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Some thoughts and experiences of a newbie dinosaur fossil collector


fossilsonwheels

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Back in November of last year, my son and I decided to start our own education non-profit. We wanted to combine his artwork, my teaching skills, and real fossils to create a museum on wheels that takes fun field trips to the classrooms. We had shark teeth and marine mammal fossils so we started building education programs around those. I am very satisfied where those two programs are at though I would love to expand the number of shark species we can present but that is a story for a different day.

 

We knew we would need to get a dinosaur program going at some point but I know nothing about dinosaur fossils so I did not want to start collecting yet. My plan was to wait until late spring or early summer to start building our collection. A friend gave us two hadrosaur teeth and a Hypselosaurus egg shell piece in December so our program got started earlier than planned. As we do with every decision, my son and I talked about picking up a few bargain dinosaur fossils while we tightened up the other programs which are debuting in March. One of the first things I did was join TFF. I was very intimidated by dinosaur fossils and I hoped this place would help me educate myself.

 

I have been a quiet observer so far and have not engaged very much with the dinosaur experts here. I have read a lot of posts and this has been so incredibly helpful. Utilizing the expertise of the members here has also saved me money and stopped me from making one unwise purchase. I have only picked up a few dinosaur items up to this point but without being on this site, I doubt I would have made any attempt at starting this particular collection so soon. I am very grateful for the forum and its members because a lot of people really want to help. 

 

I quickly learned that our presentation will be centered on the Hell Creek fauna and we can augment it with some African dinosaurs. After a bit of window shopping, it became apparent right away that Jurassic period dinosaurs were simply too expensive for us. There is no way we will be able to purchase any and trades are unlikely as we just do not have much material that would have much trade value. I can live with this though. If we focus on the T-rex/Ceratopsian fauna of Hell Creek we are giving kids species they know plus introducing them to new species which I am totally cool with.

 

We also decided we could talk Triassic dinosaurs with kids using Bull Canyon fossils. Now I am an avid reader here so I am aware that there is some debate about the species that are found in Bull Canyon and how things are labeled by dealers but I did pick some up because we want to teach kids about the evolution of dinosaurs and to give them a few species that have never heard of. I can not be sure if the teeth I have are Coelophysis teeth but we are still going to present them as such to the students because it is an opportunity to get to early dinosaurs. Same goes for a "prosauropod" tooth we purchased. We are not going to sell the fossils so the correct ID is less important to us than being able to at least have a representation of early dinosaurs for the kiddos.

 

Our early efforts were given a huge boost when a member here helped broker a transaction between another member which resulted in us having a very nice partial T-rex and a Nano. This was huge for us. We got the centerpiece species and it was super affordable. I am still in a bit of shock to be honest and incredibly grateful. We also picked up some inexpensive Hell Creek Triceratops teeth. I found a nice Saurornitholestes from Judith River which gives us a "raptor" fossil for the kids. I got an inexpensive Moroccan sauropod tooth which gives us a "long neck" that we can use. It is really not a bad start in my eyes. We picked some species that we really wanted to include. We also have begun to find some teeth that kids can handle in the form of partial or shed Ceratopsian teeth and inexpensive Spinosaurus teeth from Morocco.

 

I only made one questionable decision. I did not use TFF and ended up misidentifying a tooth. This led us to having two Richardoesstesia gilmorei teeth. We really did not need two fossils from this species but it was a learning experience. I learned that I need keep studying, learning and using the forum. Had I put it here first, instead of testing my own skills, I would not have picked it up . I would have filled another need in the program. Lesson learned and the upside is that I do have a dinosaur fossil I can possibly trade. It is not much for trade I am sure, but maybe I can use it to get a fossil that fills a hole in the program. 

 

The most important thing I have learned so far is that I really enjoy collecting dinosaur fossils. I am hooked. I was never a dinosaur kid myself. I preferred sharks and whales but I am really captivated by dinosaurs now. I have been cramming my brain with scientific information about dinosaurs and my son is really enjoying getting a start on his dino artwork. We have a long way to go before we are ready to unleash our budding dino education program. I have a long way to go with my own knowledge too. I do know it will be a lot of fun to learn and I am looking forward to getting more interactive with the dinosaur collectors here.

