Fossil Hunting Suggestions

[opabinia]

My father and I are planning on taking a trip fossil hunting this summer, we can't seem to find anywhere that really seems worth driving to. (Everything around us is basically Devonian.)

 

We were looking for something different:  Mosasaur, Arthropods (Cambrian preferred), Holocene, etc.

 

My dad loves actual bones and I love arthropods from Cambrian.

 

We came to a consensus and are looking for anything marine in the Mid-West.

 

But we will take any suggestions into consideration! (We are new-ish to fossil hunting and are willing to go anywhere and do anything.

[EMP]

Cambrian arthropods there's really only a handful of places east of the Mississippi, or east of the Rockies even. Delta Utah, Marble Mountains in California, and Burgess Shale in Canada are the best known Cambrian sites for arthropods. In the east coast the Kinzers Formation would have been the best bet, but nowadays most sites are pretty much off limits (except for one site I know of near York, but I won't give it out in public). There's some other formations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York that also have scattered fossils but I don't know of any real site for them, so you'd just have to go exploring a bit. Wisconsin has some upper Cambrian trilobites and some rarer arthropods in the Eau Claire Sandstone around Madison and Wisconsin Dells. Personally I've only found a couple of jellyfish from it, but I've seen some of the things others have found and it makes me green with envy. 

 

Bones are pretty easy to do. For dinosaurs I'd suggest looking into Dinosaur Park in Laurel, MD if you're not too adventurous, otherwise Connecticut has some good museums on dinosaurs they've found up that ways (don't know about collecting). There's Dinosaur National Monument out in Colorado/Utah that would be worth looking into, but no collecting allowed. The Hell Creek in Montana is well known for dinosaurian remains, but you'd have to look closely at a map and make sure you aren't going into tribal land which I think is a problem we don't have out east. 

 

If it's mosausaurs then New Jersey has some good sites from what I see in the forum (almost everyday there's something about it). Cretaceous rocks in Texas also seem to have a fair bit of stuff (North Sulfur River I think). Closer to WV would be the Severn Formation in MD or the MT Laurel in Delaware at the C&D Canal cut. 

 

Whale or other marine mammal bones are easy: the Calvert Cliffs. Aurora, North Carolina has some stuff, but even if you can't get into the quarry then a lot of the museums in eastern North Carolina have gravel and or pits filled from gravel from the quarry, and you can find bones and teeth that way. Peace River in  Florida seems to be good from the constant posts in the forum as well (personally I'm not interested at all in these kinds of fossils, so my knowledge on where to find them is pretty limited). 

 

Sorry I can't hep much with the Mid-West. If you're in for some all around interesting places then you should ask around about sites near Cincinnati and 18 Mile Creek in New York. 

[RyanDye]

As EMP stated...

On 5/9/2017 at 7:33 AM, EMP said:

Cambrian arthropods there's really only a handful of places east of the Mississippi, or east of the Rockies even. Delta Utah, Marble Mountains in California, and Burgess Shale in Canada are the best known Cambrian sites for arthropods. In the east coast the Kinzers Formation would have been the best bet, but nowadays most sites are pretty much off limits (except for one site I know of near York, but I won't give it out in public). There's some other formations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York that also have scattered fossils but I don't know of any real site for them, so you'd just have to go exploring a bit. Wisconsin has some upper Cambrian trilobites and some rarer arthropods in the Eau Claire Sandstone around Madison and Wisconsin Dells. Personally I've only found a couple of jellyfish from it, but I've seen some of the things others have found and it makes me green with envy. 

 

Bones are pretty easy to do. For dinosaurs I'd suggest looking into Dinosaur Park in Laurel, MD if you're not too adventurous, otherwise Connecticut has some good museums on dinosaurs they've found up that ways (don't know about collecting). There's Dinosaur National Monument out in Colorado/Utah that would be worth looking into, but no collecting allowed. The Hell Creek in Montana is well known for dinosaurian remains, but you'd have to look closely at a map and make sure you aren't going into tribal land which I think is a problem we don't have out east. 

