Texas Late Cretaceous marine invertebrates. Mostly oysters, echinoids, gastropods. and i did find one little ammonite in my hunt the other day which will go with the other stuff!  

[Wrangellian]

Which extinction event?  I'm about 20 million years before the Cretaceous extinction, in the Santonian - marine, mostly inverts but with occasional vert bits such as fish scales, and land plants. But as I said, I'm not confident that I could bring home enough decent material that would roughly equate to what others might be able to offer, at least not on one trip only. I'd either have to go out more than once (give me time) or dip into my collection. And then there's the shipping cost which has gotten insane lately, especially overseas. But it's tempting to take part seeing what areas the others are collecting in... If I can limit the size of the package (meaning small items) it could be doable. In the past I've had a tendency to load up a heavy box full and then get sticker shock at the PO, but send it off anyway, and then in return receive a smaller package, which is not necessarily unwelcome, but it cost the sender a lot less!

[connorp]

I hunted, and will hopefully hunt again soon, some Pennsylvanian limestones. Tons of brachiopods, occasional fish bits and other random inverts.

[joshuajbelanger]

21 hours ago, Max-fossils said:

At the Zandmotor (Netherlands), I'm hunting a mix of mainly late Pleistocene sediments:

• The Eem Formation, Eemian stage (130'000 to 115'000 years old) contains a huge amount of fossil shells and many saltwater fish remains 
• The Weichselian (approx 40'000 years old) contains megafauna from the last Ice Age (mammoth, woolly rhino, etc) and some freshwater fish remains

However at my hunting location, there are a lot of reworked fossils, meaning that it is not uncommon to find fossils from other ages:

• vertebrate remains from the Middle Pleistocene (which had a more jungle-like environment, with jaguars, hippo's, elephants, etc; but these are quite rare fossils)
• shells and shark teeth from the late Pliocene
• shells from the Eocene

But about 95% of the fossil finds are late Pleistocene, and it's not guaranteed I'll find any of the older stuff. However I will likely include other fossils (not from the hunt) and these will probably be older.  

 

By the way, @joshuajbelanger, your location tag says Florida but you say you're hunting White River. Does the formation also occur in Florida? Or did you recently move?

I do believe this is the second time someone reminds me of my location 

 

I lived in Florida for the last 10 years where I hunted much of the same species that you are finding in the peace river.  About 2 years ago, I finished my degree in geology, and moved to Colorado for the older rock.  I have simply forgotten to change my location.  I’ll actually do this now. 
 

Considering how familiar I am with the bones of the Pleistocene, I’m curious what kind of hunting style is required for the Netherlands?  In Florida’s famous peace river you can sift or, as I preferred, dive the rivers for those Pleistocene goodies. 

[joshuajbelanger]

19 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

I normally hunt the Ordovician of SE Minnesota and NE Iowa including Decorah, Platteville, Galena, and Maquoketa. But for my part, I took a two day trip to SE Iowa and collected in the Mississippian, including the Warsaw, Keokuk and Burlington formations for which I promised my samples from. 

 

Mike  

  

 

        @Max-fossils,  @joshuajbelanger just got tired of finding megs all the time so decided to move to Colorado for a new hunting style!! No kayak and sifters. Anyways, I checked on current postage to the Netherlands. Small box $39, medium box $75, and large $99.  

 

 

Hey now, I’m pretty sure I left one or two....billion megs for everyone else!

[joshuajbelanger]

6 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Which extinction event?  I'm about 20 million years before the Cretaceous extinction, in the Santonian - marine, mostly inverts but with occasional vert bits such as fish scales, and land plants. But as I said, I'm not confident that I could bring home enough decent material that would roughly equate to what others might be able to offer, at least not on one trip only. I'd either have to go out more than once (give me time) or dip into my collection. And then there's the shipping cost which has gotten insane lately, especially overseas. But it's tempting to take part seeing what areas the others are collecting in... If I can limit the size of the package (meaning small items) it could be doable. In the past I've had a tendency to load up a heavy box full and then get sticker shock at the PO, but send it off anyway, and then in return receive a smaller package, which is not necessarily unwelcome, but it cost the sender a lot less!

That’s the gamble of the blind trade!  I like to pack my boxes full as well...it always feels inadequate though.  No matter how successful I become at fossil hunting, I always feel lacking.  
 

When I told my wife about this blind trade and how many people were involved, she just sighed and claimed I would be sending too much from my personal collection. 
 

Also, mad respect to caldigger for keeping the blind trade thread going, especially with such nice fossils and attention to detail.  It’s these moments that I truly feel tall on the shoulders of giants.

