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Dear TFF Members, It’s a bit late after my return, but I needed to wait for the delivery of my spoils by mail, which took a while :). Nevertheless, all the fossils are safely with me now, and I can share this report from the trip to Albania with you. I chose Albania (with a brief visit to Macedonia) as the next destination because it has everything a perfect holiday destination should have, namely: mountains castles lakes seas (Adriatic and Ionian) – btw, the name of the Albanian Riviera is well deserved lagoons with pretty birds canyons and quite a few interesting sites to visit, both from the ancient times, like Butrint to the bunkers from the communist times in Tirana.
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Hi everyone, A family friend asked me for advice on where to take their kids (around the DC area) who are into marine biology for some fossil hunting fun. I immediately thought of Calvert Cliffs since that’s the location that I went to the most as a kid. I always went to the state park even though it had limited success at times. I figured it’s a great place for kids, there’s a beach, a solid chance at finding some teeth, and not too much difficulty or danger. However, I am asking if anyone here has any advice or updates on how the state park beach or Flag Ponds is doing. Are the yields acceptable (for kids), is the water quality alright (bacteria, jellyfish), are there any other issues to be aware of? I haven’t been in years, I’m sure it’s changed very much. If you have any other suggestions for suitable locations for kids in the DMV (DC, MD, VA), I’m all ears. I already provided them with a few others, such as dinosaur park. I am trying to balance decent fossil yield with safety and family-friendly-ness (for example, flag ponds still has a decent beach to enjoy if fossil hunting isn’t working out) which is quite challenging.
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A few finds from this weekend. Fortunate enough to have a cottage on Lake Erie, fairly close to Rock Point Provincial Park which is known for it's exposed fossils of a 350 million year old coral reef. About half were found on the beach itself and the other half in the crushed gravel part of the driveway. I'd imagine the beach will keep yielding new finds after every storm, here is hoping for it anyway.
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I’m making a trip down the coastline of North and South Carolina; from Topsail Beach to Charleston. I know there sites in Charleston for basilosaurus fossils, but I’m curious if anyone knew hidden gems of the Carolina coastline
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How to start fossil hunting in the Balkans (Greece, Albania, Bulgaria etc.)
Kostas Pratis posted a topic in Questions & Answers
Hello to everyone! I'm a chemical engineering student in Greece who has paleontology and geology as a hobby. I see a lot of people abroad finding fossils and studying actual samples and I am looking for a way to start on my own someday. What is the best way to start? What are key fossil sites in the Balkans? Are there cases where it is ethical to take fossils for personal interest? In Greece where I live (specifically Athens) there are Penteli and Pikermi with known fossil sites. Additionally, fossils have been found in several islands of the Aegean Pelagos. I have zero knowledge of fossil sites in other countries. As far as ethics are concerned, I believe someone acquiring a fossil should communicate with a university that can collect data and improve its knowledge. A person on their own cannot easily conduct research, not only because of the tools and machines that might be needed but also because they don't have complete knowledge of the fossil record. Also, keeping a fossil for decoration should be done, in my opinion, if the fossil isn't needed to improve the fossil record or if the collector can keep the fossil after research goals have been achieved. I don't want to expand a lot on the subject. I'd love to hear other opinions on the subject and learn about finding fossils. -
Hey all! My name is Ian and I'm excited to be part of this community! My friends and I are organising a trip to the isle of skye and we're headed on our first fossil hunting trip. We're looking for advice on what to bring, what to look out for and if there are local guides in the area that can show us around
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I’m about to head out. I should be there in about 90 minutes. This should be a good trip because it’s the very beginning of the fossil hunting season in this area., there have been a number of snows and thaws during the winter, very few people have probably picked over what’s been exposed over the winter yet, not too much weedy overgrowth, and the weather in the mid 60s, can’t get much better than that
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I had my best hunt of the year Saturday, it was incredible. I guess you could say I was…petrified. Sadly, my phone died after getting stuck in a reboot loop (thanks iPhone 10) so it’s now extinct. Oh and I finally found a dinosaur! It’s on top of an ammonite. 🤣 25 complete ammonites a few partials! I also found a 21-inch long chunk of pet wood and a colorful smaller chunk. I then found 11 ammonites today to start the new year right. My back is still sore and feet tingling after treading through creeks where shallower areas were actually frozen..lol! Tarrant and Dallas County locations. 2 were in partially exposed concretions. One of those is placenticeras or engonoceras? sorry about the blurry pic, I’m using another old phone I have that has a camera that only works when it’s on 2x, so I’m having to adjust to taking pics with it.
