Fossil Horror Stories For Halloween!

[Kurufossils]

Halloween is coming up soon so lets share our fossil related horror stories! They can range from Preparation accidents, missed opportunities, breaking specimens, close encounters with a dangerous animal hunting, near death experiences, or even receiving a fossil from an old haunted collection, pretty much anything a hunter and collector would find horrifying.

 

One of my personal fossil horror stories involves a a terrifying bump in the night! I had recent found and started a to use a new plastic shelf I found to store my finds from a recent new spot. I started to notice a few days in the shelf was already nearly filled to capacity, so I decided I would add no more after today's load. Sometime after mid-night I heard a sudden loud bang and woke up to the plastic shelf tipping over forward, one of the support wheels had poped out! Luckily the shock awakened my superhuman reflexes of seeing my fossils in danger so I leapt up and was able to save the shelf from crashing down. I was shaken but since then stabilized the shelf, it was truly horrifying to see that moment when my fossils could've been severely damaged or destroyed 

[LiamL]

My worst fear is someone knocking my prized fossil glass cabinet over. 

[thelivingdead531]

As a very new fossil hunter, and not knowing much about consolidators at the time, I watched in horror as a perfect looking bivalve crumbled in my hands in lightly running water after I tried to rinse off a bit of loose matrix. That one still haunts me. 

[Miocene_Mason]

My nightmares consist of bad splits, which happen all to often. I was more angry than scared when my one two millimeter hybodontid tooth broke while I was cleaning it up, luckily I could glue it back in place. Once I was hunting under an overgrown cliff and was very startled to find a large coiled up snake looking very discontent with me. At that point it was well camouflaged and I couldn’t see it was a non vemous but aggressive northern water snake, so I wasn’t sure if I was up against a copperhead or what. I just slowly backed away and hoped the snake would except my retreat, which it did.

[FossilDAWG]

Two that I can think of right off the bat.  The first was something I was reminded of by LiamL's comment.  I had a smallish two-shelf cabinet with a curved glass front, into which I had put some of my best trilobites and crab concretions.  There was an outlet under/behind the cabinet, and on the occasion in question my wife had plugged the vacuum cleaner in so that the cord ran between the legs of the cabinet.  Of course, one of our dogs got tangled in the cord, took off running, and pulled the cabinet over.  Besides shattering the curved glass (which we could not replace so the cabinet was ruined), the crab concretions fell onto the trilobites, messily pulverizing an eye on my one and only perfect Greenops widderensis, and neatly taking out the glabella on a perfect and extremely rare Proetus chambliensis, also my only perfect specimen of that species.

 

Thinking about that has messed with my head and now I can't remember the second nightmare.  It'll come back to me later, though.

 

Don

 

 

[FossilDAWG]

Oh yes, thelivingdead's post reminds me.  The first time I collected at Arkona I found a nest of complete crinoids, a mix of Arthroacantha and Corocrinus.  I had a slab with four or five crinoids all intertwined, with stems and arms with every pinnule intact it seemed.  Not knowing better, to clean the soft clay shale off the crinoids I wet the surface and began to brush it with a toothbrush.  What I quickly learned is that when that Arkona Shale gets wet it absorbs the water, turns to mud, and swells up, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  Before I knew it my crinoids were gone, the stems and arms reduced to a pile of ossicles.  The actual calyxes were pyritized so they didn't dissolve, and I still have them, but an isolated calyx is very different from a complete crinoid.

 

Don

[Kurufossils]

15 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

Two that I can think of right off the bat.  The first was something I was reminded of by LiamL's comment.  I had a smallish two-shelf cabinet with a curved glass front, into which I had put some of my best trilobites and crab concretions.  There was an outlet under/behind the cabinet, and on the occasion in question my wife had plugged the vacuum cleaner in so that the cord ran between the legs of the cabinet.  Of course, one of our dogs got tangled in the cord, took off running, and pulled the cabinet over.  Besides shattering the curved glass (which we could not replace so the cabinet was ruined), the crab concretions fell onto the trilobites, messily pulverizing an eye on my one and only perfect Greenops widderensis, and neatly taking out the glabella on a perfect and extremely rare Proetus chambliensis, also my only perfect specimen of that species.

 

Thinking about that has messed with my head and now I can't remember the second nightmare.  It'll come back to me later, though.

