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  1. Darktooth

    New York Eurypterids

    Hello, fossil fanatics! It has been awhile since I have done a trip report. This past Summer was extremely hot and busy for me. Due to this I haven't gotten out much until a couple weeks ago. On August 24, my friend @Buffalopterus and I decided to go on a hunt. We started off at a site which had no shade, but full sun. We roasted to nearly being overcome with heat exhaustion. Because of this, and not having much luck in finding anything, we decided to take a break and rethink our plan. I would like to mention that @Buffalopterus (Stephen) had suffered heat exhaustion a few weeks prior while out hunting. An ambulance had to be called and he went to the hospital. Just a cautionary tale, as a reminder of things that can happen in the field. After getting lunch and sitting in the air conditioning of my truck we formulated a new plan to go to a different site for Devonian fossils where we may get some shaded area if we needed it. As we were on our way, we came to an intersection which Stephen recognized was only about a mile and a half from a Eurypterid site so we decided to go there instead. We were both still hot and weak but the lure of fossils was strong. When we got there we found a spot that looked promising and I was able to removed a couple slabs. I was shocked when I flipped one over and saw the outline of my first Eurypterid! Unfortunately the preservation is not the greatest as the Eurypterid was in a ud filled crack. The positive side has a crusty coating which the Eurypterid blends in with and is hard to see. The negative was also in the mud but did not have the crusty coating on it. Unfortunately when I tried to remove it it broke it half and one side broke into a bunch of pieces. It is really a shame as the positive half shows the appendages but the preservation is just bad. Anyways I was still excited and dug some more after another couple slabs came another Eurypterid in the crusty layer. This had the head and body, but yet again the preservation horrible. The Eurypterid itself crumbled apart by the time I got home and left me with just the negative. Stephen and I were both excited to find those despite the condition, but we were exhausted and decided to call it quits but we knew we were on to something good and knew we had to get back there A.S.A.P. To be continued................. I apologize but these do not photograph well.
  2. Darktooth

    Devonian Dig 7/7/2024

    I was able to get out for a hunt today with my friend Stephen spent about 8hours dealing with the heat and bugs. We found plenty of fossils including brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods, and Dipluera parts and pieces. We were digging in a highly weathered and fractured area and I found the highlight of the day. A weathered and somewhat beat up Dipluera. Not complete but I'm cool with that. Measures at 5 7/16 inches.
  3. Today I met up with some forum members for a group hunt in the Middle Devonian of Central New York. Members @Fossildude19 , his Son Aidan,@Jeffrey P, @Easwiecki, plus five of his friends, as well as @Bjohn170 and his girlfriend Amy. I think i can safely say we all had a very nice day. There were plenty of fossils, good people, and the weather was ok.ok. I was the first one to arrive, bright and early at 7am and i had a couple hoursbefore the others started pouring in. It was Bjohn170's first time doing this type of digging but he and Amy did great finding trilobites. I think they found more then anybody else. Today was a little bit of everything. Trilo's, gastro's, brach's, bivalves, cephalopod, etc... I myself found a few mostly complete Greenops sp. One was the most complete one I have ever found, and nice preservation. I am hoping that everyone who participated in todays hunt will, when they have time, respond and possibly post their finds. I will post my trilos and a few other things but I will start by posting a pic of Bjohn170 (Bryce), with his first ever Trilobite. It was the only pic I took on-site. By the way everyone,please wish Fossildude19 (Tim) Happy Birthday!
  4. Today was a totally awesome day for fossilhunting here in Central New York! The weather was great for March and I had great company. And I haven't even mentioned the fossils yet. I had made plans to get out on a Devonian dig with my friends Stephen( @Buffalopterus ), Trevor, and Gary. I got to the site around 8am and was delighted that it was nice and Sunny. I was surprised when another car showed up and it turned out to be Eric, ( I can't remember forum name). The other guys showed up around 10, followed by Eric's friend Cassie. I really enjoyed everyone's company we all were joking around and laughing the entire day. As the sun got higher it kept getting warmer. And it seemed that everyone was finding stuff. Trilobites were very abundant today. Everyone found multiples I think 5 mostly complete Dipluera's were found today even though they were all small. I lost track of how many Greenops were found, but it was alot, and there were a couple Eldredgeops in the mix. I will say the the Greenops that were found by Trevor were the biggest and nicest ones that I have ever seen from there. He probably found the most Trilos out of everyone today. Lots of nice Brachs, Bivalves, and Gastros, as well. Just a great day all around. Here are my finds. And yes I got another Dipluera!
  5. Darktooth

