Digging with the Experts at Penn Dixie!

[Monica]

Hi everyone!

 

Yesterday, Viola and I traveled across the border to join in on the fun for the "Dig with the Experts" program at Penn Dixie in New York State.  It was sunny and hot, but we had a fantastic time collecting a bunch of Devonian fossils!  Enjoy the pictures!

 

Monica

 

Picture #1: Viola showing off a chunk of rock with a rugose coral in it - we didn't keep this piece since it's was pretty big, and we opted to keep only the loose horn corals that we found.

 

Picture #2: Viola showing off a pyritized brachiopod in another chunk of rock - so pretty!

 

Picture #3: Viola trying her hand at using the rock hammer.

 

Picture #4: Viola found a friend to hammer rocks with!

 

Picture #5: The non-trilobite fossils that I collected and kept.  I really like the orthoconic nautiloid in the upper left-hand corner of the picture - it was completely hidden within a rock that I split so it was a very nice surprise!

 

Picture #6: The trilobites that I found and kept, including an enrolled little guy that popped out of the side of a rock that I was hammering - he was very cooperative. 

 

PS - I'll post pictures of the fossils that Viola decided to keep as soon as she washes them - stay tuned for that...

[Darktooth]

Congratulations on another wonderful fossil hunt Monica! You and Viola have really been getting out lately. You got some nice finds once again. I am glad this trip was successful for you gals.

[Fossildude19]

Great report and pictures, Monica.  

Thanks for sharing them.

Glad you both had a good time. 
Looking forward to seeing the keepers.

 

[njfossilhunter]

You two ladies looked like you both had a great time.. ...I can't wait until I take the grandkids fossil hunting with me this summer....It will be the first time around for them.

[Malcolmt]

Glad you were able to have a great day collecting. Looks like you had the weather cooperate. I am going to Penn on Friday June 2 to have a go at your left overs. 

[Ludwigia]

Nice to see 2 generations of fossil enthusiasts having fun and success. I think your nautiloid could be a Spyroceras.

[smt126]

Looks like you guys had a great time. Did you have any troubles with taking the fossils home? I've heard Canada doesn't like us taking theirs.

[Monica]

9 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Congratulations on another wonderful fossil hunt Monica! You and Viola have really been getting out lately. You got some nice finds once again. I am glad this trip was successful for you gals.

We have been getting out a lot lately - I think it's safe to say that we've become addicted to the hobby of fossil-hunting! 

 

8 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

Great report and pictures, Monica.  

Thanks for sharing them.

Glad you both had a good time. 
Looking forward to seeing the keepers.

 

Thanks, Tim!  Viola decided to keep a lot more than I did, so it may take her a while to get through washing all of her pieces, but when she's done I'll definitely post the pictures of her finds, too.

 

8 hours ago, njfossilhunter said:

You two ladies looked like you both had a great time.. ...I can't wait until I take the grandkids fossil hunting with me this summer....It will be the first time around for them.

Oooh - that's exciting!!!  How old are your grandkids?  Viola (currently 6) took to fossil-hunting immediately, while William (almost 4) is taking a bit longer to come around.  Last summer I took out my brother's 4 boys to my local spot - the second-oldest (currently 9) was really into it, but the other 3 didn't seem all that interested.  I hope that your grandkids have a great time out in the field with you this summer - that way, there's never any guilt when going out fossil-hunting because you'll be doing it for the kids 

 

6 hours ago, Malcolmt said:

Glad you were able to have a great day collecting. Looks like you had the weather cooperate. I am going to Penn on Friday June 2 to have a go at your left overs. 

Hi Malcolm!  The weather did cooperate (i.e. it didn't rain), but boy was it hot, especially since we were hammering rock in direct sunlight all afternoon!!!  I'm not complaining, though - we found more trilobite bits than we'd ever find at our local site (probably), and it felt pretty good to split a rock and find little surprises inside!   Best of luck looking through the leftovers on Friday - I'm sure you'll find some nice stuff!

 

53 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

Nice to see 2 generations of fossil enthusiasts having fun and success. I think your nautiloid could be a Spyroceras.

Hi Roger!  Thanks for chiming in!  I haven't yet tried to identify my finds, so thanks for helping me out with my nautiloid! 

 

Just now, smt126 said:

Looks like you guys had a great time. Did you have any troubles with taking the fossils home? I've heard Canada doesn't like us taking theirs.

Hi!  We did have a great time!  Re: troubles bringing the fossils back into the country - the guys at the border (both sides) didn't even blink an eye when I said that we were fossil-collecting at Penn Dixie, so it must be okay.  The guy who's in charge of Penn Dixie also said that they have lots of Canadians who visit, so I doubt it's a problem to bring Penn Dixie fossils back to Canada - maybe it's more of an issue from other locations, or perhaps vertebrate fossils are more problematic?

