Dangerous

[CreekCrawler]

How about listing your most dangerously acquired fossil.

I know there are some "cliff hangers" out there!

Mine is that I stepped over a crevice to retrieve a silly brachiopod from the Pennsylvanian of Tx and looked down to see a 4ft rattler staring at me. Funny thing is that I was thinking about putting my foot right on top of that crevice just moments before.

[Guest bmorefossil]

well i wouldnt be here today if I decided to stay at our boat for a few seconds longer than I usually do, right where I would have been, a few tons of cliff fell...... I will never forget that day.

[Xiphactinus]

I was at a roadcut and looked up under an overhang. Two perfect Petalodos teeth were just sitting there. One was cracked and partly loose, so I took that piece. I needed heavier equip to get the rest, so I figured I'd come back the next weekend. When I did, the rock with the teeth (about the size of a VW Bug) had fallen. If I had the heavier hammer and tried to knock those teeth out, I'd probably been squashed.

[The Count of Cabezon]

Aside from being a footslip away from a very long fall down virtually vertical slopes, I have been dang lucky (*knocks on wood). I guess the only painfull thing I've done was lug back a very large ammonite (pic's of it are forthcoming, definitely not very cool, but at least it was big) back to my truck over 3 miles. I weighed my backpack when I got home...96 lbs. I was sore for a while.

I think the real safety tip for me has been to know your limits. I can tell when my muscles are telling me that something isn't going to be a good idea (where were they on that 96 lb. backpack?) and when I feel my body saying that, I don't push it farther when the situation could turn bad. And I've been fortunate with rattlesnakes, but they are just a part of fieldwork. However, they never cease to get my adrenaline going for the next hour, hands shaking and everything.

However, I have to always stop and take pictures. It's like dancing with the dangerous or forbidden. Very intriguing, yet frightening.

Here are a few from this last summer's field work.

[barefootgirl]

Mine is similar to snakekeepers. I was bending down to pick something up off the bank of the creek and I looked up as I did and got to look a cotton mouth in the face. I won that round. My next one was up at the point in Albuquerque, NM and I was looking down and not up and I did not see the bear comin around the corner. When I finally did notice, I threw my tuna fish sandwich (yes I know bad idea to take tuna into bear country) and for some reason my body ran I think my mind stayed behind. I ended up trying to run down a steep mountain and over extended my knee and completely tore my ACL ligament in my knee. I got to hear my daughter sing the bear came over the mountain all the way to the hospital in the valley.

[tracer]

darn bears.

well, one can readily imagine, from all my exploits, that there have been many, many - nay, i say a plethora of dangerousitynessesitudes befallen (and begotbackupen) me.

but of course, one thing sticks out above all others to show my devilmaycare, bonvivantidness.

i actually go out places <drumroll, please>...

...with tj

[CreekCrawler]

Wow she's purdy! What time of the year was this taken? She looks gravid!

[CreekCrawler]

I was at a roadcut and looked up under an overhang. Two perfect Petalodos teeth were just sitting there. One was cracked and partly loose, so I took that piece. I needed heavier equip to get the rest, so I figured I'd come back the next weekend. When I did, the rock with the teeth (about the size of a VW Bug) had fallen. If I had the heavier hammer and tried to knock those teeth out, I'd probably been squashed.

Wow, so far,,,,you win!

That's scary!

[tracer]

Wow she's purdy! What time of the year was this taken? She looks gravid!

yeah, but she's wearing her antigravidy belt to stick to the wall like that. looks like she might be preggers, too...

you know, that reminds me - one time i was walking out in the woods and all of a sudden...no wait, hang on, that wasn't me...nevermind.

[Boogra]

Mine is similar to snakekeepers. I was bending down to pick something up off the bank of the creek and I looked up as I did and got to look a cotton mouth in the face. I won that round. My next one was up at the point in Albuquerque, NM and I was looking down and not up and I did not see the bear comin around the corner. When I finally did notice, I threw my tuna fish sandwich (yes I know bad idea to take tuna into bear country) and for some reason my body ran I think my mind stayed behind. I ended up trying to run down a steep mountain and over extended my knee and completely tore my ACL ligament in my knee. I got to hear my daughter sing the bear came over the mountain all the way to the hospital in the valley.

