RJB Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I have a photo file in my computer called odds and ends. The fossils that dont fit any of the normal fossil stuff. There is a beautiful little fossil site just a 45 minute drive north of Eureka California that is right on the beach. It is a climb of about 80 to 100 feet, but when you get up to it, it is about 30 feet of pure fossils. Very young fossils, but just trilllions of pelecepods, gastropods, echinoids and lots and lots of other stuff too. Sometimes rare things can be found there too. Inverts and verts too. Lots of sand mixed in with this stuff also. I would take big chunks out of this huge fossiliferous cliff and put it into my backpack and take it back home. I had built a wooden frame with mosquito netting to screen it. I had many many hours of fun sifting through that stuff and found lots of 'mini' fossils, but the best ones that excited me the most were the fossil pearls!! Yeah thats right, PEARLS!!! it took many many gallons of material and many many hours of going through this stuff, but I found PEARLS!!! These are only between 750,000 to 1,250,000 years old, (it depends on who you talk to), but they are still the most wondrful things that I have ever found!!! Someday I will turn them into some super nice and super old pearl jewelry!! Wow!!! Now how cool is that. And not only that, but I brought with me a 5 gallon bucket of the material when I moved here to Montana. I still have the chance to find 2 more!!! I know that because I found 1 pearl for about every 2 gallons of material. WoooooooooHooooooooooo!!!! Can a guy/gal have more fun??? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Wow those are really cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kauffy Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 wow those are really really cool!! nice finds! i would like to see some of the other gastropods clams ect you found with them? but man those pearls are shure purrty!! "Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 9, 2008 Author Share Posted January 9, 2008 Wow those are really cool! Hey Anson, do you hate me yet? I dont mean to have so many cool fossils, but believe me, I was and still and am a fossil nut! If I had an extra few hundred bucks, off I went on another fossil trip!!! One time I took all my poker money that I won from the wife over a couple of years and went on a fossil crab trip to Oregon. A super nice trip that only cost me about 165 bucks. Of course gas was only about 1.65 a gallon in those days. But hey, another time I took the kids up to oregon to a site with some huge huge cliffs, but we sat down on the road with our 22 rifles and literaly shot them out of the cliff and then watched them roll down all the way to the road and sometimes across the road right to where we were sittin!!! Now thats fossil hunting for lazy guys!!! but what fun that was!!! RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomclark Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 man those are killer pearls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 HAHAHHA i love that thats real fossil hunting right there just shot em outa the cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Here is a fossil leaf that my son found when he was 8 years old. Weve been digging for fossil leafs for many many years and have found some good ones over the years, but this is easily the best we have ever found! This one may tuff to top? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 I would say thats about as good as they come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Owens Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Those are beautiful! The ones we find here (90MM yrs) are a dull grey & few & far between. -----"Your Texas Connection!"------ Fossils: Windows to the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Nicholas Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Gorgeous specimens. That has to be one of the very best leaf fossils I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Owens Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Here is a fossil leaf that my son found when he was 8 years old. Weve been digging for fossil leafs for many many years and have found some good ones over the years, but this is easily the best we have ever found! This one may tuff to top? RB That's a museum specimen! :Thumbs-up: -----"Your Texas Connection!"------ Fossils: Windows to the past Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Cris Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Beautiful specimen! Looks like ya just went outside, got a leaf and set it on top of a rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Thanks guys. I had to give my son 30 bucks to take it off his hands though. But its one of those air-loom fossils. My son gets it back once me and mom are long gone! Yikes!!! I also wish that the photo did it some justice. Its much bigger and much more detailed in person! I will put on some of our other fossil leafs in a short while. I have to get a couple of things done first. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 Here are a couple more. The rounder one is about 4 1/2 inches and comes from the Frontier Formation. I wish it had the intire stem, but I take what mother nature will give. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 Cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashcraft Posted January 16, 2008 Share Posted January 16, 2008 How are you prepping them? I assume it is shale that you are splitting???? Brent Ashcraft ashcraft, brent allen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 16, 2008 Author Share Posted January 16, 2008 How are you prepping them? I assume it is shale that you are splitting????Brent Ashcraft Hey Ashcraft. For the leaf that has 5 fingers, 4 of those thin tip areas were underneath the rock when it split. I simply used my ARO airscribe very carefully and very slowly to expose them. The round leaf simply split that way. Sometimes a guy gets lucky! Ha! RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kauffy Posted January 17, 2008 Share Posted January 17, 2008 WOW!! Im gone for 5 days and look what i missed out on! those leafs are really neat, wish i had some that well preserved around me! "Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Here are some odd fossils? These are whale barnacles. I dont know the scientific name of them, but after 15 years of hunting hundreds and hundreds of times back home, I had only found a total of 9 of these. I have no idea how rare these are in other formations around the world, but very very hard to come by in Northern California from the Wild Cat Group! I did keep one of two of my best ones, but donated the rest to different places before I moved. Im just glad I kept a couple of them. I dought I will find any more? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kauffy Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Interesting barnicles RB, very odd indeedy! but extreamly cool non-the-less did you ever find out what they attatched to? Cheers Chris "Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 21, 2008 Author Share Posted January 21, 2008 Baleen whales, I really dont know if they attach to the toothed whales? RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kauffy Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 oh right....so they actuall attatched to whales! man i just thought that was the name of them :huh: whoopsy brain not working this early in the morning ahh...... got any more things to share with us fossil deprived people waiting to drool over your amazing pictures???? :lol: :lol: :lol: Thanks RB! "Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted January 22, 2008 Author Share Posted January 22, 2008 Ok Mr Kauffy. I dont have many bone pics because I lost most of them a few years ago with a major computer virus and didnt have enough sence to save them on disk, but I do have this bone from about 3 summers ago. I was checking out this huge river bar that was just downstream from some huge cliffs and found this concretion. I wacked it open and the fossil within fell into many many pieces. Most concretions have nothing in them from this site, so you brake them open to see. Its a long ways back to the truck and you dont want to carry 500 pounds of rock back when most of it will have nothing in it. This one just happen to have something very very nice in it. At first I thought it was just a piece of rib, but apon inspecting it, I realized that it was an intire bone! I got very excited and then started gathering up every little piece that I could find and put them into little zip lock baggies. Once back home I cleaned each and every piece and started to put it back together. It took quite a few hours and then lots of prep work, but it came out purty dang nice. Im told its a dolphin ulna? I donated it to the county park that I found it by. I thought it belonged there so that people visiting the park can see what kind of antient life used to exist there. RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatorman Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Wow your prepping skills are great you must have a ton of patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kauffy Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Wow! very interesting and unusual I agree with Anson, you must have a very steady hand and a LOT* of patience!!! im trying to prep a block of clams at the moment with a craft knife (its all i can afford! )(shutup!) LOL and i swear i want to smash it into little pieces sometimes!! AHHRRRGGGG!!!! Well done though!, oh and i will post a pic of that block, hopefully you ans some other members can help me on what to do with it! "Turn the fear of the unknown into the excitment of possibility!"We dont stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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