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Advice for preparing workshop materials for fossil hunters
NickG posted a topic in Questions & Answers
This is an unusual question but I am putting together a little workshop on regional fossils, such as showing examples of common fossils and how to identify them. I would like to prepare some handouts to help my attendees in their fossil hunting. Some things I thought about- 1. Handout with the state geologic map and timescales. 2. A list of fossil hunting spots in the area which are still viable from Jasper Burns' "Fossil Hunting in the Mid Atlantic" along with some good fossil hunting sites that I am open to sharing. 3. Some public domain or CC licensed images of common fossils to the area to aid identification (including partially preserved examples where possible). 4. A list of tools and ethics in field collecting/fossil hunting. 5. A short bibliography of fossil hunting related resources in print and on the web related to the area. I then planned to make a library guide online with all of these resources also available as a PDF. Is there anything else that would be very useful? Has anyone attended similar workshops and there were things that especially stood out for them as good or bad? -
Hello everyone. I'm making this post to show my recent trip to Central New York and what I found. I would also really appreciate advice on better techniques and further identification. I started the trip by entering Tully, NY. I had heard there was a good site behind the hotel, right next to the exit. Unfortunately, the large exposed rock face was now marked with do not trespass signs. I decided to drive around the old quarry there and eventually found a random pile of rocks that I assumed were from the quarry to dig through. In there, I found the first two fossils. Two pieces of Crinoid stem and a nice little Brachiopod. (Photo 1). Then, after doing a bit of research, I decided to head to Madison County. In Madison, I found an old quarry on Brigs Road. The quarry was divided into two tiers, and the top seemed to have a lot more fossils. After sifting through some of the rubble, I found a Trilobite section (photo 2) and a Trilobite imprint (photo 3). At the base, I also found several Brachiopods (photos 4–6). Most interesting, though, I believe is (photo 7), which appears to be a Crinoid feather segment, which are considerably harder to find than their stems. Finally I went down a ways to the Deep Springs Road quarry. This one had three tiers but I decided to focus on the top one. I dug in two areas. one halfway up the top tier and the other at the very top. Both proved very productive in trilobite sections. From this site, I recovered (photos 8-10). Unfortunately, no complete Trilobite was found. Interestingly, photo 8 had very fine preservation of the eye and intricate detail can be made out. Overall, this was a great trip and I found some interesting stuff, especially since I had rather limited tools, using only a hammer. The main take aways are the high abundance of Trilobites in deep springs and the dense Brachiopod death layers in Brigs. I'll have to come back with better equipment to further investigate. Photo 1: Photo 2: Photo 3: Photo 4: Photo 5: Photo 6: Photo 7: Photo 8: Photo 9: Photo 10: Briggs Road:
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Today was my first chance to get a couple of hours outside since we had a heavy rain. I went to a favorite local creek and walked the exact same paths I took a few weeks ago, but with the algae getting washed away and more erosion, I had my hands full. My 3rd shoe clam since I started hunting less than a year ago, my biggest holaster, and some nice mortoniceras ammonites. I believe the formation is Fort Worth formation but it may be Grayson/duck creek, it’s all close by. Johnson county, TX
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Hello everybody, Just a quick introduction of myself. My name is Max and I am currently in my third years of my Bsc in earth science. My home university is the university of Bordeaux in France and right now I'm studying in Bergen Norway for one semester. Now to my initial question (I hope that is the right place to post). Does anybody know some great places for fossil hunting in Bergen Norway or in the Eifel/Hunsrück area in Germany? I know that in Bergen there are not that many fossils. In the Eifel region of Germany I was hoping somebody might know a spot to search for trilobites, ... I couldn't find any information about good spots in the internet.