You win. Hands down. While I was reading the story I had this perfect movie vision of you throwing a tuna sandwich at a bear and I laughed my off.

[Boesse]

I collected a baleen whale cranium two summers ago from the base of a cliff on the California coastline. I spent four afternoons during low tide excavating it, and on the fourth, with some help from a buddy of mine, we plaster jacketed it, and began to remove it.

The jacket ended up weighing well over 250 lbs, despite being only about 2.5' in diameter. This began a four hour struggle and race against the rapidly advancing high tide to get the jacket out of the intertidal zone and up to the street. We only had to lug it three hundred feet, but it involved lugging it up slippery, algae covered rock slopes, down a 1.5' wide ledge (with a 15' drop to the pacific ocean below, and a sheer cliff of crumbly pleistocene terrace deposits above), and then up a series of "surfers stairs", which required several lifts of this thing to eye level, and again up some precarious 1-2' wide wooden ramps (with a sheer drop, 10' to rocks below).

I've never been so stressed before in my life. Anyway, its now the most complete skull of its genus known anywhere worldwide (which is actually saying something, because it (Herpetocetus) is known from Japan, California, Mexico, North Carolina, Florida, and Belgium.

Bobby

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Not really dangerous, but one of those things that happens.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2624

[tracer]

so bobby, are you saying that "all's well that ends whale"?

[tracer]

You win. Hands down. While I was reading the story I had this perfect movie vision of you throwing a tuna sandwich at a bear and I laughed my off.

yeah, but she tore her "anterior cruciate ligament" - do you have the slightest idea how hard that is to scream while you're running away from a bear and in ex-cruciate ingpain?

[PaleoRon]

I accidently ended up going under a log jamb while diving for shark teeth in a black-water river with two feet of visibility. Not normally a big deal but the tide was going out and the jamb was unstable. My first indication of where I was came with a tapping on my scuba tank and then the jamb shifted and came down on my back pushing me into the sand. I dug my way out from under the log and deeper into the jamb. Everywhere I looked I found a tangle of logs. I didn't dare look to see how much air I had left but I picked up my guage and dropped it several times without looking. I paused for a couple of seconds and thought really hard. I took my hand and swirled up the sand on the river bottom. It barely moved, but it did move. I went in the direction of the moving sand and after a couple of feet did it again. The sand moved a bit more that time. Each time I fanned the sand it moved a little faster than the last time. I finally managed to follow the sand out from under the logs and when I was finally clear and ready to jet to the surface I found a 5 1/4" lower megalodon in excellent condition laying fully exposed on the bottom. I grabbed the tooth and went straight up. I floated down river to my boat, climbed in, took off my tanks and unhooked them. I just didn't want to know how much air was left in the tank.

Another interesting encounter happened on the way home from scuba diving for teeth with a friend. We stopped for lunch in LaPlata, Maryland and ended up in a tornado that was rated at F-4. Maybe this year I will be struck by lightning. One can only hope.

Here's a pic from a site that shows some of the damage. It shows the KFC that we had just vacated. My friend's vehicle was trashed while the two of us were inside. The two people in the photo are right where we rode out the tornado in Mark's deceased vehicle. His boat ended up slamming into my side of the truck. The poor thing was twisted like a pretzel. Mark even got interviewed by the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...002Apr28_3.html

Here's the site http://www.angelfire.com/md3/tornado/pagetwo.html

I have been told by several people that trips with me are sometimes not productive, but they are seldom boring.

[CreekCrawler]

Not really dangerous, but one of those things that happens.

http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2624

Yep, I remember that from some time back.................You Win..........For Sure .........You Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nuff Said!

[barefootgirl]

Good thinking glad you got out. I think you win.

Oh and boogra glad i could make you laugh. At the time it was not funny although for some reason my daughter thought so. Know that I look back at it its hilarious.