    Devonian Dig 4/7/2024

    Today I was supposed to go Fossilhunting in the Silurian Rochester Shale, but plans got changed. All of the people I was supposed to go with came down with one of the many illnesses going around CNY. One of my friends, Tim, was going to my favorite Devonian site so I decided to go with him. My friend Tim is also a member of my local club and I have known him about 20 years. We met up at one of the thruway exits and he followed me to the site. The day was great, without a cloud in the sky. It was still a bit chilly until the sun got higher. Eventually i was able to take my long-sleeved shirts off and put on my t-shirt. Another club member named Sue, who lives only about 5 minutes from the site showed up unexpectedly after about an hour or so. So the 3 of us chatted it up for a couple hours. The finds were pretty typical of the site and many of the usual suspects showed up. I was very happy to find a complete Eldredgeops roller, which has a disarticulated pygidium, right of the bat. I was even more happy when just a short time later I found another Dipluera which looks so similar to the one I found last week. It was partially covered exactly like last week's that at first I thought it was the negative of that one. After a closer look I realized it was a different one all together. I also found a couple Greenops, that might turn out ok as well. All in all it was another great day with good company. I am really liking how 2024 is turning out for me fossil wise and I hope this streak continues. I hope everyone is doing well.
  6. 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.
  7. Today, I went on a quick early morning fossilhunt. I have been anxious to get out hunting, any chance I can considering how mild winter has been so far. I decided it would be best to start today with little, to no expectations and just see what the day would bring. At about 3:30am I woke up to use the bathroom and when I played back down all I could do was toss and turn. So I did that until about 5:15 and I finally got up. Got to the hunting grounds about 7am, just as the sun was making it's presence known. Unfortunately it was only 20° at the site. There was some snow covering the site as well as ice. Obviously this made digging and splitting slabs a real chore. So much so the there wasn't a whole lot I could do. I was hoping that with the sun out maybe it would eventually warm things up enough to make digging a little easier. So for the first 2 hours i kinda putzed around surface scanning and flipping slabs over, looking for something worthwhile. Eventually I started trying to remove slabs. I was actually starting to make a bit of progress, but then the ground got hard again. While trying to remove the slabs, I picked up a small chunk of matrix that fell off. As I inspected the piece carefully I noticed a small Dipluera pygidium and partial thorax exposed on the very edge of the break. I could tell that the rest of it was underneath some matrix. I would of normally been static but the area where the Dipleura was sitting was pretty fractured and I didn't really think I was going to be able to extract it without the whole thing crumbling apart. But I put it in the truck and decided to give it a shot when I got back home. Other then that I only brought home a bivalve and a brachiopod. There really wasn't anything else worth keeping. When I got home I inspected the trilo very carefully and looked at every fracture going around it, I started breaking off small bits of matrix till it got to the point where all that was left was the portion covering the front half of the trilo. I took my angle grinder and made a notch. Then I took a screwdriver, twisted and popped off the top! That is when I got very excited! Now I have found Dipleuras smaller then this one, but this is the smallest one the I have found in this good of condition. It measures at 1 7/16 of an inch. Totally made the trip worth it! Here is before and after pics.
  8. Today I was fortunate enough to get back out on another fossilhunt. Even though I went to bed later then I wanted about 3:50 am I woke up and tossed and turned for the next hour. I was very excited to get back to the site after last week's fun. So I ended up leaving a bit earlier than originally planned. I stopped to get myself a breakfast sandwich and when I got back in my car, a feeling washed over me that today I was going to be lucky. Of course I feel that way everytime I go hunting, but it doesn't always happen. The ride was dark and foggy. This time of year you really have to pay attention to the deer population. We have many in New York and it is now hunting season. So they are very active between sunset till sunrise. Surprisingly I didn't see many on the way there, but just missed a small one that ran in front of my car on the way home. I arrived at 7 am as it was just starting to get light. But between the fog and clouds it was rather gloomy. It started sprinkling but I read the weather report so I was prepared. I was glad to find the area just the way I left it last week. I wanted to work the same spot, but just go deeper. Things started off kind of slow. With the exception of a decent Dipluera cephalon all I was finding was many of the common smaller Brachiopods and Bivalves. But then it happened! I was lifting up a rather big slab, when I flipped over had half of the negative from a Dipluera. The positive was under a bunch of muddy water due to the rain, so I couldn't even see it. It took me awhile to get the water to drain so I could see what I was working with. Once the water was gone I see the back end of the trilo. I could tell that the front half was still attached to the piece I pulled of the top. Even though it was broke I was excited. I figured if I could get both halves, the trilo could be glued back and prepped. Unfortunately when I tried to remove the bottom portion the trilo broke into a bunch of pieces. I tried to not let this ruin my day. I have done this long enough to know that when you find a decent Dipluera there are usually others close by. So I continued working on removing slabs. I don't think more the 10 -15 minutes went by maybe 3 or 4 pieces of rock, when it happened again! I lifted up a slab, flipped it over and there was a complete negative of a Dipluera! I looked down and in the back corner of where I was digging was the positive! My heart was pounding! Now if I could just remove it without it falling apart like the first one. And I needed to move quick before the rainwater started to accumulate to much around the trilo. After a few minutes of careful extraction: success! I came out unbroken! This really meant alot to me today. Most of those who know me know that I have found alot of these over the years. I have either sold, traded, or given away as gifts all that I found. So it is nice to be able to have one in my collection again. After I pulled out this Dipluera there was also a Greenops laying in the same general area. After removing that I was pretty satisfied and only stayed a little while longer. I was tired and the rain was starting to really soak through my clothes. So all in all I had a pretty good day. Here are some pics. 1st- what it looked like when I arrived. 2nd- my truck "The Fossil Mobile" 3rd- Dipluera in-situ
  9. Friday I was able to take advantage of having the day off from work with no Honey-do list to bog me down. What is a Man to do? Go on a fossilhunt of course! It had been awhile since my last hunt in New Jersey so I was due. I almost didn't go as I wasn't feeling the best, but I decided not to let that ruin the day. I spent about 5 hours digging in 30° weather. It did snow for about the last hour or 2, but it didn't bother me. I moved alot of rock and was rewarded with some Goodies. My favorite finds were some Greenops trilobites. Also found some nice brachiopods and bivalves. There is some plant material found at the site. So far I had only found single isolated branches but this time I found a piece with multiple branches. I hope you will enjoy!
  10. Mostly the title! I live in northern New Jersey- i’m aware that NJ used to be heavily submerged, and is host to many locations where you can find marine fossils such as ammonites, trilobites, and other small marine invertebrates- however, i have no clue as to how i can effectively search for and find fossils. I’ve gone to some dried river beds, dug in the banks, layered rock, and panned- but i realize that i dont quite know what i’m looking for. How do i determine if there is a fossil within a rock? How do i find good hunting locations? What are some of the key giveaways that a rock may contain a fossil or series of fossils? And how can i identify sedimentary rocks properly, so i know i’m looking at the right types?
  11. Darktooth