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Hey there, It‘s my first post in this Forum, so it‘s time to say hello. My name is Philipp, born in Germany/Saxony. I grew up in the Erzgebirge and was surrounded and fascinated by mines and minerals when i grew up. On my current travel through Europe and Morocco the passion for Minerals and Fossils flamed up again. It’s hard for me not to think every moment about where I‘m going fossil/mineral hunting again so i don‘t annoy my girlfriend tooooo much ;) I’m currently in Morocco for a 3 Month trip to search for fossils and minerals. I was reading about the Mosasaur teeth in the Oil Shale Deposits near Bakrit/Timahdite and about some members visiting this area. I was wondering if someone can give me some locations where these teeth can be found. Looking forward to your answers Philipp
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Satellite imagery could improve fossil-hunting at remote sites
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Satellite imagery could improve fossil-hunting at remote sites New Research Finds Satellite Imagery Could Improve Fossil-Hunting at Remote Sites University of Oregon, News-Wise The open access paper is: Ghezzo, E., Massironi, M. and Davis, E.B., 2023. Multispectral satellite imaging improves detection of large individual fossils. Geological Magazine, 160(3), pp.535-544. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/geological-magazine/article/multispectral-satellite-imaging-improves-detection-of-large-individual-fossils/DF01356EE667D096C238E09AF7840C10 Yours, Paul H.- 2 replies
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What does everyone carry their fossils in while hunting?
Newbie_1971 posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
Just curious what everyone uses to carry their new found fossils while hunting. -
Ammonites, echinoids, and an oyster from Fort Worth formation
Shaun-DFW Fossils posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Since we had a little rain for the first time in months in Tarrant and Johnson counties in Texas, I’ve been revisiting my usual spots to see what’s new. In this case, I went a bit deeper into unexplored areas of a local creek bed. I was not disappointed! I’m not an expert on identification, so some of you can help me learn, but mostly I found mortoniceras ammonites and a few nice sized macraster echinoids. I’m just now learning how to professionally clean them up thanks to a very kind friend named Mercer, so that’s the next step with this group of ammos. Probably my best *quality* haul since I started hunting late 2022. The single photo is the ammonite on the lower right of the zoomed out group photo, for size comparison. The top left specimen is a huge oyster.
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Hello! I live in Vancover, Canada and I have no expierence in fossil hunting and has not found ANY fossil in my life. Maybe since almost ALL of you has found AT LEAST 1 fossil, maybe can you help me on fossil hunting location at Vancover? Thank you!
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Britain’s elite fossil hunters on their finds of a lifetime
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Britain’s elite fossil hunters on their finds of a lifetime Country Life, United Kingdom, September 18, 2023 Yorus, Paul H.- 2 replies
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Fossils: Boy finds 200-million-year-old ammonite on beach at Vale of Glamorgan, United Kingdom
Oxytropidoceras posted a topic in Fossil News
Fossils: Boy finds 200-million-year-old ammonite on beach By David Grundy, BBC News, United Kingdpm, March 30, 2023 Yours, Paul H.- 1 reply
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Hello all, I apologies in advance as I do not have any experience with geology (although I have family members who are geologists), nor I have I ever been fossil hunting before. I am interested in paleobiology but I’m only an art student so forgive me. Some context; I live in northwestern British Columbia on the intermontane belt. I was wading in the river near my town and came across this stone under the water. I was wondering if this is in fact just a stone or if it could be something more? The fossils I know to have been found in my area are mostly invertebrates like ammonites and bivalves as well as a lot of plant matter. This looked very similar to a fossilized lobster my friend has and that got me curious. *First two images are of what I found, last one is the type of fossil I’m used to in my area.
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First fossil hunting experience - Quick trip to the Kromer quarry near Holzmaden (Germany)
Maxaurus posted a topic in Fossil Hunting Trips
Hi, as me and a friend visited some other friends of us in Bavaria this week, we went to the Kromer quarry near Holzmaden (Germany) which was on the way. It was my/our first fossil hunting trip. Unfortunately we haven't much time, we were only there for 2 hours but since the weather was horrible the last weeks and we were already close we wanted to take the chance. When we arrived at the quarry we already saw more than 20 cars parking there. I wasnt sure if they all go for a walk or something.. no - they all go the Kromer quarry hunting fossils. Wow! Almost 60 people were here - I really didn't expect that. The first hour we worked on larger plates on a plateau, they split much easier but the layers weren't that fossil-rich. The second hour we went to a different location...there we splitted some smaller plates, sometimes they broke but we found some good layers with a lot of ammonites. We mainly found Dactylioceras ammonites and also some clam shells(?), see below some