 

If it's mosausaurs then New Jersey has some good sites from what I see in the forum (almost everyday there's something about it). Cretaceous rocks in Texas also seem to have a fair bit of stuff (North Sulfur River I think). Closer to WV would be the Severn Formation in MD or the MT Laurel in Delaware at the C&D Canal cut. 

 

Whale or other marine mammal bones are easy: the Calvert Cliffs. Aurora, North Carolina has some stuff, but even if you can't get into the quarry then a lot of the museums in eastern North Carolina have gravel and or pits filled from gravel from the quarry, and you can find bones and teeth that way. Peace River in  Florida seems to be good from the constant posts in the forum as well (personally I'm not interested at all in these kinds of fossils, so my knowledge on where to find them is pretty limited). 

 

Sorry I can't hep much with the Mid-West. If you're in for some all around interesting places then you should ask around about sites near Cincinnati and 18 Mile Creek in New York. 

Cambrian is a hard period for fossil hunting you have to understand that that is the 2nd period of all the ages you could find some luck in the NC blue ridge mountains but driving is dangerous as the mountain roads are windy as well as you probability to actually find something is quite low. Florida is a good option for a wide variety of marine flora and fauna as well as actually finding something is quite probable however that's not mid west. My advice is to go and see one of the bigger fossil ranges such as Two medicine formation or Hell creek formation even if it's not exactly what your looking for anyone who is interested in paleontology can appreciate the incredible beauty of these formations the if your fossil hunting the Burgess shale is not a good idea for a couple of reasons. I actually went very near the site but it was closed from complications on the mountain trail the burgess shale is a one of a kind fossil bed and they certainly would never let anyone WITH a doctorate degree to obtain a specimen for keeping. If your soul purpose of the trip is to fossil hunt I would suggest to understand your own area first and gain knowledge of all the fossil areas you can access from automobile I'm not positive on where your location is so I cannot provide any helpful information on where to look but almost every state has some kind of fossil my last tip is this. The bigger the formation the more rules on fossil hunting. I hope this was helpful good luck with your hunting beaches are always good for marine fauna fossils.

[Fossildude19]

41 minutes ago, Ryan Dye said:

The bigger the formation the more rules on fossil hunting. 

 

Welcome to the Forum, Ryan.

 

Just curious about your comment here.  By bigger, did you mean more famous, or well known?  

 

The Hamilton Formation in New York is very big, and has no rules governing fossil collection, other than not collecting in State Parks, Federal or Tribal lands, or even private property,  without permission.

 

 

[RyanDye]

6 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

 

Welcome to the Forum, Ryan.

 

Just curious about your comment here.  By bigger, did you mean more famous, or well known?  

 

The Hamilton Formation in New York is very big, and has no rules governing fossil collection, other than not collecting in State Parks, Federal or Tribal lands, or even private property,  without permission.

 

 

By bigger I mean popular and significant for example the Burgess shale has no other formation near it's value in Cambrian fossils so i supposed I was meaning to say "a big deal" to answer your question I mean popular and largely excavated areas.

[jpc]

I need to straigten out a few mis-statements here.  The Burgess shale is off limits because it is a national park.  No collecting.  End of discussion.  Special permits have been issued for Canadian scientists but even that is tough.  As for the Hell Creek and other dinosaur beds out west, collecting on Indian land is indeed a no-no, but collecting on ANY federal land is also illegal.  That leaves private land, and you must get permission from the landowner.  It is not enough to just avoid reservation land. 

[RyanDye]

1 hour ago, jpc said:

I need to straigten out a few mis-statements here.  The Burgess shale is off limits because it is a national park.  No collecting.  End of discussion.  Special permits have been issued for Canadian scientists but even that is tough.  As for the Hell Creek and other dinosaur beds out west, collecting on Indian land is indeed a no-no, but collecting on ANY federal land is also illegal.  That leaves private land, and you must get permission from the landowner.  It is not enough to just avoid reservation land. 

That's what I was trying to explain you pulled the image in my mind straight onto the monitor.

[ynot]

48 minutes ago, Ryan Dye said:

you pulled the image in my mind straight onto the monitor.

OUCH, that sounds painful!!