PaleoRon Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 I got a surprise at the end of August when I received notice from the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History regarding them returning one of my fossils. Part of my surprise was that I have been dealing almost exclusively with the Calvert Marine Museum (the CMM) in Maryland for several years. Occasionally some of my specimens are sent to the Smithsonian from the CMM, but they are returned back to the CMM. The surprise was compounded when the accompanying letter stated it was an item I had sent in for identification. It was a section of bone that I found in the vicinity of Brownie’s Beach in Calvert County, Maryland. Most of the fossil material found there comes out of “Zone 10” of the Calvert Formation. The Calvert Formation is Lower Middle Miocene in age. The piece of bone was identified as part of a land mammal ischium. In Florida, with its wealth of terrestrial fossils, this would hardly be worth mentioning. In the Maryland Miocene deposits, terrestrial material is very rare. I can attest that it is a fossil that I found, but I do not remember sending it in for identification. I was starting to wonder if my memory was developing gaps in the paleontology section. The mystery was solved when I saw the acceptance date for the fossil. The Smithsonian received the specimen on April 14th, 1991 and it was returned to me on October 7th, 2017. I do not claim to be a mathematician, but I am quite proficient at basic math. The reason I did not remember submitting this particular specimen to the Smithsonian is that it was sent twenty six and a half years ago. I will be donating it to the Calvert Marine Museum on my next visit. The Specimen 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 Ya gotta wonder why. Nice find, sorry it took so long to find out about it. 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...
Ludwigia Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 The Smithsonian is akin to an elephant. Good thing it has a memory like one as well. 11 years ago I donated a crocodile jaw to a palaeontologist who has moved house 3 times since then and as far as I know it's still sitting in a drawer until she finally gets around to writing a paper on her pet subject. Still got a long way to go to break your record, though. Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 I have some some fossils that have taken a while to ID, some years even. But none as long as your fossil. Funny how ID can sometimes take just five minutes, and other times it can take decades. Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted October 11, 2017 Share Posted October 11, 2017 Like aged bourbon just takes time to get the full enjoyment. Now what else is in those halls that you cannot remember...nice story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptychodus04 Posted October 15, 2017 Share Posted October 15, 2017 It took 20 years for it to sit in a drawer until some poor intern who has been assigned to straighten out the unknown bits to find it. Then it took around 5 minutes for one of the paleontists to identify. It took the next 6 years for them to get around to mailing it to you. Regards, Kris Global Paleo Services, LLC https://globalpaleoservices.com http://instagram.com/globalpaleoservices http://instagram.com/kris.howe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aerogrower Posted October 16, 2017 Share Posted October 16, 2017 Cool story! Congrats on the find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Yep that is a tad bit long. congrats on the find! Regards, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted November 3, 2017 Share Posted November 3, 2017 Hey Ron, An interesting bit of related info/followup with some crazy sized numbers about the Smithsonian which I saw today.... So on page 100 of the Nov 2017 Smithsonian Magazine under "Ask Smithsonian": "How many unexamined fossils does the National Museum of Natural History have---that is, about how many new discoveries are waiting to be made?" "Of the 41 million fossil items in the museum's paleobiology collection, every one was examined as it was sorted into one of 10,000 cases. But that doesn't mean there are no potential discoveries to come, says Kathy Hollis, manager of the National Fossil Collection. This is among the world's largest fossil collections, and only about 2 percent of the items have been the subject of published research. It already serves as a reference collection for hundreds of researchers annually, and that number will rise as Hollis' team digitizes the fossils. The number of potential discoveries is incalculable." Regards, Chris 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoRon Posted November 3, 2017 Author Share Posted November 3, 2017 Wow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now