 

We have settled on the next round of dinosaurs to add (Acheroraptor, Ankylosaur, Pachycephalosaurus, a Troodontid, plus more Ceratopsian material) and they seem attainable so I am excited to get to work on those in the near future. I also learned there are species from the Hell Creek formation that are awesome but we will never have due to price or rarity lol Dakotaraptor is #1 on that list but the avian dinosaurs are not far behind.

 

All things considered, I am super happy with our tiny dinosaur collection and I am really enjoying the hunt for more !!

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for Sharing this with us. Good luck with everything. I hope you will update us from time to time as things progress.

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I like Trilo-butts and I cannot lie.

 

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  • Fossildude19 changed the title to Some thoughts and experiences of a newbie dinosaur fossil collector

Rather great thing to be doing. 

You've made a pretty good start and I wish you well in your future ventures and additions to the collection.:)

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

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Great to hear! I started my own traveling education program myself! It's super fun and rewarding! Best of luck on your continued dinosaur expansions!

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17 hours ago, ynot said:

Sounds like a cool project.

Good luck with the endeavor.

Thank you ! It is really fun and we will be bringing some pretty cool stuff in to the classrooms.

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17 hours ago, Darktooth said:

Thanks for Sharing this with us. Good luck with everything. I hope you will update us from time to time as things progress.

Thank you. We are getting so much help, shared knowledge and encouragement from the members here that we will update our progress frequently.

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15 hours ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Rather great thing to be doing. 

You've made a pretty good start and I wish you well in your future ventures and additions to the collection.:)

Thank you very much. My son and I are both really enjoying this and we are pretty proud of this venture !

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14 hours ago, Captcrunch227 said:

Great to hear! I started my own traveling education program myself! It's super fun and rewarding! Best of luck on your continued dinosaur expansions!

Thank you and may I offer my best of luck to you on your education program. I look forward to comparing notes with you !!

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4 hours ago, CBchiefski said:

Great to see your efforts @fossilsonwheels, it is always wonderful to use dinosaurs as a means to interest kids in science and the world beyond.

Thank you very much !! The kids are going to like all the fossils but dinosaurs seem to capture there attention in a different way. It will be so much fun.

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@fossilsonwheels I've just checked out the details in your other posts about your project. Looks like a very good resource for kids. Lots of nice teeth, but it sure would be nice to also see some of your son's art work here in the forum.

 

Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger

http://www.steinkern.de/

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2 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

@fossilsonwheels I've just checked out the details in your other posts about your project. Looks like a very good resource for kids. Lots of nice teeth, but it sure would be nice to also see some of your son's art work here in the forum.

If he would get off his lazy butt I could show some of his art lol Carter is still 4 months away from graduating High School so his time is limited. We were not supposed to start doing presentations until the fall as he has all summer to work on his art but I wanted to start early so we will not have a ton of art to start.

 

I will post his sketch of Orthacanthus picture tomorrow and update the progress as he goes. He is working on a dinosaur in addition to the sharks. He is doing a "Chunkasaurus" lol He jumped at the chance to create a dinosaur that never existed. 

 

Here is the first Scapanorhynchus he did or at least a copy of it. He gave the original to his grandparents because he is awesome like that. It was used at the museum we both work at too. There are bearded fish in there as well. He is really talented and I am so happy to help get him a start as a professional artist before he is done with high school

 

 

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3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Thanks for the taste of things to come. Looks good!

Thank you. The picture does not do it justice.

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An Update- We filled a major hole in the Hell Creek fauna part of the Dinosaur collection. Acheroraptor was one species that I had really done homework on in preparation of getting one so I felt good about the ID and the seller provided good pictures that showed diagnostic traits.  I figured if I had put here for ID , somebody else would have jumped on the auction and beat me to it. I had a 1 minute long meeting with my son who trusted the ID and thought it a great pick up so we got it. We also paid less than I had expected to for one of these which is just a huge bonus.

 

 

 

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On 2/5/2019 at 8:48 PM, fossilsonwheels said:

Thank you very much !! The kids are going to like all the fossils but dinosaurs seem to capture there attention in a different way. It will be so much fun.

