FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 Hey all, was recently fossil hunting at Calvert cliffs and got lucky enough to come across a huge discard pile about 10 feet in the woods from the parking lot. It was very overwhelming and I don't understand why there would be 50-100 bones of mammals from vertebrates to ribs to various other pieces. They are not pristine quality, although a few vertebrates are pretty nice. So, I was just wondering what is everyone's thoughts. Do people not care about bones like this? Are they just that common and only pristine ones are kept? Did someones girlfriend get mad and toss out there bone collection? I personally have been to several locations where bones can be found and have only found one nice vertebrate and a couple other nice pieces of bones. But to find 50-100 bones with decent vertebrates and others. I would say 5-10% of the bones really fit what I would keep display but I kind of hoard everything somewhere. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Hueso Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 How lucky! I agree with you. I love collecting bones, even if they are recent, non fossilized pieces. I'm green with Envy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 43 minutes ago, El_Hueso said: How lucky! I agree with you. I love collecting bones, even if they are recent, non fossilized pieces. I'm green with Envy I agree! Maybe for people lucky enough to live near a major fossil site just end up having too many bones. Some people just don't feel the need to keep them as they take up space. More for us I guess. Will be posting pictures shortly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Rico Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 If they was stacked in a neat pile they are mine I just left them for a minute to make a pit stop in the woods. Don’t worry just post me the best vertebrates and we call it quits. Great finds Cheers Bobby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 Not the greatest for quality on those pics but just a representation of how much..heres some other pics to give an idea of quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBrewer Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 Nice finds! John Map of UK fossil sites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 One of my Texas buddies had most of his fossil collection smashed up and thrown into a lake by his wife while going through their divorce, so such things can occur. Some folks prove themselves not to be marriage material, with an exclamation point! Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 I guess whoever dumped it there probably already has a good selection of A1 bones and was just making room for the better ones. Maybe he was even thinking of you when he dumped them Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 It may be a situation like they do in Mazon Creek sites where piles of stuff are left for "newbies" and not so successful others to enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randyw Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 That whole pile would have ended up In the back of my truck...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 3 minutes ago, Randyw said: That whole pile would have ended up In the back of my truck...... Yeah I totally get you! I was greedy and took most but left about half for other people. It's harder to take a pile near a parking lot where people can you see, haha. It makes you realize you should be nice and leave some too. 1 hour ago, caldigger said: It may be a situation like they do in Mazon Creek sites where piles of stuff are left for "newbies" and not so successful others to enjoy. Totally possible. If someone lives nearby, they probably have a great collection and figured it would be nice to do. 2 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said: One of my Texas buddies had most of his fossil collection smashed up and thrown into a lake by his wife while going through their divorce, so such things can occur. Some folks prove themselves not to be marriage material, with an exclamation point! Wow, I can never understand how someone could be that ##### to ruin someones hobby and years work. The only case I see is cheating, but wow what an unfortunate thing to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 7, 2019 Author Share Posted August 7, 2019 4 hours ago, JohnBrewer said: Nice finds! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilNerd Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 That is a very nice find! Just think if you had walked 10 feet to one side or the other. Might have missed it. Good job! The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't. -Bill Nye (The Science Guy) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted August 7, 2019 Share Posted August 7, 2019 1 hour ago, caldigger said: It may be a situation like they do in Mazon Creek sites where piles of stuff are left for "newbies" and not so successful others to enjoy. That is what I was going to say Doren. On a couple occasions there were huge piles of open concretions with fossils dumped on the side of the road, I figured it might have come from a family who had a collector who passed and did not want them, but also did not want to throw them away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Kmiecik Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 When I was still out collecting I would frequently leave the ones I wasn't going to keep in an obvious pile somewhere so maybe a beginner could find them and have a decent "first trip". I knew that the more experienced collectors in that area would probably not want to take them home for the same reason I didn't. You don't need to take it home if you already have two dozen that are better. 2 Mark. Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El_Hueso Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 *drool* I think I would loose my mind if I stumbled upon this. Very interesting about people leaving some of the less "perfect" specimens for newbies to find in case they cannot uncover fossils of their own. It's such an awesome way to keep people interested in this hobby and I am sure it must make the younger fossil hunters so happy to go home with one of these pieces! