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Fossil plants of Green River Formation


RJB

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  My youngest son had to go to Denver to pick up a piece of equipment for his business, and like me, he decided to go the round about way and do some fossil hunting along the way.   Him and his buddy went to Bonanza and spent 3 days looking and digging around.   It took them awhile, he said they didnt find much of anything the first day,  just wasting time digging holes, but then ran into a layer that had some decent stuff in it and kept following that layer for about 30 or 40 feet.  They also found some insects and one very cool flower.  I wish I took a photo of that.   I will post more as i get some of this stuff prepped out.

 

RB 

 

 Here is a cute little leaf.  If you look closely you can see where I prepped out the tips of three places and then I prepped out the stem.  Came out purty dang good!  It still has to be cut with the water saw but just about done.  I will be posting more but have to prep it out first. 

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Some more plants Ive prepped out lately.

 

RB

 

 

On leafs like this I prep out the stem.  If it has a stem, then I finish up the rest.

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Not the best leaf but overall it came out purty good.

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A most beautiful and highly detailed seed!!!  No prep nessisary.  This measures just over 1 1/2 inches

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I wasnt sure about this poplar at all.  I was just hoping it had a stem?

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and what a most beautiful stem indeed!!!  Not to mention,,, quite large too!!!

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Wow those are some cool leaves and a great seed. How do you know if there is a leaf underneath?

“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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22 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

How do you know if there is a leaf underneath?

Im not sure if I understand the question?

 

RB

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2 hours ago, RJB said:

Im not sure if I understand the question?

 

RB

When you find the rock that its in, is part of the leaf showing so you know there's a leaf there or is it completely covered in rock? Does it just split along layers because it looks like your amazing seed was just found how it is. My question is just how do you find the leaves in the rock?

“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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23 hours ago, Top Trilo said:

My question is just how do you find the leaves in the rock?

When you are at the site you pry up layers of rock.  You will see the leaf/s if they are there.  As you can see from these, sometimes only part of the leaf is exsposed.

 

RB

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23 minutes ago, RJB said:

When you are at the site you pry up layers of rock.  You will see the leaf/s if they are there.  As you can see from these, sometimes only part of the leaf is exsposed.

 

RB

Thank You, sounds like fun

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“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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  • 3 weeks later...

  Here is a very large and very beautiful leaf that I just finished today for my youngest son Coleton.

 

 

Here is what it looked like from the beginning except that I have carved out a small canyon exsposing the stem. 

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Here you can see how I have air scribed a somewhat softer angle on the right side so its not so steep.  Still have to do the left side. 

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Here it is now and I have already started the rock smoothing.

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This is a really bad photo, but you can see that all the rock smoothing for the stem is complete.  At the deep end its about 1 inch in depth!!!

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The finished leaf.  There is some insect damage and the rock was in pieces and I had to wash it, (I always hate doing that) cause it was covered in dried out muddy dirt.  I coated this intire leaf with glyptal and it came out FANTASTIC!!!  This beautiful monster measure almost 9 inches!!!

BL001E.JPG.3477fa3076468dabf016c0009195f936.JPG

 

 

 

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19 minutes ago, RJB said:

The finished leaf.  There is some insect damage and the rock was in pieces and I had to wash it, (I always hate doing that) cause it was covered in dried out muddy dirt.  I coated this intire leaf with glyptal and it came out FANTASTIC!!!  This beautiful monster measure almost 9 inches!!!

 

That is fantastic. It looks like you took a leaf off your tree and glued it to a rock. It looks brand new like it wasn't under the ground for 48 million years. Nice job on a stem.

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“If fossils are not "boggling" your mind then you are simply not doing it right” -Ken (digit)

"No fossil is garbage, it´s just not completely preserved” -Franz (FranzBernhard)

"With hammer in hand, the open horizon of time, and dear friends by my side, what can we not accomplish together?" -Kane (Kane)

"We are in a way conquering time, reuniting members of a long lost family" -Quincy (Opabinia Blues)

"I loved reading the trip reports, I loved the sharing, I loved the educational aspect, I loved the humor. It felt like home. It still does" -Mike (Pagurus)

“The best deal I ever got was getting accepted as a member on The Fossil Forum. Not only got an invaluable pool of knowledge, but gained a loving family as well.” -Doren (caldigger)

"it really is nice, to visit the oasis that is TFF" -Tim (fossildude19)

"Life's Good! -Adam (Tidgy's Dad)

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3 minutes ago, Top Trilo said:
24 minutes ago, RJB said:

 

That is fantastic. It looks like you took a leaf off your tree and glued it to a rock. It looks brand new like it wasn't under the ground for 48 million years. Nice job on a stem.

Believe it or not, back in the day when I was a fossil dealer, a customer once asked how I glued the leafs onto a flat rock!!!  Ha!  :)

 

RB

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