Your First (Found) Fossil

[Wrangellian]

Wow. Are we still living in the Wild West?

[Wrangellian]

10 hours ago, facehugger said:

I know what you mean, I think I lost a lot of childhood finds as well. But I still have my first major find, from about 30 years ago, and will share it after work. Thanks for sharing your first finds! 

Not only losing things, but abusing them as well... and forgetting where some were found was also a common mistake for me in the early days.

I've told this story before also, but, at that river on one of those early occasions I found a shark tooth, and even tho' it was on a small enough piece of matrix, I decided to try and trim it caveman style (rock against rock) and of course it broke right thru the tooth, shattering it, and I decided it was a loss, and left the pieces there. I was sure p***ed off at my stupidity. It was the first of only 3 shark teeth I've ever found. It's been a long learning process with our local shale up here.

[facehugger]

As a child, I had a grandmother that lived in Austin. So while there were no fossils to be found in my hometown of Houston, it wasn't unusual for me to find small, unremarkable marine fossils when I visited her. These didn't capture my imagination though, so they were usually treated as temporary toys, which were ultimately left behind or discarded. One day the neighbors offered to take me with their son to Lake Travis (I think) for some swimming, and my surrogate guardian agreed. 

 

The water was surprisingly clear that summer day, and my friend supplied me with goggles. Even near shore, I was awed that I could actually make out detail on the bottom, maybe 10 or 12 feet below us. I am a little timid in strange, deep water nowadays (thanks Spielberg) but 10 year old me was fearless, and a strong swimmer. The bottom of the lake seemed a magical place, lit as it was from summer sunbeams languidly dancing over silt-covered rocks and boulders. For years I've kept what I found there close to me. Other possessions came and went, but my treasure from the bottom of the lake remained. Even until I woke up one morning at 4am, nearly 30 years later, and realized I couldn't sleep any more, and didn't really want to, and found myself driving to some strange river in North Texas, five hours away from home. 

 

 

 

[facehugger]

41 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

Not only losing things, but abusing them as well... and forgetting where some were found was also a common mistake for me in the early days.

I've told this story before also, but, at that river on one of those early occasions I found a shark tooth, and even tho' it was on a small enough piece of matrix, I decided to try and trim it caveman style (rock against rock) and of course it broke right thru the tooth, shattering it, and I decided it was a loss, and left the pieces there. I was sure p***ed off at my stupidity. It was the first of only 3 shark teeth I've ever found. It's been a long learning process with our local shale up here.

I think that was the first piece of advice an old salt gave me, was never try prep in the field. I've tried to follow that rule, but have learned the lesson myself even after getting the advice. I located a shrimp in West Texas recently, it was clear as day, but on a big slab. I tried to make it more manageable in size and the shrimp was destroyed. Would have been my first shrimp, too...

[PaleoNoel]

11 hours ago, facehugger said:

Would be thrilled to see it, if you have a pic...

Thanks, I'll post a couple pics when I get back home.

[PaleoNoel]

10 hours ago, aplomado said:

I found some shark's teeth on a school field trip as a child.  I can't remember the location.

I still have them, here they are:

These might be from New Jersey, Monmouth County brooks area if you're from the east coast. If not they might be from post oak creek texas. Then again I have  no idea where you went hunting with your school. Just a hunch off of the color and variety of teeth you have.

[Wrangellian]

1 hour ago, facehugger said:

I think that was the first piece of advice an old salt gave me, was never try prep in the field. I've tried to follow that rule, but have learned the lesson myself even after getting the advice. I located a shrimp in West Texas recently, it was clear as day, but on a big slab. I tried to make it more manageable in size and the shrimp was destroyed. Would have been my first shrimp, too...

Probably everyone has a heartbreaker story and I've told more than one myself (May be a topic about that very thing somewhere, from a while back).

[Peat Burns]

On 2/27/2019 at 8:54 PM, minnbuckeye said:

Back in my childhood days, boys were allowed to be boys. A group of neighborhood friends would gather down by the train tracks daily to decide what mischief we would get into that day. It was winter and we decided to go on a hike up the tracks. About 3 miles into our adventure, we saw steam coming out of a snow bank. Seventh graders are inquisitive and we were no different. The snow was quickly pulled back revealing a small opening into the ground. We were not satisfied with this, so rocks were removed from around this hole in the ground until we were able to slither inside this tunnel. To our amazement, we had discovered an old abandoned mine. Not having any light source, we abandoned our deeper exploration of this cavern until the following weekend. Upon returning to our treasured find, we entered with many flashlights. When examining the rock wall, I could see these tubular structures in the rock. It was hard to extract them to take home but I did find a loose piece of rock that contained a very large tube in it. Over the next few weeks, I painstakingly used a nail to remove the matrix from the fossil. Once freed up, I  took it to school to show the science teacher. I was so proud of my find. The teacher identified it as a crinoid stem and then suggested I leave it with him!!! Being a bit shy, I could not say no, so my prized first fossil of my life was  lost to me forever!! And that is my story! 

 

Mike

Sounds like a story right out of one of Patrick McManus's great books.  I'm going to take a wild guess that you are very familiar with the McManus Anthology...

[Peat Burns]

My childhood fossils are among my most valued possessions.  To my knowledge all have survived to the present day.  They are all beat up, intrinsically "worthless", eroded glacial erratics from Wisconsinan outwash in northern Indiana, but I wouldn't trade them for a T. rex.

 

Here they are.

Items circled in red were found by me between 1978 and 1984. All other items were also acquired during those years.  The horn coral outlined in yellow is the first fossil I ever kept, circa 1978.  Blue comes from two purchases - both were pieces of cardboard with fossils glued on.  One was from the "weekly reader" catalogue, and the other was from the gift shop at the Field Museum in Chicago (also the green river fish, which was not part of the cardboard collection - I took it to show-and-tell, and some kid dropped it and broke it into numerous pieces).  Green are fossils acquired from others.

 

The abundance of horn coral accounts for my affinity for them.  The scruddy nature of the brachiopods explains why I can't stop collecting them now.  I'm compensating for my deprived childhood when I was relegated to  collecting areas rich in depauperate junk.