    Back to the Silurian

    Yesterday I was fortunate enough to get back to the Silurian site were I found a complete Dalmanites last month. I met up with @Jeffrey P, @Scylla and his son Grant, as well as their friend Chris who is a member of the New York Paleontological Society. I met up with them around 8:30am. They had gotten there about a half hour or so before me and were already finding things. I spent more time exploring the site then I did the last time as the fossil exposure covers a very large area. I would check out various spots, and it took awhile before I found a good spot to get settled in and do some serious digging. I won't bore you with all the trivial details, but there were plenty of fossils found by all. Brachiopods, bivalves, small horn corals, trilobites, ang even a sponge. I was very surprised by the sponge, which according to Jeff and Gus are rare finds. I actually thought that it was a small concretion and was ready to toss it, but then something caught my eye. There was a small piece broken of the sponge that showed the internal structure. Once I saw that I knew it had to be something and Gus confirmed that it was a sponge. Then a noticed a pattern under the thin film of dirt on the surface. So I was happy. It was only about 36° out but after awhile of digging I ended up removing my jacket as I was getting too warm.( I always dress with many layers in the colder months.) So I set my jacket next to my bucket of tools and moved away a bit. Sometimes later I was talking to Gus when the wind picked up and blew my jacket into the Canal. It was too far out to retrieve it went to the other side. Thank goodness I didn't have anything important in the pockets like my keys or phone. Then a while later Chris had the wind blow his bucket in the water twice. Anyhow, it was really great meeting up with everyone and I had a good time. I will post some pics of my finds and I hope Jeff and Gus will share their finds when they get the time. Sorry not all of the fossils have been cleaned up yet. Pic#1 Sponge 2 Sponge 3 Trimerus pygidium The rest are all Dalmanites partials.
  12. rorybug