fotos. I really like that these gold shimmering ammonites look very noble in their natural matrix. It turned out, that I am very unlucky that day.. when I splitted some plates the ammonites have always been in the area where I put the chisel. But hey, everyone has their strengths. As we are beginners we were fascinated by our finds. For me it's not only about the quality of the fossil, it is also impressive to be the first one to ever see that fossil after such a long time and it is much more special finding fossils on your own instead of buying a fossil of probably higher quality. However for our next trip we need much more time but that was a good first impression. We already plan another trip to the Kromer quarry and also to the Mühlheim quarry near Solnhofen (Germany) in September or maybe October when the Munich Fossil show takes place. Have a nice day. Max
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Hi I’m going up to Nebraska soon and was wondering where you can go and hunt for Pleistocene fossils near lake mcconaughy, or if lake mcconaughy has any fossils? Thanks -Daniel
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There are road trips and then there are road trips. I've planned many a family vacation without a single mistake. Sometimes we hit a hitch if the plane gets rerouted due to weather or something. As much as I love Chicago, I avoid it not because strange things happen when we get too close. (I'm a little concerned about what tomorrow may bring as we pass close by.) But, it was never due to my poor planning. The last two weeks have been crazy! I had it all planned out around being in the Black Hills on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Five days out from approximately Philadelphia, five days in South Dakota, and five days home with a day to sleep off the trip before Rick went back to work. I checked the itinerary twice. I asked my hubby, Rick, to double check it. We hit the road. The first few days went as planned. If this is Saturday, this must be Ohio kind of things. We spent the night in a castle and fossil hunted at a dam spillway in Ohio. We looked for more fossils along a waterfall in Indiana. We spent the night in a wacky, artic themed hotel room in Illinois. We visited a cave in Minnesota and looked for more fossils. We camped out in Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and looked for gemstones. It was all going swimmingly. The first goof was missing lodging for a night in South Dakota. No biggie. we'll just find a place for the night, although if I had figured it out, I would have opted to sleep under the stars in the free campground at the national park for an extra day. At least we had a nice shower. It also gave us extra time to admire the geology of Spearfish Canyon, complete with a run down the natural waterslide at "Devil's Bathtub." Two days later, we got to the field station for our Hell Creek dinosaur hunt, the whole reason for the trip. We got there 15 minutes early… and waited. Eventually we realized that people should be there by now and checked the reservations. It wasn’t Monday and Tuesday, it was Tuesday and Wednesday. Oops. This means that everything for the rest of the trip is now off by a day and the lodging for this leg of the trip dries up a night earlier than we need it. We decided to camp out in the Spearfish municipal campground the last night in SD. I rested a continuing migraine and Rick sat down to Google Maps and Expedia to figure out the rest of the trip. The Hell Creek Hunt was freaking awesome and will get its own trip report, but the highlights included unearthing a big fossil log along wit a triceratops tooth, a champsasaurus tooth, a 66-million-year-old turtle toe bone, and a rather large log that will probably take years to fully excavate. The next big thing on the agenda was hunting with a fellow fossil buff I’d met on The Fossil Forum. He lives on the Iowa/ Minnesota border. Somehow, when was copying and pasting Google maps told me that I needed to go to Indiana, not Minnesota. Well, that puts a monkey wrench in things! We rerouted everything and I sent my fossil friend a message about the change in plans. Then I forgot to hit send. I wondered for two days why he did not reply. Finally he asked if I was still coming. I said yes, we’d be out his way tomorrow; that we were on our way to DesMoines, a few hours away. Well, It IS a few hours away, but we were already EAST of him and had no buffer time before Rick had to be back to work on August 1st. So, this is the one thing we just had to skip. BOO! Crossing my fingers for our next trip west, @minnbuckeye SO, now we are playing the next few days by ear as we hop from DesMoines to somewhere to Cleveland and then home. Do I dare to try Mazon Creek in the heat of summer with a million ticks? Brave my Chicago jinx? Find crazy roadside attractions and just stop as we see signs? Only tomorrow will tell. Regardless, we’re having a ball. The roof rack on our minivan is loaded with fossils and pretty rocks. We got loads of sunshine. We have stories to tell. It’s all good.
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Found at the famous Caesar Creek spillway, which exposes the Liberty and Whitewater formations. Thinking Grewingkia canadensis for the horn coral. The brachiopod is not a spiriferid, and is too round for Vinlandostrophia. Four ridges (pictured) suggest Lepidocyclus perlamellosa/Hiscobeccus capax for the calcified brachiopod. And ideas what the circled encrusting bryozoan may be (circled red)? It is not patterned like Escharopora falsiformis--the zooids cells have no pattern, more like Aspidopora sp. Feel free to contest my identification; I am always looking to improve. What are your thoughts?