 

Don

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

Oh yes, thelivingdead's post reminds me.  The first time I collected at Arkona I found a nest of complete crinoids, a mix of Arthroacantha and Corocrinus.  I had a slab with four or five crinoids all intertwined, with stems and arms with every pinnule intact it seemed.  Not knowing better, to clean the soft clay shale off the crinoids I wet the surface and began to brush it with a toothbrush.  What I quickly learned is that when that Arkona Shale gets wet it absorbs the water, turns to mud, and swells up, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.  Before I knew it my crinoids were gone, the stems and arms reduced to a pile of ossicles.  The actual calyxes were pyritized so they didn't dissolve, and I still have them, but an isolated calyx is very different from a complete crinoid.

 

Don

Also @thelivingdead531 Absolutely horrifying stories so far, wow! I have a friend had an experience watching something he found turn to mush, I was their and it was terrifying to witness. Luckily I have yet to experience a specimen I won deteriorating before my eyes, I dread it.

[Miocene_Mason]

When I think of specimens falling apart, I think of a post a While back by @Fossil-Hound 

[izak_]

I was trying to make a stand for my Palorchestes tooth out of wire, and the tooth slipped out of the stand and onto the floor. It broke into 4 pieces. It looks ok from the front now, but a few small pieces from the back are still missing. 

[Fossil-Hound]

1 hour ago, WhodamanHD said:

When I think of specimens falling apart, I think of a post a While back by @Fossil-Hound 

Yes you are referring to the Ecphora that I named "Humpty Dumpty." Sadly that one could not be put back together again.  I did however find one a few weeks after that one that was pristine. 

[Kane]

I like the chilling stories of what could happen... Imagine you have found that perfect, rare echinoid. It is so highly sought after that museums just keep after you to donate it. In the field, you meet someone who is boasting about his preparation skills. He is willing to make this absolutely perfect. Unwittingly, you hand it over, fully entrusting this individual. And yet, you can't shake a feeling of apprehension. He seemed a bit too eager... and he was drooling when he talked... and he broke out in occasional, unprovoked fits of cackling. Little did you know that you entrusted your perfect specimen to the Drink-Addled, Ham-Handed Preparator of Ruin! O that one's blood may curdle and cause any who value fossils would experience an unspeakable shudder!

 

Legends speak of this unscrupulous miscreant. A former museum technician, an event too horrible for words occurred that led to his summary termination. No one at the museum dare utter his name. Some have already died of utter sorrow and despair. But know ye his vile and despicable ways as he predates upon vulnerable fossil collectors, offering his free services. But unbeknownst to his victims, the Ham-Hander does all his preparation work only after a long tipple of wretched bathtub moonshine sprinkled with the dust of his former fossil specimen victims, his only preparation tool - a sledge hammer! In the dark! Blindfolded! While doing the Macarena! On an unstable stool! During an earthquake!

 

O the other things the Ham-Hander does, such things that one cannot reference them here lest one's hair automatically go white, and the body succumb to automatic paralysis at just the description of this cyclopean, eldritch fiend's nefarious methods!

 

(Ok, channeling a little H.P. Lovecraft there, lol!). 

[MikeR]

Although there have been many, there is one that disturbs me the most.  In 1984 when I was still a young fossil padawan, I found a complete and excellently preserved brittle star in the Miocene St. Marys Formation on the Chesapeake.  I carefully wrapped it and it made the long drive from Maryland to Georgia.  Still intact, I gently unwrapped it began moving it around to think about how I was going to preserve it when the unconsolidated matrix fell apart and the brittle star disintegrated.  I don't recall if I cried, but I am close to tears now.

 

Mike

[Bullsnake]

Speaking of disappearing fossils!

 

[caldigger]

3 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Once I was hunting under an overgrown cliff and was very startled to find a large coiled up snake looking very discontent with me. 

Speculation!  You couldn't possibly know what the snake was thinking. It will never hold up in court!

[Jesuslover340]

I'd say the two most recent encounters that shook me lately both involved nearly walking into a Red-Bellied Black Snake...you don't see them until they move and they don't rattle to warn you off like a rattlesnake (which is what I am used to seeing)!

 

3 hours ago, Ryann10006 said:

Halloween is coming up soon so lets share our fossil related horror stories! They can range from Preparation accidents, missed opportunities, breaking specimens, close encounters with a dangerous animal hunting, near death experiences, or even receiving a fossil from an old haunted collection, pretty much anything a hunter and collector would find horrifying.