    Isle of wight fossil ID

    Found this at Compton Bay Isle of Wight. Does anyone know what it is? Its metally and heavy
  13. Chichixix

    Mimico Creek Trip :)

    Collected some cool small pieces today, around Mimico Creek! What have I found here?
  14. Darktooth

    Tully, New York

    Yesterday, my family and I were driving past the Tully exit on Rt 81. I looked over just in time to see an excavator parked on a big pile of debris from the hill behind the Motel, gas station and Kinney's Pharmacy. I thought to myself, that I needed to come check it out. For those who don't know this is a known fossil site that gets moderate to low use. It is a Devonian local and is a hard area to dig. That was until now. This morning I got up early and drove to the site. I was surprised to find that a good portion of the hill has been dug up. There was lots of debris to look through. That being said there was not the amount of fossils laying about as I thought there would be. I had to look hard but I found some keepers. My best find was a pyritized nautiliod specimen there are actually 2 with some other fossils mixed in.
  15. It has been almost 2 years since I have explored the Cretaceous streams in New Jersey. I have hardly been out fossilhunting at all in the past two years actually. Yesterday my boys had a Winter Percussion Band competition at Monroe Township High Shcool which is only about a 1/2 hour drive to Big Brook. My boys had 2 performances, one around 3pm and another around 8pm which gave me a window of a couple hours to explore the stream in between shows. When I arrived at the stream I immediately saw piles of gravel littering the banks everywhere. A sure tell sign that people have been hitting the stream hard. At this point didn't have high hopes of finding much if anything worthy in the short time I had. I decided to try a spot that produced some nice finds the last time I had been there. Even though the area looking pretty picked over there was a decent sharktooth sitting right on top of the gravel on a small gravel bar. This gave me some hope. My second scoop produced a very nice large Enchodus tooth. A few more scoops produced only small broken sharkteeth. I decided to move on it took awhile of searching before I found another spot that looked possibly untouched. First sift I found a cool little brachiopod in matrix with a bivalve internal mold next to it. The next few shifts had sharkteeth. Then the teeth started getting bigger with a couple being decent. I think I stayed around 2 1/2 hours then my wife came back for me to get dinner before the next performance. Even though pickings were slim I enjoyed having a chance to be there. I have definitely been out of the Fossil loop for some time now. This trip has reinvigorated me. I have been feeling like i want to get back out for some time. As we all know the past couple years has been a challenge for the whole world. Anyways just thought i would share. I hope you all are doing well. Dave
  16. I'm visiting DeLand for a week and a half, and really want to find a spot to search for fossils or shark teeth, haven't found many online and I know people have their own secret spots. Pm me locations if you don't want to share them publicly guys, I am only hand searching with a few family members. I am willing to drive a couple hours to spend a day hunting fossils
  17. FossilsandScience

    Petrified Wood Fossil Hunt!

    Hey everyone! I recently scouted out a new site in southern California and was very successful! We found a lot of petrified wood. I'm not going to be able to post everything, but here are some of the best pieces below!
  18. Darktooth

    Double Devonian delight!

    Today I spent a wonderful day fossilhunting with my 3 boys. The weather was really nice until about 2:30 when the clouds started to roll in and along with it, the rain. That's ok though as we spent about 3 1/2 hours fossilhunting the Devonian of New York. We started off at Cole Hill around 11 am. When we arrived I saw that they had bulldozed an area around one side of the roadcut and played down a drainage pipe. This bulldozing removed some of the talus pile while exposing large slabs that had been buried for years. I spent some time looking through the slabs. While there were some interesting pieces I only grabbed a few Dipleura pygidiums because they were in nice condition. I definately over dressed for the day as it was windy when we left the house so I wore extra layers that I didnt need. I started getting warm fast. We spent about an hour and a half there and I decided to drive over to DSR and see how things were over there. It takes about a half hour to get there from Cole Hill. When we arrived we saw a vehicle and 2 people. As I gathered my tools I yelled over " Hello" and asked how they were doing. As I approached I realized that the young lady was @rachelgardner01 and she was with her husband. So we chatted for awhile. Those 2 had opened up a pretty good area but she said that she wasnt finding much. I started looking around after awhile and picked up some brachiopods and bivalves. I was surprised that my boys were all looking together for a while and they seemed to actually be enjoying themselves. After about an hour Rachel and her husband left and then we left a half hour later. While there were no spectacular finds an had a great time with my kids and found enough goodies to keep me satisfied. Heck, I was happy just being able to get outside 2 days in a row. I will post pics shortly, I have to resize some of them first.
  19. JustPlainPetrified

