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Show us your most common fossils!


DeepTimeIsotopes

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Many times we see the best that someone has, and not the numerous less than satisfactory specimens. For some, this could lead to feeling insufficient or inadequate in their fossil collection. As we strive to find that flawless 12" tyrannosaur tooth or painstakingly prepping out that complete spiny trilobite let us see the common finds we encounter on that journey!

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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@UtahFossilHunter well I'm sure you can attest to how common Elrathia kingii are. I'm packing up to head back out to Utah soon so I won't upload any pictures but I have a bucket full of E. kingii encrusted shale.

Do or do not. There is no try. - Yoda

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It seems whether I'm looking for Devonian trilobites, or Triassic Dinosaur footprints, i am greeted by a fair amount of invertebrate burrows. Yes, my annelid friends have become a large part of my fossil collection and it is somewhat frustrating sometimes when they are all that turn up. Here's one of the many I have found, from the Mahantango formation of Western Maryland:

IMG_1769.JPG

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Just look up any pictures I have posted. Literally all of my finds are common.

 

@WhodamanHD, you still not finding any trilobites? Try the Needmore Formation, I've found some partials in that one (I can post pictures if you'd like).

 

PS, no chance the isopod people responded yet?

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the most common for me, easiest to find, most numerous, are these bryozoan.

South Highland Rim, Tennessee, Nashville group, Catheys formation

41316 008.JPG

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2 hours ago, EMP said:

Just look up any pictures I have posted. Literally all of my finds are common.

 

@WhodamanHD, you still not finding any trilobites? Try the Needmore Formation, I've found some partials in that one (I can post pictures if you'd like).

 

PS, no chance the isopod people responded yet?

I haven't got I chance to get out there, but if it's the older, unbedded (if you know what I mean), sandier, lighter rock I know a place, in fact it's just down the hill from the other one. The isopod people seem to be ignoring me, I have also posted it on bug guide, and I've recently heard of a isopod expert in ellicott city so I might see if she'll take a look.

P.S. Not all your finds are common! You mentioned a trigonotarbid earlier, not a common find...

 

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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1 hour ago, WhodamanHD said:

I haven't got I chance to get out there, but if it's the older, unbedded (if you know what I mean), sandier, lighter rock I know a place, in fact it's just down the hill from the other one. The isopod people seem to be ignoring me, I have also posted it on bug guide, and I've recently heard of a isopod expert in ellicott city so I might see if she'll take a look.

P.S. Not all your finds are common! You mentioned a trigonotarbid earlier, not a common find...

 

 

Yes, that does sound a lot like the matrix I've seen elsewhere from the Needmore. It should be lower stratigraphically in the section, below the Mahantango (though faulting may change that).

 

Funny how they'd be ignoring you like that. The Ellicott City expert seems promising, though wouldn't there be differences between a fossil one and a modern one?

 

Haha, I guess. That's the exception to the rule though.

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16 minutes ago, EMP said:

wouldn't there be differences between a fossil one and a modern one?

Most likely, but the basic anatomy I would guess to be the same, I'm not sure of all the parameters that define an isopod. paleoisopodology doesn't seem like a hot topic right now, so I'm guessing a modern expert would have to do. I just found the article again, it is ten years old and I'm not sure how I will reach her, but it's worth a look. She seems to be a physician now. here's the article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050326102702.htm

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

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Back when I lived in Eureka California I use to find hundreds of these concretions with clams inside them.  Many times they would be destroyed by the sledge hammer but we didnt care cause there were soooooo many.  If we didnt find anything else that was worthy of taking home, we would simply go to one of the cliff areas that was loaded with these concs, whack a few, and  come back home with at least some of these.  Funny thing now is,,,   I hear that those are long gone and the cliffs are not giving up any more for the last decade or so.  Funny how things change.

  Oh, you can see the railroad track as scale.

 

RB

Capjaw 010.jpg

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Hey @ynot, that is an average sized scallop, patinopectin, but its also the dorsal side which nobody wants.   I use to find a ton of those also, but the spot they come out of is very overgrown now. 

 

RB

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12 minutes ago, RJB said:

Hey @ynot, that is an average sized scallop, patinopectin, but its also the dorsal side which nobody wants.   I use to find a ton of those also, but the spot they come out of is very overgrown now. 

 

RB

Maybe My visual math is off, but if the tie is 3.5 inches then the shell should be about  10 inches.

Am I close?