[Bobby Rico]

35 minutes ago, joshuajbelanger said:

Also, mad respect to caldigger for keeping the blind trade thread going, especially with such nice fossils and attention to detail.  It’s these moments that I truly feel tall on the shoulders of giants.

Doren sent me many things out of the blue or for Christmas/birthdays ., I really think he enjoyed been kind and generous. I can only go by my experience but he would make notes and remember comments I said about other members collections or finds just so he would know what is was going to send next.  I can say he is the kindest person I have known . He also gave out of this collection as I do . Doren would say  “ I have enjoyed this fossil for years now and I thought it was time for you to now enjoy it”  . Thinking on I think he gave me something else the idea to be a kinder human being .

 

I am sorry I can’t participate in the thread at the moment U.K. is still in lockdown and I would have to travel out of my county to hunt . Looking forward to seeing all your trades  have a good week all 

 

Bobby 

[Max-fossils]

2 hours ago, joshuajbelanger said:

I do believe this is the second time someone reminds me of my location 

 

I lived in Florida for the last 10 years where I hunted much of the same species that you are finding in the peace river.  About 2 years ago, I finished my degree in geology, and moved to Colorado for the older rock.  I have simply forgotten to change my location.  I’ll actually do this now. 
 

Considering how familiar I am with the bones of the Pleistocene, I’m curious what kind of hunting style is required for the Netherlands?  In Florida’s famous peace river you can sift or, as I preferred, dive the rivers for those Pleistocene goodies. 

Ah cool! I hunted the Peace River and the Santa Fe River once each, really cool locations. But White River is definitely a notch above them! I've seen the absolutely craziest oreodonts & more coming out of that place. So far all I have from that location is a cool little jawpiece from a Leptomeryx (that is currently sitting in a small riker case with some deer teeth I found on the Zandmotor). You're lucky to be hunting there that's for sure!

The Zandmotor is actually a rather simple location as you're essentially just beach-combing. You can sift the sand (with a very fine sifter) to find some micro-fossils but it's usually better to bring some sand home and look at it then. The great mammal fossils, just like all the other stuff, is found by just walking around and hoping you stumble upon something good, like a perfect mammoth tooth. There is some skill required, such as knowing which banks have the highest chance of offering what you're looking for, and being able to tell whether the hunting will be productive or not given wind, currents, and weather. I'm not very good at that yet, but a friend of mine that hunts there too (much more regularly than me) does a Morphology course in uni and apparently that helps him a lot to find all the crazy fossils he finds! (I linked his Instagram account, he's definitely worth a follow ). But yeah, hunting at the Zandmotor doesn't require anything except for your hands, eyes, and some luck. 

And for other Dutch Pleistocene localities, most of them are beach sites like the Zandmotor that also require you to beach-comb, but there are some (that I haven't been to yet) that are different. No Florida-like river localities that I'm aware of though.

[minnbuckeye]

@joshuajbelanger, my fossils are ready to send. So all I need to know is who, when and where. I think I know the why and what. I do have to admit, I am keeping 2 out of hundreds of fossils I lugged home (maybe a possible contestant in the Fossil of the Month Contest). The best of the other fossils will be packed into a large box. I have samples from three different formations including brachiopods, crinoids (stems and calyxes), shark bits (no complete teeth but some partials), corals, bryozoans (no Archimedes. a big disappointment for me. Every one found was in a rock too big for me to take and they are too fragile to chip out.), a trilobite pygidium and geodes. If I am paired with someone overseas, due to the postage costs, I would only send out a small box, so no geodes!!!

 

Mike. 

[Monica]

Hey @joshuajbelanger!

 

I'm pretty much ready to send my package out - all of the fossils from last Friday's hunt are washed and dried, so all I have to do is pick up a box at the post office, wrap everything in bubble wrap, and then send it away to whomever my trading partner is.  The fossils are Lower Devonian in age and are all marine invertebrates.

 

Thanks for organizing this little event!

 

Monica

[joshuajbelanger]

I will work on the list tonight.  Patience is a virtue!

[mattbsharks]

On 5/23/2020 at 8:25 PM, joshuajbelanger said:

Alrighty!  I'll be heading back out tomorrow, I did find a few goodies Thursday.  I use a garmin inreach to track my every move(and also so my wife knows where I am when I go alone.)  I am able to see exactly what ground I covered, where I spent the most time, and where else I have to go.  I have so much more to cover at this spot!