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 4 hours ago, Uncle Siphuncle said: One of my Texas buddies had most of his fossil collection smashed up and thrown into a lake by his wife while going through their divorce, so such things can occur. Some folks prove themselves not to be marriage material, with an exclamation point! Uncle Siphuncle, I heard a similar story a few years ago. A fossil collector was going through a divorce. His wife smashed his display case and then smashed most of the specimens. The people some people marry. Jess 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siteseer Posted August 8, 2019 Share Posted August 8, 2019 9 hours ago, FossilizedJello said: Hey all, was recently fossil hunting at Calvert cliffs and got lucky enough to come across a huge discard pile about 10 feet in the woods from the parking lot. It was very overwhelming and I don't understand why there would be 50-100 bones of mammals from vertebrates to ribs to various other pieces. They are not pristine quality, although a few vertebrates are pretty nice. So, I was just wondering what is everyone's thoughts. Do people not care about bones like this? Are they just that common and only pristine ones are kept? Did someones girlfriend get mad and toss out there bone collection? I personally have been to several locations where bones can be found and have only found one nice vertebrate and a couple other nice pieces of bones. But to find 50-100 bones with decent vertebrates and others. I would say 5-10% of the bones really fit what I would keep display but I kind of hoard everything somewhere. Some people are just not into bones. They are just looking for shark teeth. A friend had some land in the Bakersfield, CA area and he found a lot of fossils there. One of his friends had just finished for the day and my friend offered to give him a few of the dolphin vertebrae he had found because he had plenty. The other guy politely declined the offer. He just wanted to keep the teeth he dug up. Your find does sound like a longtime collector's gift to new kids. Over time, you accumulate so much stuff that you decide to thin out the collection a bit and the first things to go are the partial to nearly-complete bones that were prizes when you found then but are now extras. What do you do with them? You can try selling them at garage sales and start giving them to family and neighbors but you might still be left with a couple of boxes of stuff. At some point you figure, "Hey, I'll just dump the rest of it near where I found it and let someone else have fun finding it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FossilizedJello Posted August 8, 2019 Author Share Posted August 8, 2019 14 hours ago, siteseer said: Some people are just not into bones. They are just looking for shark teeth. A friend had some land in the Bakersfield, CA area and he found a lot of fossils there. One of his friends had just finished for the day and my friend offered to give him a few of the dolphin vertebrae he had found because he had plenty. The other guy politely declined the offer. He just wanted to keep the teeth he dug up. Your find does sound like a longtime collector's gift to new kids. Over time, you accumulate so much stuff that you decide to thin out the collection a bit and the first things to go are the partial to nearly-complete bones that were prizes when you found then but are now extras. What do you do with them? You can try selling them at garage sales and start giving them to family and neighbors but you might still be left with a couple of boxes of stuff. At some point you figure, "Hey, I'll just dump the rest of it near where I found it and let someone else have fun finding it. Well, I guess my dream has been to open up a shop one day and sell rocks/minerals/fossils, however, I think it will ultimately be after I retire or am well off ( not any time soon) and I think I can sell stuff like this cheap for like 3-5 bucks a pop. That way fossil collectors or even regular people who think its cool get a nice mammal vertebrate for real cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sTamprockcoin Posted August 12, 2019 Share Posted August 12, 2019 My parents dumped 5 banana boxes of my fossils into a dumpster when they moved the middle of my freshman year of college. I have also returned buckets of material to a mineral collecting site in a quarry that I've had access to. I did it for the same reasons listed above. I always threw a shovel full of dirt on top just so it wasn't too obvious! “Beautiful is what we see. More beautiful is what we understand. Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.” N. Steno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkdoctor Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 This post made me so happy to read! Back when I used to collect sites like Brownies Beach, I'd throw items I didn't want on the beach entrance or at the edge of the parking lot. Sometimes, I'd throw items that I didn't want in a bucket in my car. Once I got enough, I'd dump that on the beach or near the parking lot. I always wondered who found them.... Another time honored tradition in the Calvert region is to put interesting items you don't want: 1) on fallen trees, 2) and the edges of slumps, 3) in the hands of newbies walking down the beach. That way goodies get claimed to a good home without having to carry them to the parking lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aplomado Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 If you don't want fossils, I think it might be better to leave them in the place you found them... so someone else might have the joy of finding them in their natural setting, rather than in a pile. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted August 19, 2019 Share Posted August 19, 2019 On 8/15/2019 at 6:46 AM, aplomado said: If you don't want fossils, I think it might be better to leave them in the place you found them... so someone else might have the joy of finding them in their natural setting, rather than in a pile. The stages of fossil hunting.... Stage one- keep everything You find. Stage two- keep only the nicer pieces found. Stage three- keep only the best preserved or rare fossils that cross Your path. Stage five- decide there is no more room to store all the material You have found, so You start giving away most of the material found in stage one and two. Makes a lot of kids and stage one collectors happy. Stage six- take the material that You can not find anyone that wants it and place it in a pile for others to find. (Better than making a dump run.) Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoda Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 Wish this would happen to me MotM August 2023 - Eclectic Collector Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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