Thanks,

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.

 

 

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Not sure, but im sure its closer to the 7 inch mark?   Either way, its long gone.  I was smart enough to save a couple of the much better ones.  Not sure where they are at, but in a box somewere?

 

RB

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10 hours ago, RJB said:

Back when I lived in Eureka California I use to find hundreds of these concretions with clams inside them.  Many times they would be destroyed by the sledge hammer but we didnt care cause there were soooooo many.  If we didnt find anything else that was worthy of taking home, we would simply go to one of the cliff areas that was loaded with these concs, whack a few, and  come back home with at least some of these.  Funny thing now is,,,   I hear that those are long gone and the cliffs are not giving up any more for the last decade or so.  Funny how things change.

  Oh, you can see the railroad track as scale.

 

RB

Capjaw 010.jpg

I hope you kept some of these and didn't leave them out in the weather too long... If the site is played out they are no longer common fossils! That razor-looking clam is interesting.

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On 6/26/2017 at 6:05 AM, Fossil-Hound said:

@UtahFossilHunter well I'm sure you can attest to how common Elrathia kingii are. I'm packing up to head back out to Utah soon so I won't upload any pictures but I have a bucket full of E. kingii encrusted shale.

Yes, I do have quite a few Elrathia kingii. I'll also have to upload a couple pics. I also have some turbidite deposits with lots of bryozoans, crinoids, bivalves, and the occasional horn coral. I will upload a couple pictures of that too. I just wanted to have a couple other entries added first :)

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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On 6/27/2017 at 7:49 AM, RJB said:

Back when I lived in Eureka California I use to find hundreds of these concretions with clams inside them.  Many times they would be destroyed by the sledge hammer but we didnt care cause there were soooooo many.  If we didnt find anything else that was worthy of taking home, we would simply go to one of the cliff areas that was loaded with these concs, whack a few, and  come back home with at least some of these.  Funny thing now is,,,   I hear that those are long gone and the cliffs are not giving up any more for the last decade or so.  Funny how things change.

  Oh, you can see the railroad track as scale.

 

RB

Capjaw 010.jpg

It's crazy how quick the rock formation can change conditions. Some of those don't look half bad at all.

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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Here are a couple of clams I found while living n Northern California.  These were not as common as the Clinocardiums in my first post here, but common enough to not worry about destroying these by polishing.  Gave me something to do.  These are known as Spisula?

 

RB

IMG_0381.JPG

  • I found this Informative 1
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As promised here are some pics of the Elrathia kingii and Asaphisicus wheeleri.

RenderedContent-687833F0-D238-424F-9EFD-53E8189C59E3.JPG

RenderedContent-080B6219-720A-4730-A02D-8094DAB713A8.JPG

  • I found this Informative 1

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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What many people may not know is that there is a formation called the Great Blue Limestone that can be seen in 4 separate mountain ranges around Salt Lake County. It's usually extremely fossiliferous. Here is some of those.

RenderedContent-EB647152-F786-4C4E-B262-7E2A1BB92ECB.JPG

RenderedContent-8B8E58B1-0CD6-4B9C-9C7B-533F76C80E69.JPG

RenderedContent-969F9A74-C7D6-4400-A7C7-FB042FF7B7BF.JPG

RenderedContent-6B35290D-0D2C-4B33-969B-D91334F74E07.JPG

RenderedContent-B9ACDD5C-2223-4480-9E7B-7EE5021681B9.JPG

RenderedContent-6E843827-B1E7-452F-8CFD-2BD534845889.JPG

RenderedContent-C53889C7-C128-479A-B086-3DF36C720345.JPG

RenderedContent-3168A1B1-C366-4463-B719-670F4AB134B5.JPG

RenderedContent-8058C857-CF0D-4246-9168-419DCCACD6A2.JPG

RenderedContent-A9DAA828-868A-4196-A786-6C68614F4736.JPG

Just now, ynot said:

Nice elrathia You got there!

Many of them were from when you and I dug them up next to U-Dig last year! :P

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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@RJB it varies from locality to locality but overall it's a lot harder than the shales with the trilobites. :)

Each dot is 50,000,000 years:

Hadean............Archean..............................Proterozoic.......................................Phanerozoic...........

                                                                                                                    Paleo......Meso....Ceno..

                                                                                                           Ꞓ.OSD.C.P.Tr.J.K..Pg.NgQ< You are here

Doesn't time just fly by?

 

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