    Oldman River Spring fossil hunt

    It was finally time to shake off the mud from the Fall hunt and head south to the Lethbridge, Alberta area and search the banks of the Oldman River for ammonites that many have fallen out. Ideally we like to walk along the ice on the edge of the bank. That didn't happen. The highway cam photos showed ice on the river, but our location was wide open. We had lots of wind; so much that the shale was blowing into our faces. About 100 kmh but we held on! Quite the day on the steep slopes and a few success. Imagine my surprise when a chuck I found opened to reveal some great colour. The next day we found our way the a 4500 year old medicine wheel, perched high above the prairie. Look closely in the background and you can see the modern era in the form of wind turbines. I trust everyone is staying safe and avoiding personal contacts and get over this Covid-19 thing.
  20. Hi Guys. So for the past week and a half I have been debating on whether or not to share this story with you. I have finally decided to do it as maybe somebody will get something out of it. A few weeks ago I got the green light from my wife to plan a winter fossilhunt. After contacting a couple members to try to coordinate a meet-up, a plan started to formulate with @Jeffrey P to do a hunt at Ramanessin Brook in New Jersey. A couple days before the hunt an event happened at my job. I don't really want to get into that, other then to say it gave me a scare, health wise. That probably was a sign maybe going on this trip was not a great idea. The day after the event at work, was the day I was planning to drive down. I was going to leave after work on Friday and get a hotel for the night and then meet up with Jeff the next morning. My scare at work had me seriously thinking about just staying home. I took that Friday off of work to rest and relax, telling myself that if I really felt up to it I would still go. But Friday brought another problem a bad snow storm. A state of emergency was issued for NY. Mind you, I have been going stir crazy for months. I really needed this hunt. Atleast I kept telling myself this. So I made new plans. Get up at 2 am see how the roads looked, see how I felt physically and possibly still make this trip happen. So that's exactly what I did. Roads were clear at that time, I felt pretty good and the ride was smooth sailing. I arrived just as it started to get light. Jeff said that he would probably get there around 9 am. So I had a couple hours to myself. I searched for awhile finding the occasional sharktooth and I decided to check my phone for the time. I saw that Jeff had called so I called him back and he said he was about 45 minutes away. After I hung up I went a little way upstream to where Jeff said was a good spot to dig. A few minutes went by and I stood up and felt lightheaded and dizzy. And then everything got scary. All of the sudden I started having all these thoughts, #1- I am all by myself. #2- what if something bad happens before Jeff gets here. #3- what if i pass out face first in this stream and drown. Next thing i know my heart is pounding out of my chest. It went from 0 to 200 in about 2 seconds. I started wondering how far away Jeff was. I got my phone out to call him. I unlock my phone with my thumb print. But this wouldnt work with wet hands. This made my heart beat faster. So then I tried putting in my password but kept getting it wrong. I started freaking out thinking I was going to lock myself out of my own phone. All I could think about was my family and wanting to get back home to them. I made myself calm down enough to try my password one last time and it finally unlocked. I called Jeff and he said he was about 15 minutes away. I decided to walk back to the car and meet him there. I realize now that i worked myself into a panic attack but at the time i was scared. Jeff finally arrived and we talked about what happened. He felt that it was probably a panic attack but told me I should get checked out just in case. I just wanted to get back home. So I left. I felt really bad about not being able to hunt with Jeff but I just did not feel physically or mentally up to it at that point. The ride home was long and miserable. Once I got back home I relieved to see my family. I have never had something like this happen while out on a hunt. I has given me a whole lot to think about since then. I mean I am out by myself alot and what would I do if something serious happened? Not just fossilhunting either but also when I am fishing. I am not saying I am giving up on hunts because i am not. But i will be giving some serious thought about how i go about doing these hunts from now on. Dave