Indeed, I love the spark in a kid's eye when they become captivated by dinosaurs. It is a blast, personally few aspects of science compare to the joy which comes from teaching kids about previous life on earth. Nice to see you are also making headway on expanding your traveling collection.

 

 

 

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My recommendation would be to start off with Moroccan fossils. They are readily available and much cheaper than US fossils. Plus you can cover almost everything right away. Dinosaurs both theropod and sauropod, marine reptiles and flying reptiles. There are so many species available from Morocco and they are so cheap that it should take you no time whatsoever to have a very impressive collection. Having said all that, don't jump in too fast. There is also a lot of junk out there, don't buy that. Come to the forum if you're not sure. It shouldn't be too hard though to find some really nice specimens for not much money.

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6 hours ago, Dracorex_hogwartsia said:

My recommendation would be to start off with Moroccan fossils. They are readily available and much cheaper than US fossils. Plus you can cover almost everything right away. Dinosaurs both theropod and sauropod, marine reptiles and flying reptiles. There are so many species available from Morocco and they are so cheap that it should take you no time whatsoever to have a very impressive collection. Having said all that, don't jump in too fast. There is also a lot of junk out there, don't buy that. Come to the forum if you're not sure. It shouldn't be too hard though to find some really nice specimens for not much money.

Thank you for the advice. We did pick up a Moroccan theropod tooth and a sauropod tooth. We will pick up some Spinosaur teeth in the very near future. I have been studying posts on TFF about Moroccan fossils, particularly the Spinosaur stuff, which have proven to be extremely helpful. My plan is to pick up one nice for presentations and some lots of the small, low quality ones. Those are perfect fossils for the kids to handle and examine.

I have had some luck with North American Dinosaur fossils. We have a picked up a few nice items from Hell Creek and Judith River that were pretty good bargains. I think we can cover a really nice variety of dinosaurs and have some fossils that the kids can handle.

I will give a lot of credit to the TFF members who have put a lot of time into providing great information for collectors. We have gotten some great help with ID, been able to purchase a significant piece for our collection, found a trade partner, and gotten fantastic information plus a lot of encouragement from far more experienced collectors.

 

Again my advice to fellow newbies is let the collectors here help you and pay attention to the great information ! Thanks again for the advice

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It sounds like you have this well under control. Good luck in your endeavor. You're doing a really great thing. 

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This is an amazing and meaningful project. I am sure all the kids would be ecstatic to attend your talks.

 

Are there any particular dinosaur teeth you are still seeking?

Looking forward to meeting my fellow Singaporean collectors! Do PM me if you are a Singaporean, or an overseas fossil-collector coming here for a holiday!

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2 hours ago, Dracorex_hogwartsia said:

It sounds like you have this well under control. Good luck in your endeavor. You're doing a really great thing. 

Thank you !

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2 hours ago, -Andy- said:

This is an amazing and meaningful project. I am sure all the kids would be ecstatic to attend your talks.

 

Are there any particular dinosaur teeth you are still seeking?

Thank you very much for the compliment. Oh yes there are plenty of teeth that I would like to acquire. We are not doing dinos until the fall and I would like to get to 20 dinosaurs by the time we start. I think we are around 14-15 right now. The ones we will add for sure are...

Ankylosaur tooth is #1 on our list of attainable dinosaurs. I want to do an armored dinosaur. It is iconic and kids will love seeing a fossil from one I think.

Spinosaur is one we will add for sure but just have not yet.

Thescelosaurus is another fairly common one we will add at some point

 

The only other teeth I see us adding before fall for sure are additional ceratopsian, edomontosaurus, and moroccan sauropod teeth. We would like to have some teeth for kids to examine and those seem the most affordable options besides moroccan spinosaurs. There are some that we want to add but are not in our budget range (Troodon, Dakatoraptor, anything from the Morrison formation) but that is a good motivation to increase the budget. We are also still learning about dinos ourselves so we will probably find one or two that end up being affordable and fun to present. We will add a marine reptile and pterosaur as well. We do want to cover the non-dinosaur giant reptiles too.

 

We are open to suggestions too. Maybe that will be a good post here lol

 

 

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