[Kane]

Glad that you and Viola had a great time (and I'm just dying to know where the experts carved out more fresh areas!). For any of the full trilobites that you may have in that matrix, you'll probably find the rock quite forgiving; I've used tiny chisels or the freeze-thaw method to free out rollers. The trilobites are generally much harder than the matrix. The exception would be any Greenops that tend to be a bit flaky and delicate without more careful prep. As for identification, the Penn Dixie website does a fair job of getting to some of the general ID - for more drill-down, many of us have collected there, so I'm sure we can help  

 

@smt126 No real restrictions on bringing fossils over the Ontario-NY state border. Both sides are more concerned about the transport of dirt, which may carry organic material. Of course, some provinces do not allow collecting at all, such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia, and to some extent Alberta (collecting in some places are allowed, but it is illegal to remove vertebrate fossils from that province). So if you have a hankering for some Ontario invertebrate fossil collecting, feel free!

[smt126]

Good to hear. Some people at work were talking about the hassles of crossing about other stuff. I've never been to Canada but maybe some day. 

[Jeffrey P]

Looks like you and Viola had a remarkable time. Her smile would make anybody's day. Looks like a piece of a graptolite in your finds- Dictyonema. Would have to see it closer to know for sure. Excellent haul. Congratulations.

[doushantuo]

No it doesn't.

If anything looks like Dictyonema,it is Rhabdinopora.

[Kane]

Sorry, Ben - I think Rhabdinopora is Ordovician, and the rock at PD is Devonian  

[doushantuo]

Serves me right for speedreading

[Kane]

The only graptolite I know of reported in the Windom shale is Dictyonema hamiltoniae. I'd have to double check my sources, but the Windom is not particularly known for many graptolites.

[doushantuo]

let me know if you need any assistance from 2Trd 

[Fossildude19]

Dictyonema are pretty uncommon to find in the Hamilton Group of Western NY, but they are there.  @Jeffrey P

 

In fact, Jeffrey P has a nice bit of one in his gallery:

 

 

[jewelonly]

Monica, I enjoyed your trip report on Penn Dixie, especially seeing Viola so happy among the rocks! I started my girls digging early too, but only one ever really developed the passion for it. Can't wait to see her finds too. 

[Jeffrey P]

38 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

Dictyonema are pretty uncommon to find in the Hamilton Group of Western NY, but they are there.  @Jeffrey P

 

In fact, Jeffrey P has a nice bit of one in his gallery:

 

 

Thanks Tim. They can't be that rare if I found one. As I said, I would like to get a better view of Monica's since there are some other things it might be.

[Ptychodus04]

2 hours ago, smt126 said:

Good to hear. Some people at work were talking about the hassles of crossing about other stuff. I've never been to Canada but maybe some day. 

 

I had some trouble bringing trilobites from Ontario back into the US once. It was caused more by an uninformed customs agent and a mis-mark on my part on the declaration form. Ultimately, it took about 20 minutes and a conversation with the supervisor to get it all worked out.

 

The agent was trying to say all fossils couldn't be exported because of Alberta's law restricting export of vertebrate fossils. I unwrapped a few trilobites and showed them what I had. The supervisor told the guy that they only truly care about the export of dinosaur material. It helps to speak knowledgeably about what you have as well as maintain a friendly disposition. My next trip to Ottawa found me leaving with 50 pounds of trilobite bearing rock in my carry on bag with no issues at customs. The only issue then was a flight delay and running across O'Hare Airport with said bag full of rocks on my shoulder to catch my connecting flight.

[njfossilhunter]

4 hours ago, Monica said:

 

Oooh - that's exciting!!!  How old are your grandkids?  Viola (currently 6) took to fossil-hunting immediately, while William (almost 4) is taking a bit longer to come around.  Last summer I took out my brother's 4 boys to my local spot - the second-oldest (currently 9) was really into it, but the other 3 didn't seem all that interested.  I hope that your grandkids have a great time out in the field with you this summer - that way, there's never any guilt when going out fossil-hunting because you'll be doing it for the kids 

 

Hi Monica

The grandson Luis is 4 and the granddaughter Mckenna is 10 and they both love dinosaurs and fossils...there first time will be in the monmouth county brooks in new jersey so it will be a splash...lol.. for both of them. I'm sure when they... if they get board with collecting they will have fun in the water...its better then being in a pool......  They love going into my fossil display case and boxes and want to hold them and take them out to play with specially the youngest one.   

[FossilDAWG]

Penn-Dixie is a fantastic resource for everybody!  Monica, I'm glad you and Viola had a great time.

 

A minor point of clarification: Alberta does not allow the removal of any fossils from the province, either vertebrate or invertebrate, without a permit that may be (but probably won't be) issued through the Royal Tyrell Museum.  Export of vertebrate fossils from Canada is regulated through the Heritage Act.  There should be no legal issues involved in bringing invertebrate fossils from Ontario into the US, as long as they are not worth more than $500.

 

Don

[JohnBrewer]

What a great report and a really decent haul too. Seeing Viola's smile is magical.

