Kosmoceras Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Every so often you hear in the news about the tragic death of another hunter, somehow or another, died doing what they love; collecting fossils. So, how far have you gone to collect fossils? What injuries have you obtained through fossil hunting? Have you been close to being the next one on the news? I know I just managed to escape getting a broken leg hunting for bones up a cliff , but other than that and the odd blister, nothing much. How about you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelorox Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 I haven't been hunting much, so I haven't had the chance to sustain some horrible injury yet. Only harm that's come my way are being poked by a piece of metal wire sticking out of my sift and a broken spirit when I find that what appeared to be a promising site yields nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boneman007 Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) 3 Broken ribs on two separate trips to Kansas. Found and Dug out my first mosasaur with 2 broken ribs and duct tape wrapped around my torso. I was younger then... :Bananasaur: Edited December 30, 2011 by Boneman007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Back when I was invincible, I nonetheless had a healthy instinct for self preservation; this kept me from finding myself on the horns of dangerous situations. I've also been lucky; the only circumstance that could have turned out very badly involved my hair standing on end during an approaching thunderstorm... Bumps, bruises, mashed fingers, good soakings, but no stitches, broken bones, nor put-out eyes. "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 being a lifetime outdoorsman, each move is calculated and i do my best to stay within reasonable limits of safety, especially since i run solo a large percentage of the time. i am willing to ignore comfort but not safety as the old are slow to heal! so no field injuries yet other than a hand sledge squashing a fingertip like a bug when i got slaphappy finding my first blastoid. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 and i did canoe all weekend this summer with a wrapped up broken wrist, then do it all over again with a deep cuts in my hand superglued together...i just kept applying more superglue thru the weekend. both non paleo injuries. Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xonenine Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 a few mishits with the sledge, this will happen if I'm too tired...nothing worse than some torn skin though. "Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullsnake Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 and i did canoe all weekend this summer with a wrapped up broken wrist, then do it all over again with a deep cuts in my hand superglued together...i just kept applying more superglue thru the weekend. both non paleo injuries. Ahhh...dermal consolidation! I guess I haven't been at it long enough for any real battle wounds, but kind of broken-hearted when that nice specimen breaks during extraction. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 My only injury of note was when I made a finger sandwich with an Estwing and a shard of Winterset Limestone. You can probably imagine what happened, except for the part when blood spattered all over my shirt. It was kind of like that tennis scene on Monty Python. "I say, what a simply super day! Oh jolly good, a nautiloid...." *WHACK* Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 My finger tip sounded not unlike a cockroach being stomped on...interesting onomatopoeic "SPLAT!" followed by instinctive wringing of the afflicted appendage, resulting in quite a blood sprinkler.....ya had to be there....curse you, Pentremites rusticus!!! Curse you straight to Hades! Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Thomas, I've suffered cuts, bruises, skinned knuckles, smashed fingers, blood blisters.... sore back.... and rock shards in the eye - how in blazes do they get around my glasses???? ...Ummm that's about it, so far. Hopefully,... that's as bad as it gets! Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 __________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeloiVarden Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 While sifting in a nasty river I caught a bad blood infection. I had a crazy high fever within a few hours of getting out of the river. Docs thought maybe I was infected through my many scratches. Due to the presence of back and neck pain (probably just due to shoveling for several hours) they decided I might have menagities and did a spinal tap. Only problem is that the hole in my spine did not seal and I leaked spinal fluid for almost four weeks while multiple docs attempted blood patches. I literally was on my back the hole time accept to relieve myself. Everytime I stood up, my csf fluid (cusion around your brain) began to drain making my brain feel like it was in a vice. Wasn't really, just my brain resting on my jagged skull. If I stood too long, my vision begain to blurr. Thank goodness for FMLA, because I couldn't work the entire time. So I guess the moral of the story is don't go to the doctor . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tracer Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 i've been killed twice while out hunting fossils. plus i got a happy-face scar from falling onto vicious rocks. and i been hurt a bunch. fossil hunting is bad so don't do it. especially you other people in texas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 i've been killed twice while out hunting fossils. plus i got a happy-face scar from falling onto vicious rocks. and i been hurt a bunch. fossil hunting is bad so don't do it. especially you other people in texas. Got me beat. I've only been killed once, but I've been lucky a lot. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Missourian Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I've been killed as well, but I just consider that a near-injury. Context is critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diplotomodon Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 I've been killed as well, but I just consider that a near-injury. Just a flesh wound! I would've slashed my leg open at saint Clair, but thankfully I remembered to wear jeans so that didn't happen. They got their revenge later at home when I slashed my fingertip handling the sides of a piece when attempting to take pictures. It didn't draw blood, but man did it hurt. Interesting how the least worrying injuries (in retrospect) are always the ones that cause the most agony. What a wonderful menagerie! Who would believe that such as register lay buried in the strata? To open the leaves, to unroll the papyrus, has been an intensely interesting though difficult work, having all the excitement and marvelous development of a romance. And yet the volume is only partly read. Many a new page I fancy will yet be opened. -- Edward Hitchcock, 1858 Formerly known on the forum as Crimsonraptor @Diplotomodon on Twitter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jocky Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Worst I have had is being badly dehydrated. My friend and I did not heed the warnings to stay away from the desert when it gets over 50 Centigrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indy Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Luckily, I haven't experienced any serious injuries while fossil hunting. However, I've had several "close calls" while repelling off cliffs to investigate some fossiliferous layers. It's not the fall that causes the injuries... It's that sudden stop at the bottom Flash from the Past (Show Us Your Fossils)MAPS Fossil Show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 We used to have a member on here who scraped his shin bad, and the cut didn't want to heal. He was the one with the "Dancing Darwin" avatar. I haven't heard from him in a while. His leg was in bad shape 2 years later if I remember correct. He was a nice guy, who knew his fossils in the Kentucky area. I miss his posts. I hope he healed up finally. Ramo For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfergirlatx Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Other than some torn muscles from sliding down the hill into the lake and almost drowning.....and a handful of very bad backaches....I have yet to shed any blood "The road to success is always under construction." Author Unknown. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 (edited) I stumbled down a scree pile once in order to avoid the unexpected stoneslide coming from above, tripped over one stone, sliced my arm up to the bone on another perfectly placed sharp one and aquired some internal bruising on yet another one. It didn't hurt since shock set in immediately. It was on a Sunday of course. By the time I got down the hill and found a doctor in the nearest town I was a bloody mess and his daughter, who was called in to help him almost fainted. He did a good job resealing it without stitches. From that day on I always look closely for a good way down before I go up. Edited December 31, 2011 by Ludwigia Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMNH Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 (edited) Aside from a few squashed and sliced fingers and being stabbed with a dental pick while preping a couple of times I have been lucky... Oh then there was the time I got super glue in my eye while repairing a fossil...wear safety goggles when using glue!!! Edited December 31, 2011 by TMNH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axelorox Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Something just jogged my memory of a hunt I did over the summer. My family was going boating in a lake. We stopped at an island in the middle of the lake so I could go see if there were any fossils present. However, I made the mistake of not wearing any kind of foot covering. So there I was, combing across the shore, in bare feet. A shore that happened to be filled with small pointed rocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimB88 Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Where to begin.... Fell/rolled down a cliff/embankment causing a severe hemotoma and a trip to the er. Had a 200lb boulder roll onto my foot and leg..that hurt a bit...Thank you safety toes or that would have been much worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmorefossil Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Broken finger, twisted ankles, big cuts, and to top it all off a 30ft fall which let to surgery and a 2011 fossiling season missed. I hope 2012 is different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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