Scrap heap

[garyc]

When I started hunting and collecting around 15 years ago, I brought home anything and everything that could have been something halfway fossilized. I’ve become much more discriminating in what comes home with me now, but I have boxes of chunkasaurs and unidentifiable fossilized bone fragments. I really need to unload some of this stuff. I have donated some material before, but I’m not sure the organization really wanted it after seeing it. I hate to throw it all in the trash, but maybe someone will have fun exploring the landfill in a thousand years or so. Any suggestions??

[Mark Kmiecik]

12 minutes ago, garyc said:

When I started hunting and collecting around 15 years ago, I brought home anything and everything that could have been something halfway fossilized. I’ve become much more discriminating in what comes home with me now, but I have boxes of chunkasaurs and unidentifiable fossilized bone fragments. I really need to unload some of this stuff. I have donated some material before, but I’m not sure the organization really wanted it after seeing it. I hate to throw it all in the trash, but maybe someone will have fun exploring the landfill in a thousand years or so. Any suggestions??

 

I have found through the years that almost all schools will accept fossil material, as long as you sort it into batches and label the container with the nature of the contents. You want to give them at least a rough idea of what they're looking at. If you give it to a university they appreciate provenance in addition to the rough description.

[Thomas.Dodson]

I have successfully used "junk" fossil teeth and the like in education outreach events where children take some home at the end. I would see if there is anyone doing any kind of STEM outreach in your area and if they'd be interested. Schools are also a good idea. Many schools don't have access to even basic fossils so anything is good and can be used in some sort of education.

[Paleorunner]

There is also the alternative of returning them to the place of origin. (As long as the exact formation where they were found is known).
In my head there is no room for them to end up in the trash, ..... NEVER !!!!! 
It is only a matter of classifying the origin of the remaining fossils, and taking advantage of hunting trips to the same formation to return them to their place. 

[fossilus]

Gary, I'm in the same boat as you. Pleistocene bits of bone found in a river generally have poor provenance and not a lot of scientific value. Saving fragments of horses and bison that may or may not be old for me is not worthwhile and have started ending up in my trash as sacreligeous as that might sound.

Probably the good part of this is that I've learned not to pick up that small piece of mammoth vertebrae that's never going to leave a box in my garage.

[Sjfriend]

When I did more collecting and collected everything I ended up with quite the "fossil garden" I would let kids pick through and had a few teachers grab arm loads for school projects that didn't require identifiable specimens. Usually elementary age classes.

[Wrangellian]

15 hours ago, Paleorunner said:

There is also the alternative of returning them to the place of origin. (As long as the exact formation where they were found is known).
In my head there is no room for them to end up in the trash, ..... NEVER !!!!! 
It is only a matter of classifying the origin of the remaining fossils, and taking advantage of hunting trips to the same formation to return them to their place. 

I did this once or twice. I doubt it made any difference in the grand scheme of things, but I felt good about it. (I just hope I didn't overlook any pieces that would have helped me assemble any of the jigsaw puzzles I brought home  )

Edited January 29, 2022 by Wrangellian

[Paleorunner]

39 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

I did this once or twice. I doubt it made any difference in the grand scheme of things, but I felt good about it. (I just hope I didn't overlook any pieces that would have helped me assemble any of the jigsaw puzzles I brought home  )

I've only been collecting for 15 months, and I've already done it 5 times divided into two formations.
It is what happens, at the beginning of collecting several times in the same formation, and having a certain amount of repeated specimens. You end up having to make a selection, and get rid of the pieces that don't matter.

[garyc]

17 hours ago, Paleorunner said:

There is also the alternative of returning them to the place of origin. (As long as the exact formation where they were found is known).
In my head there is no room for them to end up in the trash, ..... NEVER !!!!! 
It is only a matter of classifying the origin of the remaining fossils, and taking advantage of hunting trips to the same formation to return them to their place. 

Ha! No way! There’s a good chance I would end up finding them on my next outing and bringing them home again

[Wrangellian]

13 hours ago, Paleorunner said:

I've only been collecting for 15 months, and I've already done it 5 times divided into two formations.
It is what happens, at the beginning of collecting several times in the same formation, and having a certain amount of repeated specimens. You end up having to make a selection, and get rid of the pieces that don't matter.

Yes. I started collecting as a kid and I picked up anything and everything that looked like it might have been a fossil, mainly because I didn't know what I was looking at, whether it was complete or partial or whatever. This resulted in a lot of junk, but in one instance I took home a flower fossil from a local site without realizing. Did not recognize it when I first spotted it, but it looked like something so I took it home. Only later did I look at it more closely and realize it was a flower. Now I think I have a better eye and would recognize such things sooner, but can still overlook little things if in a rush.

[Randyw]

These topics both make me envious and make me drool at the same time! 

it totally illistrates the old saying “one mans trash is another mans treasure”  i’d go crazy over even an small identifiable fragment of mammoth vertabra, or bone or dino bone, etc. but others consider them junk. There was a member on here that used what i considered a very nice partial oreodont skull as a piece in his wall becuase it was trash to him. Someone else has a pile of partial eurypterid fragmants out in his yard that i’d give my left arm to be able to dig through. It must be great to be able to go out and collect your own fossils. Somewhere in the house here i have every fossil i have ever bought, found, or was given. They all hold a fascination to me. 