[Phoenixflood]

I accidently ended up going under a log jamb while diving for shark teeth in a black-water river with two feet of visibility. Not normally a big deal but the tide was going out and the jamb was unstable. My first indication of where I was came with a tapping on my scuba tank and then the jamb shifted and came down on my back pushing me into the sand. I dug my way out from under the log and deeper into the jamb. Everywhere I looked I found a tangle of logs. I didn't dare look to see how much air I had left but I picked up my guage and dropped it several times without looking. I paused for a couple of seconds and thought really hard. I took my hand and swirled up the sand on the river bottom. It barely moved, but it did move. I went in the direction of the moving sand and after a couple of feet did it again. The sand moved a bit more that time. Each time I fanned the sand it moved a little faster than the last time. I finally managed to follow the sand out from under the logs and when I was finally clear and ready to jet to the surface I found a 5 1/4" lower megalodon in excellent condition laying fully exposed on the bottom. I grabbed the tooth and went straight up. I floated down river to my boat, climbed in, took off my tanks and unhooked them. I just didn't want to know how much air was left in the tank.

Another interesting encounter happened on the way home from scuba diving for teeth with a friend. We stopped for lunch in LaPlata, Maryland and ended up in a tornado that was rated at F-4. Maybe this year I will be struck by lightning. One can only hope.

Here's a pic from a site that shows some of the damage. It shows the KFC that we had just vacated. My friend's vehicle was trashed while the two of us were inside. The two people in the photo are right where we rode out the tornado in Mark's deceased vehicle. His boat ended up slamming into my side of the truck. The poor thing was twisted like a pretzel. Mark even got interviewed by the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...002Apr28_3.html

Here's the site http://www.angelfire.com/md3/tornado/pagetwo.html

I have been told by several people that trips with me are sometimes not productive, but they are seldom boring.

I think I remember hearing about that, crazy stuff! Never got to go hunting with Mark B. though.

[tracer]

wow.

it's funny how everybody's got their fossil-hunting, near-death experiences to tell and then they turn around and say, "hey, let's get together and do a group thing!"

seems kinda like throwin' a frat party with twenty cases of spanada (insert your own tilde) and having baskets of grenades as party favors...

...no wait, this is an esoteric crowd - bangalore torpedoes...

[The Count of Cabezon]

Wow she's purdy! What time of the year was this taken? She looks gravid!

It was taken in early August in Sandoval Co., NM. I was checking out some ruins and walked around the corner of the structure and there she was. Didn't shake a rattle, and I got pretty close. I think she had just eaten. Or is she pregnant? I just took pictures untill my hands shook too much and then left. Beautiful though.

PaleoRon, your diving story has made me claustrophobic for the day. I thank you. Glad you made it out of that one.

[Bill]

Some scary stuff there.

A good few years ago I was on my way to a beach to collect with my Wife, 2 Sons and Daughter. We were in a holiday camp and the winding path to the beach went downhill from the top of high cliffs but not too close. I told everyone I was going to race them so that I could find the best stuff. A little after starting to run I tried to stop, but going downhill I just got faster and faster. I couldn't even turn away and keep to the path. I was heading straight for the edge of the cliffs. I had to throw myself to the ground to prevent going over.

I'm just glad nobody else was running. I hate to think what might have been.

[Guest Nicholas]

My worst incident isn't very exciting I was looking through a spoils pile of large and small boulders. I was using leverage to push the larger stones away to find what was under them and one landed on my foot, in a panic I lifted it out of there and neglected my surroundings. Missing the land slide of rocks of every size falling at me from further up. Luckily I found shelter under a huge rock and didn't get dinged in the head.

