Hunting on a Bike

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

A bit of a weird trip yesterday. I combined two hobbies at the same time. You may have seen me wondering what fossil hunting was like on a boat. So I tried the desert version of a canoe: a mountain bike. This is part of the ongoing research on Fossils of Stansbury Island that @Earth Chemistry is conducting there (See thread here). I packed my bike and back pack and drove to the southern tip of the island. We had these layers down before my trip. Red is no fossils, green is fossils.

 

 

 

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

I climbed up the first hill to the Pioche "Shale" and found... nothing except this view.  

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Next up was the Stansbury Formation and Laketown Dolomite. Neither had anything.

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A desert island in a sea of salt water

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Here's the trailhead. 

 

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Even though the Prospect Mountain Quartzite has no fossils in it, it can be beautiful at times.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

Next up, I went to the northern end of the island to see if I can find a trail to the other side of the island. That was a no go. Too many mining companies in the way. But you could see the various Lake Bonneville levels.

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No fossils in hand and running out of daylight, I decided to check out one last place. A "short" (distance wise not effort wise) ride up to the Madison Limestone. 

Sand is not the ideal mountain biking material.

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Further up at the top of the Madison was this view

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And these fossils!

 

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Gastropods, and Rugose corals

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A top view of a rugose coral

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One layer is absolutely chuck full of stuff

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tons and tons of brachipods and gastropods

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Some more finds

Another Rugose coral

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This weird looking thing

Most likely it's a Rugose coral cut at a weird angle.

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Some in situ photos of fossils I couldn't take home

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Even some worm burrows joined the party

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As I was heading out, I took a couple extra photos for those who like landscape pictures

 The Great Salt Lake was well behaved today to allow this picture. Excuse the reflection of my hand on the window.

[jcbshark]

Great pics.....I used to mountain bike when I lived in Maryland. Down here there's barely even a hill lol

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

I will end off things with the panoramic picture.

 

Thanks for reading!

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

For those keeping score, here's an updated stratigraphy column.

[doushantuo]

Pretty good photography,Utah!

[FossilDAWG]

Looks like a fun day exploring.

Many of those fossils seem to be silicified, the way they stand out from the rock.  With care they could probably be etched from the rock with acetic acid (i.e. vinegar if you can't get anything more concentrated) or hydrochloric acid (available as muriatic acid in the paint section of many hardware/home renovation type stores).  If you have not done this before ask for guidance.

 

Don

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

1 hour ago, jcbshark said:

Great pics.....I used to mountain bike when I lived in Maryland. Down here there's barely even a hill lol

Thanks! There's almost too much hill here. I was on the brakes the whole way down.

35 minutes ago, doushantuo said:

Pretty good photography,Utah!

Thank you! It's easy in a beautiful place like this.

31 minutes ago, FossilDAWG said:

Looks like a fun day exploring.

Many of those fossils seem to be silicified, the way they stand out from the rock.  With care they could probably be etched from the rock with acetic acid (i.e. vinegar if you can't get anything more concentrated) or hydrochloric acid (available as muriatic acid in the paint section of many hardware/home renovation type stores).  If you have not done this before ask for guidance.

 

Don

They are silcified. I haven't tried to etch it before. I have muriatic acid for some concrete etching. I'll look into it.