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Surface Collecting


TheCanadian

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I've been looking around the site and I noticed there isn't much about surface collecting. By surface collecting, I mean just the most basic of tools: Hammer, hand lens and some stuff to transport/protect the collectibles. Simply turning over small slabs of rock or going through loose sediments. I know that for some people that this is not the preferred method and I understand. However, sometimes I find it easier to go out and do things this way, especially if I'm scouting an area for a later trip or trying to introduce someone to collecting.

If there is some info that i haven't found, could someone please tell me. If there is no other info, let's see what we can start here!

Thanks

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I find that in areas where there are outcrops to dig into, that it is preferable to me to scan what has already fallen at the base of the outcrop, or,.. to look through someone else's spoil piles. Sometimes, people miss things,.. and I have found many cool fossils this way. As I get a bit older, I find I don't enjoy killing myself to dig at new exposures, when looking at the loose stuff can produce almost as well as digging/getting fresh rock can.

Regards,

    Tim    VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."
John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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I surface collect wherever fossils are exposed on the surface, but if they won't come to me, I'll go to them :)

"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!

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I also do both. At familiar sites, I tend to dig and delve, since I know where the fossils are hiding, but I always surface collect in the viscinity when the digging gets tedious or on the way in and out.You often get a nice surprise if you keep your eyes open, since wind and weather always open up new possibilities.

The first thing I do at new sites and when I'm exploring new areas is to scan the surface like Tim does to get an idea of what may be available and to determine where may be the best place to dig.

There are of course some sites where the geological circumstances make it not only easier, but also better to find fossils on the surface, like in some soft shales where the fossils weather out easily whereas when you try digging, the things are hard to differentiate from the similarly colored matrix. Also some fossils are so intrinsically embedded in a hard matrix that only the tooth of time and weathering gets them out where hammering would only destroy them, so here as well, surface collecting is of advantage.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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one aspect of surface collecting I can't get enough of is going to Lake Erie, or one of the local creeks here after a good rain. When the water/tide recedes, there are highly mineralized fossils. Brachiopods with dogtooth calcite, corals that cut like glass, great blocks of favosites. They no longer have the high detail that the fossils I dig up have. They have been battered who knows how long in the water, sometimes hardly recognizable, no more than a film of irridesence left, or a few lines. it's great fun to find the smallest, or the most worn, and there are a surprising amount that are still detailed.

The shape of the one creek in particular changes drastically every year, and sometimes even after one heavy rain.There is a small island that submerges completely in the winter, and I go to harvest the new crop every spring.It is endlessly fascinating :)

"Your serpent of Egypt is bred now of your mud by the operation of your sun; so is your crocodile." Lepidus

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I also do both, but it mostly depends on the prospection site and the people that are with me.

If I'm with more experienced collectors we tend to do more diging.

And if I take new people to prospections I tend to go more for sites with easy surface collecting possibilities, my last trip with my daughter is a nice example of this.

growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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I prefer surface collecting the jersey creeks. The rain seems to do a better job of screening.

it also preserves the locations for future hunts. Sure I could clean out a gravel bar in a couple of hours

But that would be it for months or maybe years. We see a lot of over zealous collecting that spoils areas quickly.

It's hard to remember why you drained the swamp when your surrounded by alligators.

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95% of my finds posted on here (other than the micros) are from surface collecting. I rarely dig unless I have to.

Bulldozers and dirt Bulldozers and dirt
behind the trailer, my desert
Them red clay piles are heaven on earth
I get my rocks off, bulldozers and dirt

Patterson Hood; Drive-By Truckers

 

image.png.0c956e87cee523facebb6947cb34e842.png May 2016  MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160.png.b42a25e3438348310ba19ce6852f50c1.png May 2012 IPFOTM5.png.fb4f2a268e315c58c5980ed865b39e1f.png.1721b8912c45105152ac70b0ae8303c3.png.2b6263683ee32421d97e7fa481bd418a.pngAug 2013, May 2016, Apr 2020 VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png.af5065d0585e85f4accd8b291bf0cc2e.png.72a83362710033c9bdc8510be7454b66.png.9171036128e7f95de57b6a0f03c491da.png Oct 2022

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  • 2 weeks later...

I usually surface collect, Dad splits and digs. I find most of the cool things from surface collecting..

Izak

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I only surface collect as the sites I visit don't require and digging, but I would like to go to a site that I could dig.

Regards

Mike

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I surface collect all the time! It is the method that I use to find the place I want to dig. In an unknown (too Me) site I may walk 2-10 miles before I start to dig, usually end up within 100 feet from My truck! I will also surface collect when I need a rest from digging.

In some areas it does no good to dig, as the ground can have a higher tinsel strength than the fossils. In an area like that the fossils will break before You can extract them by digging and surface collecting is the only option.

Good luck on the hunt (whether surface or sub-surface).

Tony

Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys."

Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough."

 

My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection

My favorite thread on TFF.

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

I do a lot of roadside collecting and always start with with drainage ditches, cluverts, drain grates and work UP from there. In one of my favorite places I used to dig out a coulple of buckets of stone and then dump it off to the side in the trees or on the back edge of an old pile and come back to that spot at the end of the season and see what mother nature had revealed for me!- Almost the ulitimate in lazy collecting.

“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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If I'm in a town nearby "surface collect" is the only thing they allow and by surface collect they mean ZERO tools! You can only pick up what is literally on the surface. This is done in creeks and ditches. We've had some cool finds doing so, esp after a good rain. :)

"Direct observation of the testimony of the earth ... is a matter of the laboratory, of the field naturalist, of indefatigable digging among the ancient archives of the earth's history."

— Henry Fairfield Osborn

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