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Fossil Hunting In Strangest Areas.


Petrified

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I have a habit at looking at river stones at doctors offices, hospitals, offices, etc..... Just the other day I had to take my wife to a doctor apt and my 4 yr old wanted to walk around and pick up rocks that was part of the landscaping. Well we walked around and I noticed a lot of Favosite corals and horn corals in the river stones. Well my son wanted some so I picked them up and also picked up a few for myself. I have a habit of looking for nice specimens in the strangest areas. Does anybody else do this?

Edited by Petrified

Definition of a fossil= Love at first site.

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No question about it. I have a tendency to study garden walls in the town and old municipal buildings in the city, although I always I make sure I don't have my hammer with me. Always keep your eyes peeled no matter where you are, that's my strategy.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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The uni where I teach imported a lot of regionally quarried limestone from the middle Devonian for their buildings (even new buildings have to architecturally conform to the neo-gothic facade of roughly hewn blocks to some degree). Landscaping elements include large slabs of mudstone and wackestone with plenty of solitary rugose corals, some tabulates, articulated and disarticulated brachipods, these slabs used as outdoor seating. The saw cut finish on the visual arts building provides the eye with some impressive cross sections of corals, nautiloids, and conical gastropods. It is a nice look, but I do prefer the roughly hewn high relief of limestone fossils that give them a bit of "pop."

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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The cart paths on the gofg course in Washington NC are made of gravel from the phosphate mine in AUrora and there use to be some great teeth blended in the gravel.

If only my teeth are so prized a million years from now!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been doing that since childhood.. Unfortunately then I don't usually know the exact location of origin which is good to have for fossils, if you come home with any.

Can we see some pics of your horn corals/etc?

Edited by Wrangellian
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I came across this big stump while on vacation this summer, but collecting isn't allowed there.

post-40-0-36246500-1405472083_thumb.jpg

For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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Found a large piece of petrified wood in a ditch while walking from my house to an auction next door (country next door, not city next door). Also found a Dalton point when I was beaver trapping.

Things are where you find them.

fkaa

ashcraft, brent allen

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I own a Mid Century Modern home with a flat roof, and there is pea gravel on it. I collect there when im feeling adventurously lazy. ;) I mainly find corals and crinoids, but i did find a starfish!

I also hunt anywhere and everywhere. Fossils aren't the only thing i hunt for (artifacts, antler sheds, skulls, coins, etc), so you never know.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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I own a Mid Century Modern home with a flat roof, and there is pea gravel on it. I collect there when im feeling adventurously lazy. ;) I mainly find corals and crinoids, but i did find a starfish!

I also hunt anywhere and everywhere. Fossils aren't the only thing i hunt for (artifacts, antler sheds, skulls, coins, etc), so you never know.

I would like to see a pix of a pea gravel sized starfish.

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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I would like to see a pix of a pea gravel sized starfish.

Here you go Herb. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/44596-do-you-believe-in-fate-i-do-now/?hl=fate

I made a thread about it.

For some strange reason its not in its place in my display case. If i find it I'll shoot more pics for ya.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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If there are fossils in the walls, counter tops etc., I will spot them and study them thoroughly.

Also, the sun rises in the east.

Here is an example of trace fossils in the back patio landscaping at work:

post-6808-0-47516400-1405675808_thumb.jpg

post-6808-0-64909900-1405675802_thumb.jpg

I have never seen any like these. Yes, I have been tempted to swap this stone for one of similar size and shape. :)

Edited by Missourian

Context is critical.

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If there are fossils in the walls, counter tops etc., I will spot them and study them thoroughly.

Also, the sun rises in the east.

Here is an example of trace fossils in the back patio landscaping at work:

attachicon.gifpost-6808-0-87453400-1370760405.jpg

attachicon.gifpost-6808-0-37611200-1370760634.jpg

I have never seen any like these. Yes, I have been tempted to swap this stone for one of similar size and shape. :)

Haha, do the ol' Indiana Jones swap n' run.

It looks similar to a Girtyocoelia.

~Charlie~

"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why.....i dream of things that never were, and ask why not?" ~RFK
->Get your Mosasaur print
->How to spot a fake Trilobite
->How to identify a CONCRETION from a DINOSAUR EGG

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That's what I thought too (Girtyocoelia) but I defer to those who are actually knowledgeable in that area!

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Here you go Herb. http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/44596-do-you-believe-in-fate-i-do-now/?hl=fate

I made a thread about it.

For some strange reason its not in its place in my display case. If i find it I'll shoot more pics for ya.

interesting!

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen

No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go.

" I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me

"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes

"can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks

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That's what I thought too (Girtyocoelia) but I defer to those who are actually knowledgeable in that area!

It does resemble that sponge, but the rock is a bioclastic limestone, which would be an unusual occurrence for any sponge, not to mention that the fossil debris fills all 'chambers' (instead of being crystal-filled voids).

Context is critical.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I found my first fossil at a gas station in the crushed rock around the station sign. I was 10 and I had just learned what fossils were. It was a beautiful brachiopod, but I thought to myself "It can't be... only scientists find real fossils, and not at gas stations...".

So I threw it out into a field. :blink:

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I've got a basketball-sized head of receptaculites I picked up out of the decorative rip rap at a McDonald's while on a business trip through Decorah, Iowa.

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The floor at my dentist office is dark, black, square pieces of Cambrian slate. The slate floor is covered with Dactyloidites fossils. I was always told that they were early jellyfish but I guess now they think that these are trace fossils from a type of worm. Anyway, its still a fossil and its at the dentist office. :D

mikey

post-7129-0-74593300-1407334906_thumb.jpg

Many times I've wondered how much there is to know.  
led zeppelin

 

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  • 1 month later...

My brother recently installed some sandstone flagstone in his backyard patio:

post-6808-0-65463400-1410151890_thumb.jpg

As it turns out, the sandstone is full of trace fossils, including several starfish traces (Asteriacites):

post-6808-0-37084200-1410151888_thumb.jpg

post-6808-0-90219300-1410151881_thumb.jpg

post-6808-0-10165400-1410151879_thumb.jpg

These traces are not commonly encountered. I would never have expected to find them in landscaping stone.

They are likely from local Pennsylvanian rocks.

Context is critical.

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I guess when you split so much rock, then the chances are that at some point something interesting turns up and your brother was the lucky customer to get it.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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A few weeks ago I was on a birthday trip to a new collecting site. Along the way, I passed through the village were Rod Serling is buried and decided to stop by and pay my respects.

Here's Mr. Serling:

post-15361-0-60917800-1410191554_thumb.jpg

About 20 feet away was a large planted area with several very large rocks. One had fossils exposed, I think mostly crinoids, but looking at the photo again, maybe some brachs or gastropod bits as well.

post-15361-0-09521800-1410191557_thumb.jpg

cheers!

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