mar2man22 Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 This week I am visiting family in Colorado. A few days ago I took a lovely trip to Florissant Fossil Beds. They had lots of interesting stuff at the visitor center. I found a privately owned quarry nearby in which they let people break open shale and search for fossils for a small fee. I didn't find much, but it was very fun! The pics shown are a leaf and a small insect. The wings were unfortunately chipped off when I found it. I also visited Dinosaur Ridge nearby and bought an Elasmosaurus tooth from the shop. I then saw the fossils displayed at the School of Mines geology museum. Very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilDudeCO Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Nice finds! Your leaf is the Eocene age fagopsis longifolia. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 You still found some nice pieces, I'd be stoked to find them. Sounds like you had some good times at the museums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted July 7, 2016 Share Posted July 7, 2016 Nice finds, like the insect a lot. Any more? 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mar2man22 Posted July 8, 2016 Author Share Posted July 8, 2016 Nice finds, like the insect a lot. Any more? Tony other than these, there was the flip side of the same leaf, a second leaf of the same species (more vague, harder to see) and a small "twig" (i guess) of a seqioia. I talked to the lady who owned the place and she picked up on my interest in fossils, so she tossed in a piece of petrified wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted July 8, 2016 Share Posted July 8, 2016 regarding # 2: as in: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250269200_Attached_Leaves_Inflorescences_and_Fruits_of_Fagopsis_an_Extinct_Genus_of_Fagaceous_Affinity_from_the_Oligocene_Florissant_Flora_of_Colorado_USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 HA!! I was there just this last Friday. I went to the park, then they told me about the quarry. Sadly, we were there to early in the morning and they were closed and we didn't knw when they would open, so we went on. My younger brother is an entomologists, so I've been talking to him about a trip. how much is it and how long did you dig to get the number of finds you have? Trying to see if it's worth the trip from Texas JUST for that. Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 Mar2man22, Those are a couple of nice fossils that you found! I was last at that Quarry in August of 2015 as I was passing through the area. At that time is was $10 an hour to split all the shale you wanted. You could keep all that you found unless it was rare or scientifically important. In my experience, you will find a few insects and plant fossils within an hour but you need to be lucky to find anything really nice. It's worth a stop if you are passing through but not a dedicated trip, IMHO. If you REALLY want some shale to split, you can contact the Quarry and they will mail you some for a fee. You have as much of a chance to find something that way as actually being at the site although it's a little more pricy and you have to pay shipping costs. Might be cheaper than driving up though. I've ordered some material from them before and feel that it is worth the money. If you can't get there yourself this is the next best thing. Here are the best fossils that I found last year during my visit to the site (all within the 1 hour time that I had there): Freshwater snail Elm like leaf, possibly Fagopsis longifolia (Extinct Beech tree species) like yours. "Wings" from some sort of seed (but no seed) similar to a slippery elm. Some sort of fly or bee -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Posted July 26, 2016 Share Posted July 26, 2016 thanks for the info. I'll be heading to Salt Lake City before to long, and 1 route goes through Denver. Maybe I can stop by then, and then take a load to go as well. I like the bee. I've been wanting to find 1. I'm a bee keeper, and do removals on the side, so I thought a fossil bee would be a good thing to have. Maybe I can find 1 while I'm there (though I don't know how common they are to find). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalewith Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 This is a fun place to visit. We got our fair share of leaves, insects, and a fish there last year. Highly recommended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramo Posted July 27, 2016 Share Posted July 27, 2016 Years ago, I hid a little bag of fossils along the road up to Florissant. I don't know if anyone ever found it, the harsh winters destroyed it, or if the highway department had dozed over the area. I posted directions here on TFF. If any of you are back up that way, you should look it up and let me know if it lasted this long. For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun. -Aldo Leopold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Rock Posted July 28, 2016 Share Posted July 28, 2016 I had a similar experience on my first trip to Wilson's Clay Pit, near Brownwood , Texas. I was loading other things in the bed of my pickup (which has a hard top cover). I was loading from the side of the bed and brought an armload of items to load. I carefully set a small container of my fossils on the stepside step of my truck. EVEN THOUGH I told myself at that moment that I should not even set it there, I did. Well, I got the truck loaded and drove away for the three hour drive home. NEVER a thought about those fossils UNTIL I was back in my driveway and then realized that the fossils never made it INto the truck! Because the fossils were in a hard plastic container…there was at least a CHANCE they might have survived until my next trip to Wilson's about 1 YEAR later. I drove VERY slowly over the first couple miles of gravel road where I believed that the container had fallen into the ditch. NO LUCK. Live and learn! Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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