What surprised you when you started fossil hunting?

[Wrangellian]

...but sites were probably more accessible and less heavily picked over all those years ago, no?

[Miocene_Mason]

I was surprised that fossil collecting was not just something museums did, it was something I could do to!

[RJB]

I was 33 years old when I went on my first fossil hunt.  No pack, no tools no nothing.  Found a small piece of rock that had an impression of a clam in it.   You would not belive how excited I was!!!  That is what surprized me the most.  That super intense excitement! 

 

RB

[KCMOfossil]

On 3/5/2018 at 10:39 AM, Fossildude19 said:

I was surprised that there was so much going on down by our feet

I agree.  When I have taken my grandchildren along to hunt, they have often seen what I did not see because: 1) they are closer to the ground, 2) they do not have to deal with corrective lenses.

[aplomado]

59 minutes ago, KCMOfossil said:

I agree.  When I have taken my grandchildren along to hunt, they have often seen what I did not see because: 1) they are closer to the ground, 2) they do not have to deal with corrective lenses.

Yes... my kids find all kinds of shark teeth ~3mm long!  I can't see them!

[Missourian]

Most surprising is when a 'smashed nautiloid' turned out to be an eurypterid.

[Bozark]

I've been absolutely blown away by the kindness ranchers have shown me. Rides to sites, fresh food, conversation about anything, and so willing to share their life experience and expertise! As a New Hampshire transplant to SD, they've all been wonderful in helping me adapt to a different environment

[jpc]

1 minute ago, Bozark said:

I've been absolutely blown away by the kindness ranchers have shown me. Rides to sites, fresh food, conversation about anything, and so willing to share their life experience and expertise! As a New Hampshire transplant to SD, they've all been wonderful in helping me adapt to a different environment

and I, as a Massachusetts transplant to WY, I agree.  

[goatinformationist]

Yep, and a simple thanks goes a looooong way.

[Praefectus]

I was surprised by a fish poking my leg. I was looking for shark teeth in the Peace river when a common pleco came right up to me. Thankfully, it was a harmless. 

[Nimravis]

I am always surprised that my wife never complains when I stop at random road cuts when on vacation, she always tells me to have fun and take my time. One time is South Dakota, I came back with so much stuff, she did not mind holding some things on her lap as we drove back to Chicago.

[goatinformationist]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 10:41 PM, Praefectus said:

I was surprised by a fish poking my leg. I was looking for shark teeth in the Peace river when a common pleco came right up to me. Thankfully, it was a harmless. 

Not so harmless when you have a big mole on your back.  Ouch.

[FossilSloth]

On 3/12/2018 at 12:24 PM, Bozark said:

I've been absolutely blown away by the kindness ranchers have shown me. Rides to sites, fresh food, conversation about anything, and so willing to share their life experience and expertise! As a New Hampshire transplant to SD, they've all been wonderful in helping me adapt to a different environment

 

Do you just walk up to their front door and ring the bell and ask to snoop around their land? I'd be really curious to know how to go about doing this. 

[Bozark]

On 4/24/2018 at 3:34 PM, FossilSloth said:

 

Do you just walk up to their front door and ring the bell and ask to snoop around their land? I'd be really curious to know how to go about doing this. 

There's a few different ways. Usually its a matter of being out there around ranchers- for instance, we met two ranchers and got on their land by bumping into them at the rawhide celebration mentioned above. Our white river ranches we bumped into at a bar in a small town. A lot of it is just letting people know you're interested in fossil without freaking them out

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

What especially surprised me was how few fossils I found… Guess I didn't have "the eye" for fossils back then.

 

I realised a few years later that that only fossil I found on my first hunt was actually fragment of a diplomoceratid (heteromorph ammonite) - something rather rare in the Danish Chalk of Møns Klint. That surprised me even more...

[Kane]

A lot. I came back to it at 36 after collecting as a kid. 

 

1. How much I didn't know.

2. Technique.

3. How much difference good tools make. I began with a nail hammer and a wood chisel. I now have the very best hammers for every job. 

4. The amount of research and poking around needed to optimize one's collecting trips.

5. How physically taxing it can be, but so healthy to do.

6. Just how big a community there is in fossil collecting. It can feel, at first, like a very solitary activity.

7. How much it has become more than a hobby, but a lifestyle.

8. How quickly space gets taken up with finds - especially spaces not usually ones for fossils, like the dining room table.  

[Draconiusultamius]

That everybody else seems to just pick up fossils and chisel at them and rearrange them to form the complete fossil.  I always thought you had to take it to a palaeontologist to get it glued back together!  To be fair, it's not something I can do in Alberta.  Also, that it was ok to own a fossil.

[Ptychodus04]

On 3/8/2018 at 8:02 PM, Missourian said:

Most surprising is when a 'smashed nautiloid' turned out to be an eurypterid.

I had a similar surprise. I had collected several fragments of turtle shell in the Woodbine Formation and one did not fit anywhere on the rest of the pieces. Upon closer inspection (and some preparation) it turned out to be a dromaeosaur hand claw!! How cool is that?

[caldigger]

1 hour ago, Ptychodus04 said:

I had a similar surprise. I had collected several fragments of turtle shell in the Woodbine Formation and one did not fit anywhere on the rest of the pieces. Upon closer inspection (and some preparation) it turned out to be a dromaeosaur hand claw!! How cool is that?

Are you sure it wasn't one of those rarely found turtle dermal spines? 

 

I was taken back by how one can find traces of past life in so many areas. I had always thought fossils were only found in select locations around the world. Now I come to find, they are all around us.

[Ptychodus04]

9 hours ago, caldigger said:

Are you sure it wasn't one of those rarely found turtle dermal spines? 

I’m pretty sure! ID was verified by Dr. Tykoski at the Perot Museum who got his PHD in therapod anatomy and said claw resides in the museum’s collection under this ID. 

[chg057]

I know I’m late to the party, but for me, I am constantly surprised by how much I enjoy looking at all the geologic maps and papers I can get my hands on. It’s always fun finding the ones that give more specific information about fossil zones, and best of all, locations.

 

It gives me a great sense of accomplishment to find outcrops that not a lot of people have bothered to try and find or research.

[Missourian]

On 5/3/2018 at 6:18 AM, Ptychodus04 said:

I had a similar surprise. I had collected several fragments of turtle shell in the Woodbine Formation and one did not fit anywhere on the rest of the pieces. Upon closer inspection (and some preparation) it turned out to be a dromaeosaur hand claw!! How cool is that?

 

Indeed. It's moments like these that make all the efforts worthwhile.