[Orca1140]

I accidently ended up going under a log jamb while diving for shark teeth in a black-water river with two feet of visibility. Not normally a big deal but the tide was going out and the jamb was unstable. My first indication of where I was came with a tapping on my scuba tank and then the jamb shifted and came down on my back pushing me into the sand. I dug my way out from under the log and deeper into the jamb. Everywhere I looked I found a tangle of logs. I didn't dare look to see how much air I had left but I picked up my guage and dropped it several times without looking. I paused for a couple of seconds and thought really hard. I took my hand and swirled up the sand on the river bottom. It barely moved, but it did move. I went in the direction of the moving sand and after a couple of feet did it again. The sand moved a bit more that time. Each time I fanned the sand it moved a little faster than the last time. I finally managed to follow the sand out from under the logs and when I was finally clear and ready to jet to the surface I found a 5 1/4" lower megalodon in excellent condition laying fully exposed on the bottom. I grabbed the tooth and went straight up. I floated down river to my boat, climbed in, took off my tanks and unhooked them. I just didn't want to know how much air was left in the tank.

Another interesting encounter happened on the way home from scuba diving for teeth with a friend. We stopped for lunch in LaPlata, Maryland and ended up in a tornado that was rated at F-4. Maybe this year I will be struck by lightning. One can only hope.

Here's a pic from a site that shows some of the damage. It shows the KFC that we had just vacated. My friend's vehicle was trashed while the two of us were inside. The two people in the photo are right where we rode out the tornado in Mark's deceased vehicle. His boat ended up slamming into my side of the truck. The poor thing was twisted like a pretzel. Mark even got interviewed by the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...002Apr28_3.html

Here's the site http://www.angelfire.com/md3/tornado/pagetwo.html

I have been told by several people that trips with me are sometimes not productive, but they are seldom boring.

Ron, I had one of those dives in 2007, well sort of. We were diving the Cooper River S.C. Because we were diving on a weekday there was much less boat traffic and as a result we were seeing more alligators than we usually see. I should say A LOT more alligators and they all seemed really big. I think they just seemed bigger because about two weeks earlier a swimmer had his arm bit off by a gator at a local swimming spot about 20 miles away. It had everybody a little jumpy.

Finally, we got in the water and I dropped down to around 25 feet to search. After about 15 minutes I found that I had managed to swim under a bunch of logs, which is not a big deal, but these were all draped with these long grass-like plants that made it unusually creepy on top of already being spooked. As I was backing out, I suddenly discovered there was something very large and VERY alive in the hole with me and whatever IT was wanted to get out of that hole really bad. Oh yeah, it was trying to exit the hole by going under me. There wasn’t enough room for both of us, plus at that moment I couldn’t really tell if IT was trying to escape or eat me.

I always attached my light to my head, which is a good method to see fossils, but a really lousy method when you are under a logjam with some kind of creature underneath your chest. Sometime during this struggle my light lit up my adversary, however, the fact that it was just a VERY large Catfish didn’t really register in my mind until after I popped free and my head cleared the surface and I was drifting back to the boat. A catfish! I nearly had heart failure over a catfish. Boy did I feel stupid.

Some of my dive buddies who were still on the boat wanted to know if anything was wrong. “Nope! I just needed to adjust my weight belt.” I went back down. Stupid catfish!

Ron, I didn’t find any teeth on that dive, but I didn’t find any alligators either…oh, and no more catfish either.

[MikeD]

Another interesting encounter happened on the way home from scuba diving for teeth with a friend. We stopped for lunch in LaPlata, Maryland and ended up in a tornado that was rated at F-4. Maybe this year I will be struck by lightning. One can only hope.

Nothing like a big tornado to ruin your day. Been there, done that. Been close enough to the lightning a few times also. You don't want that! It set the neighbors house on fire last year.

[silverphoenix]

Slid about 20 feet down a slope at Whiskey Bridge and went over the side of the steep drop-off that went about 7 feet or so down. Doesn't sound like much, but when you're sliding and you see the ground fall away--7 feet mise well be 70. I grabbed my rope last minute just before my chest had cleared the slope. Guess that's why the slopes are rarely dug? lol anyways, the right equipment can save your butt.

Another time I had been digging on the side of one of the embankments and caused a landslide, which nearly took me with it. That was interesting.

Besides that, nothing too bad. Nearly stepped on a 7' rattler out in the hill country one night when I was coon hunting...but have yet to find one fossil hunting luckily. Wear those snake chaps!!!