 

If you have surplus/duplicates remember the blind trade thread and you could widen your collection.

[Monica]

8 hours ago, Kane said:

Glad that you and Viola had a great time (and I'm just dying to know where the experts carved out more fresh areas!). For any of the full trilobites that you may have in that matrix, you'll probably find the rock quite forgiving; I've used tiny chisels or the freeze-thaw method to free out rollers. The trilobites are generally much harder than the matrix. The exception would be any Greenops that tend to be a bit flaky and delicate without more careful prep. As for identification, the Penn Dixie website does a fair job of getting to some of the general ID - for more drill-down, many of us have collected there, so I'm sure we can help  

 

@smt126 No real restrictions on bringing fossils over the Ontario-NY state border. Both sides are more concerned about the transport of dirt, which may carry organic material. Of course, some provinces do not allow collecting at all, such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia, and to some extent Alberta (collecting in some places are allowed, but it is illegal to remove vertebrate fossils from that province). So if you have a hankering for some Ontario invertebrate fossil collecting, feel free!

Hi Kane!

We did have a great time - it was our first time splitting rocks, and it was pretty fun!  As for extracting my trilobites - the pygidium in the lower right-hand corner looks like the rest of the little guy might be hiding underneath the rock, and the cephalons just to the left and above that specimen also look promising, but I'm a bit nervous about trying to get them out since I wouldn't want to ruin them.  I'll probably just leave them as-is...for now...

 

8 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

Looks like you and Viola had a remarkable time. Her smile would make anybody's day. Looks like a piece of a graptolite in your finds- Dictyonema. Would have to see it closer to know for sure. Excellent haul. Congratulations.

We had a wonderful time!  Re: the possible graptolite within my specimens - I've never collected one before so that would be pretty exciting!  I'll try to take better pictures of the individual specimens in the coming days and post them for identification help so keep an eye out for that - thanks!

 

6 hours ago, jewelonly said:

Monica, I enjoyed your trip report on Penn Dixie, especially seeing Viola so happy among the rocks! I started my girls digging early too, but only one ever really developed the passion for it. Can't wait to see her finds too. 

Thanks for responding!  I'm very lucky that Viola is hooked on fossils, too, since it's a great way for us to spend time together - here's hoping that William gets into it, too, so we can make it a whole family hobby!  (My husband has yet to come out with me since he's usually either at home while William is napping, or I'm out with both kids and he's doing something else - I'm hoping I can get him out sometime this summer so he can get hooked, too!  Then we can have whole family holidays planned around fossil-hunting!!!!!)

 

3 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

Penn-Dixie is a fantastic resource for everybody!  Monica, I'm glad you and Viola had a great time.

 

A minor point of clarification: Alberta does not allow the removal of any fossils from the province, either vertebrate or invertebrate, without a permit that may be (but probably won't be) issued through the Royal Tyrell Museum.  Export of vertebrate fossils from Canada is regulated through the Heritage Act.  There should be no legal issues involved in bringing invertebrate fossils from Ontario into the US, as long as they are not worth more than $500.

 

Don

Hi Don!

Penn Dixie was a great place to visit - I've purchased a family membership for 2017 so hopefully I'll go again and again and again...!!!

 

1 hour ago, JohnBrewer said:

What a great report and a really decent haul too. Seeing Viola's smile is magical.

 

If you have surplus/duplicates remember the blind trade thread and you could widen your collection.

Hi John!

We did collect a fair number of specimens, but not a huge number - I don't think I have enough stuff to trade just yet but I'm hoping to head back again in the summer just to make sure I have enough items that I'd be willing to part with some of them.  I find that I become easily attached to my specimens, probably because each one brings back memories of when/where/how I found it, so seeing them go is a bit difficult sometimes - hopefully as I collect more of the same type of fossil it won't be as difficult to trade it because it's always nice to get a surprise in the mail! 

[Monica]

4 hours ago, njfossilhunter said:

 

Hi Monica

The grandson Luis is 4 and the granddaughter Mckenna is 10 and they both love dinosaurs and fossils...there first time will be in the monmouth county brooks in new jersey so it will be a splash...lol.. for both of them. I'm sure when they... if they get board with collecting they will have fun in the water...its better then being in a pool......  They love going into my fossil display case and boxes and want to hold them and take them out to play with specially the youngest one.   

That's exactly how it started for me!  Viola learned about dinosaurs in senior kindergarten, and so she came home talking about and asking questions about fossils.  I showed her the few fossils I had collected when I was in university, and she immediately wanted to go out to find her own.  So, I did a little online research which led me to TFF, including posts explaining that rivers/creeks in the Toronto area have fossils, and so our new hobby was started!  Viola also gets distracted sometimes and chooses to play with worms and frogs rather than look for fossils, but she's immensely proud of herself when she finds a fossil, so she keeps wanting to go out with me.  It's a great way to spend an afternoon together - we both love it - so I hope that your grandkids get hooked on fossil-hunting, too!