Moroccan Fossil Hunting

[MarcusFossils]

I've often marvelled at pictures of "flying" walliserops trilobites on ebay, but their price is rather steep to say the least. Would it be possible to hop on a plane to Morocco and start finding fossil of that quality lying around on hillsides? Obviously they'd be unpreped, so how would one go about doing this?

Just look at this thing! Incredible.

[Auspex]

Well, they are definitely not just laying around on the ground. Heavy-duty quarrying is involved, and you might spend hundreds of fruitless hours. Then a hundred hours of very high-skilled prep later, you might have something to show for it.

Add it all up, and the ready-to-wear price is a bargain.

[TNGray]

Assuming that you purchase a genuine item... The demand has generated a thriving forgery market.

[Troodon]

Well there is a company Sahara Overland that makes collecting in morocco easy. Not only do they sell fossils but take individuals out to collecting areas. Its not cheap but if you ever wanted to do it its available. Otherwise everything that Auspex is spot on.

http://www.saharaoverland.com/SO/store/e_PaleoTours.asp

[Mattalic]

I've become highly skeptical of bugs coming out of Morocco recently.

[MB]

I've become highly skeptical of bugs coming out of Morocco recently.

Go there and take them yourself...

[Fred]

It is absolutely feasible to go out there and get them yourself. It's not a walk in the park though.

Like Auspex said, it's bloody hard work in arid conditions. Obviously, the remote locations are more interesting, but harder to travel to, and you need to be ok with low levels of comfort and some hardship.

You need to work your way through a lot of limestone to find trilobites, let alone the rare species you're talking about. It usually takes several days, weeks even, to find one of these. Here we are removing some topsoil to reach a bank we're interested in. This is a rare situation, usually the layers extends into the cliff.

Edited July 28, 2014 by Fred

[Jace]

It is absolutely feasible to go out there and get them yourself. It's not a walk in the park though.

Like Auspex said, it's bloody hark work in arid conditions. Obviously, the remote locations are more interesting, but harder to travel to, and you need to be comfortable with low levels of comfort and some hardship.

You need to work your way through a lot of limestone to find trilobites, let alone the rare species you're talking about. It usually takes several days or more of hard work to find one of these. Here we are removing some topsoil to reach a bank we're interested in. This is a rare situation, usually the layers extends into the cliff.

Wow thanks for posting the action shot! How fun! Is it just me ? or do those 2 water bottles kind of look like you've buried a toddler face-down in the tailings with just his legs sticking out? haha, made me laugh,..