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2 week exploration and collecting trip, day 2


hadrosauridae

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Day 2 of our exploration trip, this time we were exploring a ranch in the Pierre shale.  This was a massive ranch which Walter had done a small amount of exploration years ago.  The 3 teams split up again, and my group went to the farthest north of the ranch to begin.  This required miles of off-road driving.  Its incredible how much area some of these ranches contain!   Even though we spent about an hour searching, we didnt find any fossils, although my son and I found 2 arrowheads.  I was happy with those, as they were the first ones I have ever found.

 

We moved on to another area and spent a couple more hours searching. There was a lot more exposure at this site and we began to find some scattered broken concretions and bits of bivalves, ammonites and baculites but it wasnt anything great, so then we moved on to a 3rd site (which of course was on the path we already took in).  Here we began finding a lot more.  There were concretions of shell conglomerate spread around, and many partials of ammonites on the surface.  We picked up a lot of concretions to prep at home, broke open a few in the field, and this is where we found our first ammonite.  Its small, but its a first.

 

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We also managed to find a couple sections of what is likely Baculites Grandis

 

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My son seems to have a knack for finding pointy things, either teeth or points.  He managed to find a 3rd arrowhead at this last site!

 

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Walter was really hoping that we would find a Mosasaur weathering out, but we didnt do too bad.  I still have a bucket full of concretions to explore.

 

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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10 hours ago, hadrosauridae said:

My son seems to have a knack for finding pointy things, either teeth or points.  He managed to find a 3rd arrowhead at this last site!

 

Information you may not be aware of...these three fragments are not broken "arrowheads".  They are partial atlatl dart points and thousands of years old.  It would probably require a hand examination, but the top and bottom fragment could exceed ten thousand years.  Nice finds.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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37 minutes ago, JohnJ said:

 

Information you may not be aware of...these three fragments are not broken "arrowheads".  They are partial atlatl dart points and thousands of years old.  It would probably require a hand examination, but the top and bottom fragment could exceed ten thousand years.  Nice finds.

Holy #$%!  I have no knowledge at all of paleo points.  Thank you for the heads up.  I will see about finding some professional examination.  If what you say is correct, these should probably be donated.

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"There is no shortage of fossils. There is only a shortage of paleontologists to study them." - Larry Martin

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That first ammonite is smoking!! At first I thought the arrowheads were neat until I read John's comment about them, and now I'm floored - what a wonderfully successful trip you had

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“Not only is the universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think” -Werner Heisenberg 

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1 hour ago, hadrosauridae said:

Holy #$%!  I have no knowledge at all of paleo points.  Thank you for the heads up.  I will see about finding some professional examination.  If what you say is correct, these should probably be donated.

 

I don't see any need to donate them.  They are just fragments likely eroded completely out of context.  Have a very experienced person look at them, then enjoy them.  Their story started thousands of years ago and went silent.  It now starts again with your family.

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The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true.  -  JJ

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