  21. Hello everyone, Yesterday my girlfriend & I went fossil hunting for birthday. This was the first fossil hunt the two of us did on our self, our previous hunts were all excursions with the Belgian Association for Paleontology. We visited two locations, but locations are part of the Formation of Gulpen, around 68 million years old, dating back to the Maastrichtian (these outcrops are part of the Maastrichtian type location where the first mayor Mosasaurus discovery was done). The first location we visited was a limestone outcrop next to the Albert Channel here in Belgium, only a 20 minute drive away. I discovered this outcrop while looking out the window whenever I drive to Maastricht and yesterday we decided to check it out. It is quite a little outcrop, no more than 70 meters wide, but one of the few places left where you can hunt in Limburg. We hunted here for around one and a half hour and we only searched the fallen and loose bits of limestone that were the results of erosion. We didn't want to start hacking in the rock. We mainly found ancient sea shells of different species and some bryozoa's in this location. And a some pieces of wall where teeming with urchin fragments, but we didn't find any intact one near the surface. But since the urchin graveyard was deeply enbedded in the rock and we didn't want to hack in it, we left it as it was The second location we visited was the "Grote Bos" in Beutenaken in The Netherlands. Here there are holloways in the forest that expose some limestone outcrops. This spot is known for it's belemnite which can be found on the forest paths, because the soft limestone gets eroded but hard belemnites remain, making them very easy to find. We found around 25 belemnites during our 1 hour hunt there as well as a shell imprint and a mystery fossil. Like the previous location, the patch of limestone where these belemnite can be found is also only around 70 meter long, but luckily very rich.
  22. Last saturday I went on my 2nd fossilhunt to the "Wienerberger quarry" in Rumst (Belgium) with my girlfriend and the BVP, my fossil club. This quarry is only accessible for fossil collections during official excursions organised by fossils clubs. The quarry existed out of multiple layers, the oldest was a oligocene clay layer dating back to the Rupelian (named for the region) around 33.90 - 20.10 mya, although I didn't hunt in that layer, some of the finds that could be done there were bivalves, gastropods and brachiopods. The layer where most people hunted was a very thin miocene layer dating back probably to the Burdigalian around 20.43 - 15.97 mya. The most common finds here were multiple species of shark teeth and some marine mammal fossils. And then there was another layer were it was possible to find Pleistocene fossils dating back to the last ice age, but the chances of finding anything there was quite slim. So me & my girlfriend and most of the other fellow fossil hunters mostly hunted in the miocene layer in search for fossil shark teeth. The overlook to the entrance of the quarry, looking at the oligocene clay layers. Everyone digging for and sieving through that thin layer full of miocene shark teeth Me looking for some teeth My girlfriend looking for some teeth And while we were digging for the layer like everyone else, the finds were a bit meager at first, not just for us but for everyone. But then my girlfriend found a tooth a bit lower on the hill and we started scraping away the top layer of sand. Turns out that some previous land slides washed the best material down hill, lower than were the rest was hunting and so the spoils started coming. We found most material there including our best find, a 6,5 cm long C. hastalis tooth found by my girlfriend and a partial marine mammal vert found by me! I believe our hastalis tooth was the 2nd largest tooth found that day, only a megalodon found during the trip was bigger. As the day was drawing to an end and our spot was becoming depleted of fossils we took a walk around the quarry to look for a new spot only to return to our old spot to start digging towards the miocene layer again. But this time a little bit more to the right. We found a few nice shark teeth while doing this and a lot of iron concretions but but much else. Only during the last few minutes of the trip I did hit something that wasn't a concretion. After some digging it turned out to be a piece of wooly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) which ended up a little bit above the miocene layers during a previous land slide.
  23. Darktooth

