Pennsylvanian Fossils

[fossilcrazy]

For about five years now, I have been posting images and information on Linton fossils that I have found. As a citizen Paleontologist, my work has all been field work with some preparation and discussions with researchers on what I have found. It is at this time, I have gotten some recognition for recovering Linton fossils to further research, by being included in a GSA poster on this special locality and the lengthening list of species, many of which are only known from Linton, Ohio.

 

For those interested in this topic, The GSA meeting for the Joint 52nd NE Annual Section and 51st NC Annual Section Meeting will be this Spring. To find out more, these links can be used:

 

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2017NE/webprogram/Session42487.html

 

The Poster specifically on Linton fossils will be: Linton Poster GSA NE 2017 Paper 290564 - "A SURVEY OF THE PENNSYLVANIAN AMPHIBIA OF THE LINTON, OHIO LAGERSTATTE" 

 

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2017NE/webprogram/Paper290564.html

 

I feel now is a good time to show more collaboration between Professional Researchers and the Amateur Community; as the BLM currently decides the fate of fossil collection on BLM controlled land.

If this working relationship is not shown, many of us will find our hobby collecting banned from public lands. 

 

 

 

 

[JohnJ]

Congratulations on the collaboration, John.  I've always enjoyed you sharing your discoveries with The Forum.

 

[Wrangellian]

And I've always enjoyed seeing your stuff.

What you're presenting here give me a little bit more courage than I've been able to find lately, there are times when I want to just donate or sell everything and throw out the rest, and be done with it. Of course probably nothing I have can compare to the things you're finding in terms of potential interest...

[Jeffrey P]

Congratulations on the professional collaboration. Very much deserved, especially in your case with the Linton finds.

[fossilcrazy]

The Linton Presentation Poster at NE section conference of GSA meeting last week. I thank the researchers for including me in their study.

GSA Linton Poster HureyGSA_Pitt.compressed (1).pdf

[FossilDAWG]

I hope it's OK if I quote the following section from the poster, as it indicates an excellent collaborative interaction between professional and avocational paleontologists.

 

"Collaboration with Amateurs

Over three decades of digging and processing material from Linton was accomplished with the help of several non-professional
people who spent long hours digging in hot sun, rain and snow to gather the cannel coal to produce the fossils.
This was only the first step, as each block of cannel had to be washed, dried, split and carefully examined under
direct sunlight or high wattage lamps. The rare discovery of a good fossil meant stopping the process and cleaning the
fossil, transferring parts that did not quite split out and sometimes trimming the fragile slabs. Sharp vision and recognition
of faint material (such as the difficult to recognize invertebrates) was part of the task. Some of the people mentioned
in the acknowledgements section spent hundreds of hours and together with the authors have split over twelve
tons of cannel to date. Most of the cannel held no fossil material, some had general pieces and parts of common organisms
and a few held superb examples of unusual material. Some of these non-professionals have today gone on to be
professional paleontologists while others maintain an avid interest from an amateur perspective. Science is best served
by involving as many interested people as possible, amateur collectors are the foot soldiers of paleontology and they
continue to be vital to the exploration of the Linton Lagerstatte."

 

Thanks, John, for your dedication to this project.  I've very happy that your efforts were rewarded with proper recognition.

 

Don

[Wrangellian]

Well said.

[fossilcrazy]

Many times the hours of labor, in uncomfortable conditions to the point of exhaustion, is not the hard part. Sometimes when finding a phenomenal fossil, the hard part is knowing it rightfully needs to be surrendered to science; because what it has to offer can be far too important to sit in a private collection. Puzzle pieces can go unrecognized for years. By giving specimens to science, the benefit can be long after a finder is gone. These days I think of it as "sharing the delight of the find".

[Ludwigia]

Keep up the good work, John. It may be exhaustive, but it sure is fun in the end, isn't it?