[A.C.]

I've been collecting for maybe a year and a half and I am the same way. Something that has some value to someone but at the same time is not necessarily exciting as trades to other more serious collectors. I have been donating most of my excess stuff to a friend who is a biology teacher at a university for his own exploration as well as to use for students showing them some of the amazing changes and species from ancient creatures. 

[RuMert]

A way to avoid additional junk is leaving the site you already have good specimens from to explore other sites. The more experienced you become, the less you take from a site ending in finding maybe 1-2 better specimens from an exhaustive trip (but still taking lots "just in case", "for further examination" and various other reasons). Adult people usually don't have too much free time, so why not spend it on other sites instead of torturing the same one.

[pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:47 PM, Paleorunner said:

There is also the alternative of returning them to the place of origin. (As long as the exact formation where they were found is known).

 

To me this sounds like quite a "dangerous" approach, as you need to be really sure the specimens came from that exact location and no further weathering has taken place. The next collector after you may decide to take the specimen home, and if you didn't return the specimen to the exact same geological context that it originally came from, you'll have invalidated the other collector's registration. Especially in more complex geological areas this may lead to disastrous results, depending on the level of the collector after you. Once you pick a fossil up, in my opinion, you've removed it out of its context and, unless it's an ubiquitous fossil, it's not possible to place it back into its original context. But that's just my 2cts and what I've been taught

 

On 1/28/2022 at 8:41 PM, Mark Kmiecik said:

I have found through the years that almost all schools will accept fossil material, as long as you sort it into batches and label the container with the nature of the contents. You want to give them at least a rough idea of what they're looking at. If you give it to a university they appreciate provenance in addition to the rough description.

 

On 1/28/2022 at 9:47 PM, Thomas.Dodson said:

I have successfully used "junk" fossil teeth and the like in education outreach events where children take some home at the end. I would see if there is anyone doing any kind of STEM outreach in your area and if they'd be interested. Schools are also a good idea. Many schools don't have access to even basic fossils so anything is good and can be used in some sort of education.

 

School and children in general are very good ideas. I myself have been asked to help out with a school program on fossils. Now, unfortunately, I didn't have too many own finds (versus purchases) to share with the school, and the program, in the end, was dropped due to Covid. But I think the point is a valid one. Teachers are greatly helped by being able to educate kids using actual fossil material. And not just that. A lot of children are actually intrigued by fossils and will be happy to own one, no matter how small or worn down. Handing them out to kids you know is therefore a good way to get rid of the less useful material in your collection - though it may incur the wrath of their parents, who now have more junk to deal with

 

Another option I've heard, especially if you go back to the same formation more frequently, is to take some of your poorer specimens and hand them out to beginning hunters and interested parties you might encounter at the location. They'd be happy to go back home with at least some fossil material. And it helps them familiarize with the stuff they should keep an eye out for

[RuMert]

1 hour ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

Especially in more complex geological areas this may lead to disastrous results

Especially dropping specimens from different locations and creating scientific sensations

[Paleorunner]

12 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

12 hours ago, pachy-pleuro-whatnot-odon said:

 

To me this sounds like quite a "dangerous" approach, as you need to be really sure the specimens came from that exact location and no further weathering has taken place. The next collector after you may decide to take the specimen home, and if you didn't return the specimen to the exact same geological context that it originally came from, you'll have invalidated the other collector's registration. Especially in more complex geological areas this may lead to disastrous results, depending on the level of the collector after you. Once you pick a fossil up, in my opinion, you've removed it out of its context and, unless it's an ubiquitous fossil, it's not possible to place it back into its original context. But that's just my 2cts and what I've been taught

 

 

 

I fully understand your concern, but I still see a valid alternative before ending up in the trash.
But I keep insisting: "You have to be very sure of the exact place of origin, (formation, geological age, etc). 

 

[jpc]

On 1/29/2022 at 10:07 PM, Randyw said:

These topics both make me envious and make me drool at the same time! 

it totally illistrates the old saying “one mans trash is another mans treasure”  i’d go crazy over even an small identifiable fragment of mammoth vertabra, or bone or dino bone, etc. but others consider them junk. There was a member on here that used what i considered a very nice partial oreodont skull as a piece in his wall becuase it was trash to him. Someone else has a pile of partial eurypterid fragmants out in his yard that i’d give my left arm to be able to dig through. It must be great to be able to go out and collect your own fossils. Somewhere in the house here i have every fossil i have ever bought, found, or was given. They all hold a fascination to me. 

Guilty

[fossilus]

I probably need to revise my previous answer a little.  I do have a box that I've thrown many odocoileus (deer) sized vertebrae.  When I was going through the box a few months ago I found this one that I'm glad I didn't get rid of.  On the left is a T11 vertebrae from smilodon, drawing from Felididae of Rancho la Brea. 

 

Mine falls midrange in size to those in the paper, the primary distinguishing feature from true cats is the rib scar  (spine and processes vary among individuals).

 

[Randyw]

2 hours ago, jpc said:

Guilty

I still think one day you’re going to go out and find an cranium shaped hole in that wall with a set of tire marks pointing eastward from your house heading towards nebraska!

anyone know how hard it is to prep concrete off of a skull? Ummm asking for a friend  Totally unrelated of course