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Signs That You May, In Fact, Be Obsessed With Fossils


Missourian

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You know you're a fossil addict when:

1. you're at your in-law's house and THEY tell you go fossil hunting

2. your answer to why collect fossils is "they're the only thing in my house that doesn't back talk me"

3. Sea shell hunting has nothing to do with a beach nearby

4. You know which color of hard hat will get you in at different sites

5. You have more pry bars than any single hardware store

6. You've named (non-scientific) one of your fossils

7. Your christmas card has a fossil on it

8. Your eye doctor requires you to buy impact resistant glasses lenses.

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“Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.” N. Steno

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Your family is meeting in the Bahamas for New Years and you just mope around because the better fossils are in Florida.

Started to read the thread and stopped.

My girlfriend and I were discussing a two week vacation the end of the month. Where to go?

She mentioned Maui or an all inclusive in Cuba. I steered her around to Las Vegas and the southwest. My brain was thinking...I'll leave a few days early and drive down...a few spots to visit along the way...pick her up in LV...a few days there...out hiking in the day to some fossil sites I worked at...then drive to Tucson...rock collecting...around to some Anasazi sites...a few last days in LV...put her on the plane then I'll drive home and up through Wyoming and Montana to some good Dino micro sites (before Tick season!)..cross the border into far southeast of Alberta and super micro vertebrate sites. Yay!

Yup. Fossils govern my whole psyche.

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When you are supposed to be fixing barb wire fence and you spend more time looking at the fossils in the greenhorn limestone fence posts wondering what good stuff your ancestors seen but never cared about when they were cutting the rock..

post-20753-0-73113200-1456894456_thumb.jpg

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When you are supposed to be fixing barb wire fence and you spend more time looking at the fossils in the greenhorn limestone fence posts wondering what good stuff your ancestors seen but never cared about when they were cutting the rock..

Which eventually leads to this:

post-6808-0-83448800-1456912331_thumb.png

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Context is critical.

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Lol @ some of those.

I'd like to add a couple more:

When your kitchen table is entirely unusable from being covered in fossils.

When 90% of your household decor consists of fossils and other findings.

When you have to force yourself to stop fossil hunting for the day and go home because its either getting dark, you havent eaten yet, or both.

When you search until your neck gets stiff.

When you make special night time trips with a flashlight because its the only time you can go. Even though you wont see or find much in the dark.

When you obsessively look down and study the ground everywhere you walk.

When your family vacations revolve around where you can fossil hunt.

I can go on and on lol.

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My partners contribution:

When you can't walk past a playground without searching the pea gravel for rugose coral and crinoid stems.

Lol

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When you DREAM about fossils! Yes!

Almost every night here.

Dream about having pockets full or finding those rare items which youre dying to add to your collection.

Edited by BugOutGirl
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A conversation....

"Hey, check out this Pterygotus I found, it's the....."

"Another rock? Dude, you're obsessed....."

"But it's a Pterygotus. That eurypterid is the most....."

"You need to get out more."

"I do get out more. Where do you think fossils are?"

"Who spends all their time going around picking up rocks?"

"How is that different than spending every waking moment fishing?"

"Well, everybody goes fishing."

"So I should go do something only if everyone else is doing it?"

".... Man, you're obsessed....."

ROFL !!

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When your drunk dad tries to eat the brachiopod you show him because he thinks its chocolate.

When you develop ringworm from digging in your bare hands.

I think thats all from me. For now lol. This thread is great.

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When you watch an old western movie and pay more attention to the rock formations in the background wondering what you might find if you were there...

Edited by mechanic mike
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When you try to use your "eagle eyes" to spot fossils on the outcroppings as you whiz down the interstate. Even though you're more likely to cause a wreck.

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My wife's and mine are (and these really happened):

When you both have to get your calendars out to pick a wedding date so you can fit the honeymoon in between the many fossil hunting trip dates you already have committed to with other people up 12 months in advance. (Took us almost 3 weeks to verify a 2 week period we could go away without missing any pre-scheduled fossil trips.)

When you can't make your annual vacation plans till after you get that year's fossil hunting trip schedule and then vacation is planned so you don't miss any of the fossil hunting trips.

Don't know much about history

Don't know much biology

Don't know much about science books.........

Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World

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I have to reinforce the one about clutter: When there is hardly a square inch of flat surface anywhere in your house still unoccupied by fossils...

post-4372-0-22446600-1457135099_thumb.jpg

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Before going to bed, to lull my children, instead of reading a fairy tale or a story of princesses, I read them the classification of the dinosaurs, the evolution of trilobites, a Jurassic ammonite’s life, ….

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When that person sees the ammonite you found and says it's a fossilized snake. You try your best to stay calm. (Happened to me once)

"Welcome...To Jurassic Park!" -Richard Attenborough

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When a robber breaks into your house and thinks "There ain't nothing but odd shaped rocks for me to steal!"and just misses your tyrannosaurus tooth.

"Welcome...To Jurassic Park!" -Richard Attenborough

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  • 4 weeks later...

1) Your computer is full of hundreds of academic journals and pictures of fossils

2) On a car ride, you nag your mom and dad for just one last stop at a road cut

3) You list everything that Stephen Spielberg got wrong in the Velociraptor of Jurassic Park

4) Each holiday has to include at least one day of fossil hunting and/or the place you're staying at has to be close to a outcrop or quarry

5) You correct the guide in a museum tour

6) You're dirty, cold and tired after a day of fossil hunting, but you still painstakingly try to find that perfect ammonite

7) In one month, you've watched all the palaeontology documentaries that you can possibly find on Youtube/Dailymotion

8) You flip quickly through a book about fossils thinking, "this is so boring. I already know this".

9) Monday night you dream that you're in the Precambrian, Tuesday night you dream that you are in the Paleozoic, Wednesday; the Mesozoic and Thursday; the Caenozoic

10) When someone asks you about your favourite place in Canada, you answer "either the Burgess Shale, or Joggins Fossil Cliffs, or Dinosaur Provincial Park".

11) You've memorised several hundred scientific names and terms

12) Your idol is, for instance Philip Currie, Robert Bakker etc...

13) You spend more money on fossils and books on fossils than on anything else

14) Differentiating a Eubostrychoceras from a Didymoceras (two nostoceratid heteromorph ammonites) is the easiest thing

15) At 1 AM you are still awake, preparing a fossil

16) You become member of as many palaeontology groups and associations as possible

17) You're currently writing a field guide on fossils

18) You get bored when you only see the usual ammonites, trilobites and fish in fossil shops. You want VARIETY

ALL the criteria I listed above apply EXACTLY to me. So… I may, in fact, be obsessed with fossils.

Edited by The Amateur Paleontologist
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Opalised fossils are the best: a wonderful mix between paleontology and mineralogy!

 

Q. Where do dinosaurs study?

A. At Khaan Academy!...

 

My ResearchGate profile

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Your wife tells "Your obsessed". Mine has!

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg          MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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You may be addicted to microfossils if you've ever swept the floor with a hand brush and dustpan so that you can examine the residue for potentially lost specimens.

Or cleaned your car upholstery with tweezers instead of a vacuum.

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  • 2 years later...

When you sleep with a  good fossil 

on your nightstand because you’re afraid someone will mess with it ;)

 

True story

image.jpg

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