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Velociraptor99

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Hello TFF!

It’s been a long time since I’ve been on the forums so I thought I’d update on my first fossil hunt of the year. I’ve been really busy with College and there’s nowhere to fossil hunt where I go to school.

 

On the 26th of May I went with the North Coast Fossil Club (a club that I am part of and who do meetings and trips in and around Ohio and surrounding states) to the Penn Dixie Paleontological Site in Hamburg,  New York. This was my third time at Penn Dixie, and just like last time I did excellent when it came to my finds.

 

I hoped into the car of a friend of mine named Donna from the club along with two others from the club, and we drove eastward towards New York. In Ohio that was cloudy, hot, and very humid. The drive was 3 1/2 hours but that didn’t seem like much because I talked to the crew the entire time. 

When we arrived in New York and got to Penn Dixie we were blessed with the perfect weather of mid 70s with cloud cover which kept the temperature down significantly, along with a beautiful breeze that must of came  from Lake Erie. There weren’t a lot of people because the legendary “day at the dig” had occurred a week ago so the rush for the new broken up shale was gone. Thankfully, all the good finds weren’t.

 

For about an hour I sat down in the piles of rubble from the previous weeks new stuff from the nearby quarry. I split rocks with little avail until I hit my first find. A complete Eldregeops trilobite. However when I split the rock I broke off his pydigum. I rushed to my friend Donna and she lent me some glue with which I did a poor job at gluing his tail back on. It worked and while it looks amateur I’m happy to say he’s a full bug, and a big one at that.

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So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and door will be opened for you. -Jesus Christ

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I wrapped it up in some tin foil that Donna provided me with, and continued my splitting. Well splitting wasn’t providing much until again I found another complete trilobite, this time a roller, who I successfully freed loose from the rock with just a chisel and hammer.

 

After some more splitting I went and took a break. I went around seeing what the others had found. One of the club members had found her dream finds, about 8 cephalopods. She told me I should sit where she was, and just shift through the piles of rubble from the stuff of what people had gone through before. Those turned out to be the best words of advice that I would receive on the trip.

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So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and door will be opened for you. -Jesus Christ

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I turned over rock after rock finding complete trilobites left and right. Many I would delicately release from their stone prisons after millions of years of slumber. Others have yet to be fully removed for fear of damaging them.

 

Here’s the find of the day that I found just by turning over a rock. It’s a shame I can’t post a photo from that day after I found it but the file is too large.

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So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and door will be opened for you. -Jesus Christ

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Nice finds! I am glad that you had a good time.

Dipleurawhisperer5.jpg

I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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That one is a winner.

You don't know how to shrink a pic down? How large is it?

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Very cool. 

Are you going to prep the Eldredgeops out further? 

 

image.jpg.3e774ab00d3e516b7f4aace888d0ebfb.jpg

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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Glad to hear you had a great day. I hope to get to Penn in the next week or two and meet up with Jay, still need to find me a complete Bela from there. 

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10 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

That one is a winner.

You don't know how to shrink a pic down? How large is it?

 

I’m not sure how to, I take all my shots on mobile on my IPhone (yeah I know so professional).

 

Those aren’t even all my finds but the site won’t let me post so many pictures, or I’m doing something wrong.  

 

Here’s the second best find I found later by splitting a rock with a suspicious trilobite chephlon.

Its a complete partially enrolled Greenops trilobite! This is my second complete Greenops in a row, last time I went I found one as well.

 

I have no idea how to prep these guys and I’m afraid with only a hammer, chisels, and dentil picks I’m kind of out of luck.

 

 

Edit: sorry for the poor quality photos.

 

7F4F79AE-A598-412C-A00C-1C7EF820AAD7.jpeg

So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and door will be opened for you. -Jesus Christ

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1 hour ago, Velociraptor99 said:

 

I’m not sure how to, I take all my shots on mobile on my IPhone (yeah I know so professional).

Those aren’t even all my finds but the site won’t let me post so many pictures, or I’m doing something wrong.  

Here’s the second best find I found later by splitting a rock with a suspicious trilobite chephlon.

Its a complete partially enrolled Greenops trilobite! This is my second complete Greenops in a row, last time I went I found one as well.

I have no idea how to prep these guys and I’m afraid with only a hammer, chisels, and dentil picks I’m kind of out of luck.

Edit: sorry for the poor quality photos.

 

7F4F79AE-A598-412C-A00C-1C7EF820AAD7.jpeg

 

Nice little Greenops barberi there. Looks like there could be a little more hiding under that matrix!

Jay A. Wollin

Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve

Hamburg, New York, USA

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First off, Crop your pictures on your phone - we only need to see your fossils. ;) 

Secondly, refresh your browser between replies. 

If your pictures are too large, you need to email them to yourself to resize them. 

Cropping should help that alot, though. 

 

 

 

7F4F79AE-A598-412C-A00C-1C7EF820AAD7.thumb.jpeg.05d02756a7fc0b0e53d695d680951842.jpeg  image.jpg.3e774ab00d3e516b7f4aace888d0ebfb.jpg

 

 

 

D753F981-BAA7-40A3-AD3D-C44CE74F912F.jpeg.1d54fcaf8ec691b7bbd97a51f7e64938.jpeg

    Tim    -  VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER

   MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png      PaleoPartner.png.30c01982e09b0cc0b7d9d6a7a21f56c6.png.a600039856933851eeea617ca3f2d15f.png     Postmaster1.jpg.900efa599049929531fa81981f028e24.jpg    VFOTM.png.f1b09c78bf88298b009b0da14ef44cf0.png  VFOTM  --- APRIL - 2015  

__________________________________________________
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks."

John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~   ><))))( *>  About Me      

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16 hours ago, Velociraptor99 said:

It’s a shame I can’t post a photo from that day after I found it but the file is too large.

 

Since you're using an iPhone, you should be able to edit there. Tap your "Photos" icon to enter into your camera roll. From there, you can tap the image you want to edit. There should be an option to edit. From there, you can crop the image as well as make any lighting adjustments. :) 

...How to Philosophize with a Hammer

 

 

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More bugs from the trip. Thanks users @Kane and @Fossildude19 for the help with cropping.

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So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and door will be opened for you. -Jesus Christ

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Looks like you had a great trip.

 

As it happens, I visited Penn Dixie the following day.  I found some decent trilobites, but only by laborious digging and splitting up chunks of rock from in situ.  I wondered about the lack of specimens from the spoil piles, as I had read accounts of others about picking up many trilobites from the rock waste left by more vigorous diggers.  There were a few other people there at the same time as me, and none of them had much luck on the spoil piles either.

 

Don

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Typically, the piles produce throughout the season. However, this year it definitely seems as though the people who showed up for Dig With the Experts really did a number on them. They have been dramatically less productive this season than in previous years. That being said, the things that people pulled out of them that first weekend we're jaw-dropping. When all else fails, you've gotta worrk the benches and haul slabs for the big payoffs!

Jay A. Wollin

Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve

Hamburg, New York, USA

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