 

Anyway, I'm going to need to know what strata every one is digging in.  I don't want to pair up people that are digging the same timeframe.  I'm currently hunting white river formation.  So, @JamieLynn, @Monica, @minnbuckeye, @Max-fossils@fishguy, @will stevenson@connorp, @mattbsharks, @Wrangellian-which extinction even are you guys playing around in?

I am not positive but I am finding mostly fossil plants with pyrite replacement 

[Wrangellian]

14 hours ago, joshuajbelanger said:

That’s the gamble of the blind trade!  I like to pack my boxes full as well...it always feels inadequate though.  No matter how successful I become at fossil hunting, I always feel lacking. 

When I told my wife about this blind trade and how many people were involved, she just sighed and claimed I would be sending too much from my personal collection.

Also, mad respect to caldigger for keeping the blind trade thread going, especially with such nice fossils and attention to detail.  It’s these moments that I truly feel tall on the shoulders of giants.

Yes, he was constantly trading and must have had new stuff coming in all the time, from which to choose in sending out more packages. I can't quite live up to that, partly because if the CanadaPost shipping costs and partly because I have dipped into my collection a number of times already and it's getting to the point where all that's left is stuff I am loathe to part with - that's speaking of my non-local, bought/traded stuff. Out of my local stuff I could still pick stuff out for trading, to supplement a day's hunt, assuming there is someone out there who would be interested in it. That and, if the point of this game was to get out and hunt and trade away what we find, I still haven't managed to get out there! It keep raining here, and I don't like to collect when the rock is wet, as I often need to use glue to stabilize things before I excavate them. So if I can have at least a week to go collecting and prepare a package, and if you can match me up with someone who will like my Cretaceous odds and sods, I'll do it. (no complete ammonites, that's impossible here!)

[joshuajbelanger]

Alright, sorry it took me so long to get these names together, but I started running a bit of a fever today-very odd considering how cautious I've been. (Mask since February, only go out for essential items to a small market, consistent hand washing and sanitizing, and bleach on every product that comes into my house.)  Eeeeeshhhh...

 

Anyway, I've compiled the names, let me know if there are any issues, quite a bit of you guys are hunting in Paleocene, but I think I've managed to give you all separate epochs at least.  Anyway, drum roll--------

 

@Monica and Myself will be partners.  

 

@will stevenson and @Max-fossils will be trading.  I originally was going to trade with max, as to not stick the cost of shipping to anyone else, but you two are closer together and Will was interested in younger stuff.  Match made in heaven, although, let me know if there is any issue with this.

 

@connorp will be trading his Pennsylvanian stuff (cool epoch btw) with @fishguy who is being very elusive about his hunting strata .  Again, let me know if there is an issue.

 

@JamieLynn will be trading her cool Mesozoic stuff for @minnbuckeye's Ordovician goodies.  

 

And finally @mattbsharks will be trading his funky fresh fools gold plants for some of @Wrangellian's Cretaceous stuff. 

 

Everyone should private message their information to their assigned partner.  I would also like to point out that there are a lot of awards in this room right now!  Should be a really killer trade with everyone.  Remember, as Caldigger always was adamant about, post pics!

 

If there are any problems or questions, feel free to message me.

 

-Cheers and happy hunting

J

 

 

[connorp]

@joshuajbelanger Thanks for putting this together!

[Notidanodon]

@joshuajbelanger to echo what @connorp said, thanks so much for putting this together and @Max-fossils ill send you a pm

[minnbuckeye]

Fun times begin!! Message sent.  Actually my samples collected are from the Mississippian, not Ordovician. Hopefully it is not an issue.

[JamieLynn]

1 hour ago, minnbuckeye said:

Fun times begin!! Message sent.  Actually my samples collected are from the Mississippian, not Ordovician. Hopefully it is not an issue.

Since we are trading, that's fine,,,,,and I hope you are okay with Cretaceous stuff because that's what I have, rather than Mesozoic as stated.

[joshuajbelanger]

57 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

Since we are trading, that's fine,,,,,and I hope you are okay with Cretaceous stuff because that's what I have, rather than Mesozoic as stated.

Cretaceous is part of the mesozoic.  You guys are hundreds of millions of years apart-I think you’ll be fine 

[JamieLynn]

53 minutes ago, joshuajbelanger said:

Cretaceous is part of the mesozoic.  You guys are hundreds of millions of years apart-I think you’ll be fine 

Ahhhh ha! Gotcha! 

[minnbuckeye]

7 hours ago, JamieLynn said:

hope you are okay with Cretaceous

I own Zero Cretaceous fossils!! So anything would be thrilling to me.