What fossils should be in every collector’s collection?

[5 Humper]

The simplest and truest answer to this question would be:  every collection should have whatever the collector wants.   

[caldigger]

32 minutes ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

That one cost me a truck, that one got us chased by a helicopter, that one involved a chat with the sheriff, that one brought a tangle with a 6 foot rattler, wife found that, son found that one after I missed it, etc.

Sounds like never a dull moment fossil hunting with you!  The most dangerous creature I have encountered in the field was a jackrabbit. But it was a scary looking one!

[Malcolmt]

I almost got attacked by a raccoon one time, a goose another time, a alligator snapping turtle and a wild turkey another time. None of these are a problem.... It would be a totally different story flipping rocks in rattler country....something I would have a hard time doing......

 

as for favorite fossil, generally it is the one I just collected and prepped......unless its a brach of course......

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

4 minutes ago, Malcolmt said:

I almost got attacked by a raccoon one time, a goose another time, a alligator snapping turtle and a wild turkey another time. None of these are a problem.... It would be a totally different story flipping rocks in rattler country....something I would have a hard time doing......

 

as for favorite fossil, generally it is the one I just collected and prepped......unless its a brach of course......

 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

1 hour ago, Malcolmt said:

I almost got attacked by a raccoon one time, a goose another time, a alligator snapping turtle and a wild turkey another time. None of these are a problem.... It would be a totally different story flipping rocks in rattler country....something I would have a hard time doing......

 

as for favorite fossil, generally it is the one I just collected and prepped......unless its a brach of course......

 

Careful with the turtles.  I found out that some have long necks that can quickly do a 180...fortunately cat-like reflexes pulled my chicken legs out of the way before jaws clamped shut!

[Malcolmt]

I was hunting in a semi flooded quarry and practically stepped on it, scared the stuff out of me while it then casually meandered back into the water.

[Tidgy's Dad]

4 minutes ago, Uncle Siphuncle said:

Careful with the turtles.  I found out that some have long necks that can quickly do a 180...fortunately cat-like reflexes pulled my chicken legs out of the way before jaws clamped shut!

That's good. 

Hopefully, my chicken-like reflexes and turtle legs could have done the same.

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Just now, Tidgy's Dad said:

That's good. 

Hopefully, my chicken-like reflexes and turtle legs could have done the same.

Haha.  Equally unattractive.

 

[5 Humper]

Bahaha!  What's a matter with us?

 

Me?  nearly capsized by an aggressive BIG gator splash, nearly chomped underwater by a more aggressive gator, bumped by a humongous manatee (of course, manatees are wonderful, curious and harmless, but to get knocked by ones tail thrust unbeknownst is a hoot) bitten by a River Frog!, brushed by a sturgeon longer than me, swam over by a cornered max sized alligator snapping turtle, jolted on the periphery of too many close lightning strikes, forgot essential gear after 100 miles of driving, gritted teeth, drove back to get it, returned 100 miles at end of day for just a few moments of precious exploration, found nothing, returned home empty handed yet full of something....Near heatstroke, near hypothermia, wasp stung, snake struck (not bitten). Stepped in some future coprolites (albeit now flattened).   Ahh, the memories.  I'm sure we all have em.  

[Nimravis]

I have a wide range of fossils in my collection, but as @Herb stated, I like the ones that I collect. Heck, a lot of the fossils in my collection that I have collected don’t really excite me, I just like collecting them. Even though I have tons of Mazo Creek fossils, and I do love them, I really love collecting fossil shells whenever I am in Southern Florida, I could do that for hours a day and it never gets old. Unfortunately, I only get down there for a week every year, but I always look forward to it.

[Peat Burns]

I may not be answering the correct version of the question, and I don't want to be part of a heated debate, but who wouldn't want an example of the "first fossils", a cryptozoic stromatolite?!?  One of my most prized specimens.

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

37 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

I may not be answering the correct version of the question, and I don't want to be part of a heated debate, but who wouldn't want an example of the "first fossils", a crytozoic stromatolite?!?  One of my most prized specimens.

I wouldn’t want to be in it either but I started it. Whatever goes here so that’s good enough. How old is your stromatolite?

[Darktooth]

9 minutes ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

I wouldn’t want to be in it either but I started it. Whatever goes here so that’s good enough. How old is your stromatolite?

Look what you did! You should be ashamed! We will teach you a lesson about going around and asking questions! Trouble maker!

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

4 minutes ago, Darktooth said:

Look what you did! You should be ashamed! We will teach you a lesson about going around and asking questions! Trouble maker!

Consider it taught fourfold. I think we all learned a lesson about phrasing and wording today. 

[Peat Burns]

35 minutes ago, UtahFossilHunter said:

I wouldn’t want to be in it either but I started it. Whatever goes here so that’s good enough. How old is your stromatolite?

It is estimated at 2.2 - 2.3 billion years.  It's about the size of a basketball. 