 

One of my personal fossil horror stories involves a a terrifying bump in the night! I had recent found and started a to use a new plastic shelf I found to store my finds from a recent new spot. I started to notice a few days in the shelf was already nearly filled to capacity, so I decided I would add no more after today's load. Sometime after mid-night I heard a sudden loud bang and woke up to the plastic shelf tipping over forward, one of the support wheels had poped out! Luckily the shock awakened my superhuman reflexes of seeing my fossils in danger so I leapt up and was able to save the shelf from crashing down. I was shaken but since then stabilized the shelf, it was truly horrifying to see that moment when my fossils could've been severely damaged or destroyed 

This exact same scenario recently happened to @Ash and I-we woke to a loud crash in the bedroom (some of our fossils were in a cabinet). Initially, we thought it had something to do with our  new cat who seems to seek revenge on us keeping her in the bedroom at night by terrorizing us. But after looking around the room, I had a sinking feeling. Sure enough, one of the support pegs had come loose and an entire shelf came down on another shelf of fossils. THANKFULLY there was only one fossil that had been damaged-a fragment from a river near Ponca City, Oklahoma. 

[aplomado]

I won a large woolly mammoth tooth on ebay for about $75.... vanished in the mail.... 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Moving to Morocco.

Lost about 20% of my collection of 30+ years, just vanished. 

Another 10% or so smashed to smithereens.

And since then all my pyritised ammonites have disintegrated and many of my Eocene gastropods exploded because of the intense heat, i believe. 

[Ash]

I had a couple of associated roo verts in a plaster jacket in the car port. Neighbours young kid (5) found the jacket and tipped it out. I've never been able to get them to go back together

[Anomotodon]

I once found a perfectly preserved Paraisurus tooth in Ukrainian Albian, but after I excavated it its root turned into sand  Such teeth are extremely rare there, and I still don't have a complete one(((

[ynot]

I started collecting when I was 2 years.

When I was 4 years old My family moved to a place where there are no fossils to look for.

[Wrangellian]

 

On 10/24/2017 at 12:09 PM, thelivingdead531 said:

As a very new fossil hunter, and not knowing much about consolidators at the time, I watched in horror as a perfect looking bivalve crumbled in my hands in lightly running water after I tried to rinse off a bit of loose matrix. That one still haunts me. 

Done that exact thing..

On 10/24/2017 at 12:09 PM, WhodamanHD said:

My nightmares consist of bad splits, which happen all to often.

Done my share of these too.

 

There are many reasons why I don't own a dog. Just added another.

 

I had a 'dry fitted' table covered in flats full of fossils collapse on me once. My own stupidity. It could have been worse, though, I didn't lose any complete trilobites or anything, but not everything came out unscathed.

[thelivingdead531]

8 hours ago, ynot said:

I started collecting when I was 2 years.

When I was 4 years old My family moved to a place where there are no fossils to look for.

 

That is a true tale of terror, and one of my worst fears now that I've been bitten by the fossil bug. 

[minnbuckeye]

How about during one quarry hunt, pounding rock and splitting the pieces all day , the only trilobite I found is still in the quarry. I placed it in my 5 gallon pail on top of a mound of boulders that were mostly 6 ft in diameter or better. While coming down from the pile, I slipped , spilt the bucket, and down between these massive rocks the trilobite went, never to be seen again. But still not near as bad as ynot's story:

9 hours ago, ynot said:

When I was 4 years old My family moved to a place where there are no fossils to look for.

 

[RJB]

   It was a cold and rainy day.  Back then I always hunted in the winter when the rains were pouring down.  I got to the bowl, (a rounded cliff at scotia bluffs), and I could plainly see some big pectens way up high on the walls of the bowl,  Absolutly no way to get to them.  I came back the next day, (still raining), with some 16 inch spikes I bought at the hardware store.  I climbed as far as I could go till the sides were simply too steep and started to pound in two spikes for every step in order to get up to the pectins.  Being that it had been raining for days there was a big area at the bottom full of some real soft mud.  Once I got to where the pectens were I had dug out maybe two of them when I slipped.  In that instant knowing I was going for quite the slide I tucked my right boot under my rear end and thought about how badly I was going to get slice up by all broken shell material sticking out of the sandstone.  I got all the way down to the bottom and traviling quite fast went right into the mud.  hitting the mud that fast litteraly covered me in mud.  it was about an 80 foot slide.  I stood up and started to check myself to see how many cuts and slices were on me, but not a one.  Not one single cut anywhere.  Well, except my right boot.  My boot saved my rear end from getting any damage.  I never tried that again. 

 

RB

[FossilDAWG]

Hope you brought a change of underwear! 

 

Don