    What a great weekend

    Well folks Spring has finally arrived in Central New York! We actually had two days in a row of sun! The thermometer is reading 70º as I write this. Me and the boys were busy this weekend. Yesterday we collected some gypsum specimens, shot their BB gun and a found an old Coke bottle. Today we went to Briggs road for a short Trilo hunt, went fishing and went to one of the nicest waterfalls in our area. We all enjoyed being outdoors and soaking up the sun. While at the fossil site I found a huge spotted salamander wedged in between the shale. I felt bad for disturbing it but I didn't see it until I had already destroyed its resting place. I don't think it was actually out of hibernation yet as it was very sluggish. Here are some pics. 1- Gypsum 2-Coke bottle 3- Salamander 4-Dylans finds 5-Davids finds 6&7- Devins little trilo roller 8- My finds
  24. Darktooth

    Maryland trip 9-28-2019

    This weekend family had to drive to Maryland for my son Dylan's Marching Band competition in Annapolis. We drove down Friday evening after I got out of work. The crazies were out in full force during the drive down, but we managed to arrive safely despite the reckless driving that we witnessed. Dylan's school did not perform till 6:30 PM Saturday evening, so the plan was to do a hunt at Brownies for a few hours then meet my parents for lunch, then go to the Naval stadium and watch the other schools perform until my son school performed. After a rather good breakfast at the hotel we headed to Brownies. We were staying in Bowie, so we were only about 35 minutes away. When we arrived around 8:30 there were about 8 cars in the lot. We got our gear and headed out. Originally the forecast was calling for Full sun and a high of 85. So I was expecting to roast while out there. Instead it was overcast with a nice breeze, so we stayed cool the whole time we were there. There was a fair amount of people on the beach already, slowly working their way around to the cliffs. Low tide was set for around 10. The level was already decent when we got there. I noticed alot of trees were down since I had been there last which was a few years ago. Because I had my family with me, I wasnt sure how far down we would go. Once we got a little ways around the corner we began some sifting. I won't bore you with all of the petty details. But I will say that the finds were mostly small and broken. That being said, I think we all had a pretty good time. The weather was nice, moving around the debris was not too bad, and the surrounding was peaceful. My wife made the best find of the day with a decent, cetacean tooth. I was a bit jealous. She found it by digging deeper into a spot that I had already dug. It is different than the other cetacean teeth that I have found myself or have seen come from there. Devin found a few small teeth and some shells. He also grabbed a crab claw, horseshoe crab carapace and fish vert, all which are modern but he didnt care. There where alot of dead horseshoe crabs for some reason. I myself found small teeth, bone fragments, and stingray plates. We stayed till around noon then had to get going so we could meet my parents for lunch. On the way back I could not believe the amount of people back at the main beach there looked to be 100, all of which were searching with sifters! Any ways we ended up going to Fat Boys Crab Shack for lunch. The food was surprisingly good considering the outside of the building was not much to look at. Then we headed over to the Navy Stadium and watched bands perform. After my Son's school performed we had to head home. We didnt get back till 2am. Needless to say I am exhausted today. We found out later, that his school won the competition for their section and for overall. So we are pround! Here are my finds.
  25. Darktooth

    Cole Hill Road 6-25-17

    Today my poor boys suffered. All because their father felt the need to find a trilobite. Yesterday was my nephews birthday. He lives almost three hours away. We left about 8:30amand didn't get home till almost midnight. I already knew that they would be exhausted in the morning and when they are tired it is hard for them to get excited about anything. BUT good old Dad had big plans so I got them up at 7:30 and I could tell it was going to be a rough day. We arrived at 10am and I debated on were to start. There was a lot of debris sitting on top of my favorite layer. I decided to try working a bit higher then I normally do. I was finding some decent things right off the bat. Then I started finding a lot of parts and pieces of Dipleuras. I just knew I would find a whole one. The boys didn't even get into it all all. They just wanted to leave. I tried to talk words of encouragement. They weren't having it. Then I told them we would leave as soon as I found a whole one, and I'm getting close, so it shouldn't be long. Well at about 1:00 I thought it wasn't going to happen and I should end their suffering and take them home. But just a couple more minutes. And then it happened! I grabbed a piece of matrix and it all crumbled into a hundred pieces and I saw the pygidium and partial thorax hung upside down from the cliff face. My heart started pounding, I had high hopes it was all there. I gave a couple gentle whacks with my hammer and then pryed it off with my prybar and Whalla! A semi prone, approx. 3 3/4 inch Dipleura. Unfortunately the left eye and cheek is missing. I tried in vain to find it, but to no avail. But most off the cephalon is there and its enough too make me happy. And my kids were happy that we could finally leave. A win for all! Here are some pics enjoy!
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