[Peat Burns]

If one wants to consider the most iconic fossils?  In my opinion, look no further than the vintage cover of our friend the Golden Guide to Fossils  (brachiopod, horn coral, trilobite, ammonoids.  (Adam, did I just randomly list the brachiopod first? )

 

 

@Wrangellian

[Nimravis]

5 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

If one wants to consider the most iconic fossils?  In my opinion, look no further than the vintage cover of our friend the Golden Guide to Fossils  (brachiopod, horn coral, trilobite, ammonoids.  (Adam, did I just randomly list the brachiopod first? )

 

 

@Wrangellian

This was my first fossil book and I loved it.

[Peat Burns]

1 minute ago, Nimravis said:

This was my first fossil book and I loved it.

Mine too.  I'm afraid I'd question the fossil fanhood of anyone in North America who started in fossils as a child and didn't have similar sentiments about that book. 

[Uncle Siphuncle]

1 hour ago, Peat Burns said:

I may not be answering the correct version of the question, and I don't want to be part of a heated debate, but who wouldn't want an example of the "first fossils", a crytozoic stromatolite?!?  One of my most prized specimens.

Another point to consider:  If it doesn't look like an obvious fossil to a casual collector or layman from half way across the room, I've already lost the negotiation with my wife for display space.  So for me, a stromatolite would end up in the flower garden.

[Wrangellian]

58 minutes ago, Peat Burns said:

If one wants to consider the most iconic fossils?  In my opinion, look no further than the vintage cover of our friend the Golden Guide to Fossils  (brachiopod, horn coral, trilobite, ammonoids.  (Adam, did I just randomly list the brachiopod first? )

 

 

@Wrangellian

 

Yup! That book formulated a lot of my ideas about what the 'classic' fossils are!

 

[Bobby Rico]

Snap 

 

[KimTexan]

17 hours ago, DPS Ammonite said:

I would love to have a reproduction of this Cretaceous rock, the Delk Print, that was supposedly found in Glen Rose, Texas and now on display at a museum there. It would be quite the conversation piece.

 

See: http://paleo.cc/paluxy/delk.htm

 

 

 

Every collection should have a real dinosaur footprint too. However, my memories of the Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose, Texas are much more impressive than owning one print. Everyone should see the park. This paper gives a taste of what your are missing: 

“Dinosaur Tracksites of the Paluxy River Valley (Glen Rose Formation, Lower Cretaceous), Dinosaur Valley State Park, Somervell County, Texas” by Farlow et al.

 

http://paleo.cc/paluxy/Farlow et al 2012 Paluxy River tracksites.pdf

So what is the explanation of those 2 footprints? I’ve heard the piece alluded to, but I’ve never seen it. 

 

The DPS went to visit a track site during Fossilmania this past October. They were better than what you see in the park. They are on private land on top of the bank of the Paluxy. I looked at them and got bored of looking. So while everyone else is still looking at them I’m fossil hunting the area. We couldn’t take anything, but as I’m hunting I come across a vertebra stuck in the rocks a few feet from the tracks. I called over one of the paleontologist then I was suddenly swarmed by a paleo paparazzi wanting to take pics of the vert. Evidently they were bored with the tracks too.

 

The vert was loose enough I could have popped it out, but I left it there. This is the trackway and the vert at the bottom.

[Wrangellian]

Yeah, yeah, of course it's great if a person can hunt their own fossils, and they have more personal value that way, etc. I sense that there are 2 types of fossiler: the hunter and the collector. We all like to hunt, but I'm always perplexed by people who say they don't really value a fossil, just the finding of it. Some of us are also have the collecting gene - we're more acquisitive I guess, and like to build collections, and collections are better if they are representative of something. So, whether or not someone had easy access to collecting sites in their area, if they told me they wanted to start a basic generalist fossil collection and asked for my suggestions as to what should they get... what would I suggest? It would help to break it down somehow (Plan it out).

One way to break it down is by type of preservation... The amber insect is one of these. Compression fossils such as a Green River Fm leaf, silicified coral from anywhere, soft-bodied worm or jellyfish from Mazon Creek, etc.

Another way is by time period - something from the Precambrian (stromatolite, eg. Mary Ellen Mine, Minnesota), Cambrian (Elrathia trilobite), Ordovician (fill in the blank)... etc.

There must be many easy 'classics' that can be acquired to put together a collection representative of the full timescale.

Also by group/phylum. A person could easily think of a classic/easy to get example from most of the groups.

I like the idea someone proposed, that you need something from an extinct group - trilobites, ammonites and dinosaurs! Pretty easy to get one of each (at least a piece of dino bone - not sure how easy it is to get a whole dino bone or tooth). True, nearly all fossils represent some extinct species, but whole groups that are extinct such as the trilos, ammos, dinos, is more interesting. Blastoids too!

[Wrangellian]

16 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Snap

I've got 2 copies of it somehow!

[KimTexan]

14 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

I have to go with this iconic fossil that reminds me of so many images of prehistoric landscapes I pondered over as a kid.

 

Calamites or giant horsetail.

Bobby, I did that as a kid too. We had this old set of encyclopedias when I was a kid. The inside covers each depicted a different prehistoric landscape. My favorite to look at was the Carboniferous forest and the one with pterodactyls. It’s amazing how pictures can inspire a love or fascination that lasts a lifetime.

I have a segment of Calamities tree trunk I found. My piece isn’t that nice though.

Lepidodendrons were my favorite though. My dad gave this to me, but I want to find some of my own.