Halloween hunt

[Jackson g]

Goodmorning/ afternoon all!

  Being a middle aged 20 year old, I've outgrown the need to go trick or treating for candy on Halloween. This year, my brother and I were supposed to have my nephew over for the weekend. We had originally planned some fun activities for the little guy (he's 4) as real trick or treating was out of the question this year. Turns out this week that 4 of his day care workers came down with the Covid, so he's now in quarantine at his mom's house for 3 (her choice, she won't budge) weeks. All alone for Saturday now, I decided to go out and look for the real treats, fossils!

  I started by going to my first and favorite honey hole, knowing the site wouldn't be the best to collect currently. Fluctuations in water levels determine how ideal this location is, and the waters been very low this year. While this being a good thing, it's also been so low for some time that overgrowth has had more time to come in. This just makes it more of a pain to scope around, but for me that just means going down to the hands and knees.

 

  There were some spots where it wasn't as bad, but all of the ideal scrap spots required patience and sifting through.

 

  Not sure why, but I only took one picture in situ this time. Glad I did, because it was a nicer, plump blastoid! It only required a bit of digging around the rock, and prep should be easy peasy on this guy.

 

  For the first fossil hunt in a while for me, I would say that yesterday was a successful day out. I only take nicer, complete specimens now a days. I hauled home a nice Globoblastus norwoodi blastoid, an Uperocrinus pyriformis crinoid, a Platycrinites? calyx, and a nice little brachiopod I still need to ID.

 

  Heres everything cleaned/ prepped besides the Uperocrinus. I may just leave it as is, but something in me tells me I'll do detail work someday on it. I trimmed down the matrix and half prepped the blastoid. I think this one will stay like it is in matrix. I remove most of the calyxs from the rock, but figured it would be cool to keep a couple of fossils in their rock setting.

 

  The hour I spent out fossil hunting was much needed. This past month has only entailed packing up possessions, moving on, and working. Getting out was nice and much needed. Now I have some more fossils to pack up.  Hope everyone had a fun, and safe Halloween. 

Regards, Jackson

[Kane]

That Uperocrinus looks magnificent! 

Fossils are much better than candy, although only a dentist looking for more business would recommend putting fossils in your mouth.  

[minnbuckeye]

2 hours ago, Jackson g said:

the Uperocrinus. I may just leave it as is

Great finds!!!  As a personal preference, I leave my Mississippian crinoids in the matrix most of the time as the matrix has a nice visual appeal. The specimen can always be removed later if need be. 

  

Mike

[Archie]

Awesome finds and prep! Looks like a great hunting spot.

[FossilNerd]

Nice finds Jackson! Maybe next year I’ll hand out fossil instead of candy. 

glad to see you got in another hunt before your move.  

 

 

 

[Monica]

Nice finds and prep work!  I especially like the Globoblastus norwood - it's really pretty! 

[Jackson g]

Thank you for the kind words and feedback everyone!

[Jackson g]

On 11/1/2020 at 9:52 AM, Kane said:

That Uperocrinus looks magnificent! 

Fossils are much better than candy, although only a dentist looking for more business would recommend putting fossils in your mouth.  

Funny you say that, because I just took a trip to the dentist last week. After 1700$ spent and 4 teeth being removed, I'd say the dentist has gotten enough business from me for the year!

[historianmichael]

Those echinoderms are awesome! Congratulations!

[Jackson g]

Ended up going out to the same location yesterday (11-7-20) for another hour. I figured I'd just add along to this post and share the finds, rather than make another.

Macrocrinus verneuilianus (freed of calcitic limestone)

 

Small, but very nice Holocephalan tooth plate (deltodus?)

 

Brachiopod (cleaning in progress)

 

Sliver of a Fenestella bryozoan

 

Azygocrinus rotundus 

 

Unknown crinoid bulb

 

A very nice, mostly complete Eutrochocrinus christyi crinoid. Proud on how nice I prepped this sucker out, even though it's missing about a fifth of the calyx. Finished final cleaning on the 8th for the unknown bulb, Azygocrinus, and the Eutrochocrinus even though they were found yesterday too.

[Jackson g]

I also found this large calyx outline, though I didn't take it. It looks like half was still possibly inside of the limestone. If anyone is familiar with the species by the look, please let me know as I'm unfamiliar with it.