Puerto Rico fossils

[GallinaPinta]

I want to share this amazing experience. This was in San Sebastián, Puerto Rico. The Gozalandia waterfall is one of the most beautiful spots in the island, and because of this, it is a tourist attraction. I always fossil hunted near but I never went to this specific waterfall. I live close by so I went to take a simple dip but I absolutely could not hold back the urge to fossil hunt as soon as I got here. It is absolutely beautiful! After going down the wooden stairs, I immediately started checking out the rock beds. There's even a cave under the waterfall! After just 30 minutes of checking the stones, I found a beautifully preserved echinolampas. This formation is known to preserve fossils from the oligocene and paleogene period according to

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fossiliferous_stratigraphic_units_in_the_Caribbean#Puerto_Rico and San Sebastián has been my favorite spot to fossil hunt. I always find many beautifully preserved specimens. 

[hadrosauridae]

Very beautiful area, and you made some great finds!  That last pic grabbed my attention though, is that bone?

[ClearLake]

What a great looking trip and very nice finds!  Well done!!

[Darktooth]

Wow! Very beautiful scenery and great fossil finds. Thank-you for sharing this with us!

[GallinaPinta]

1 hour ago, hadrosauridae said:

Very beautiful area, and you made some great finds!  That last pic grabbed my attention though, is that bone?

I found that yesterday and it is an absolute mystery! It is a bone, and I was going to start a topic to ID it since the matrix around it is covered in white crystals. The fossil is a stone already, too. 

[Al Dente]

Nice variety. The first echinoid looks like Echinolampas.

[Tidgy's Dad]

Thanks for sharing this, my friend, very beautiful and interesting. 

Some great finds too! 

[FossilDAWG]

What a beautiful place to collect, and those echinoids and other fossils are fantastic.     I wish I had known about this place when I visited Puerto Rico earlier this year.  Do you have resources to identify your echinoids?

 

Don

[sixgill pete]

Amazing location for fossiling. And some really nice finds to boot.

[hemipristis]

Great trip report!  Beautiful area

[Jeffrey P]

We don't hear much about the fossils of Puerto Rico. Judging by the wonderful specimens you've shown us, I'm hoping we'll hear a bit more. Congrats on your finds and thanks for sharing. That includes the photos of the wonderful rainforest scenery. 

[Tales From the Shale]

Absolutely beautiful echinoderms. Puerto Rico is definitely a bucket list visit.

[sixgill pete]

are echinoids regular finds for you?

 

[FossilDAWG]

It's my understanding that the geology of Puerto Rico is mainly igneous, and fossil-bearing rocks are very localized.  Clearly some nice fossils can be found, if you know exactly where to look, but there is a reason we don't see a lot of Puerto Rican fossils.

 

Don

[GallinaPinta]

On 12/21/2022 at 2:37 PM, FossilDAWG said:

What a beautiful place to collect, and those echinoids and other fossils are fantastic.     I wish I had known about this place when I visited Puerto Rico earlier this year.  Do you have resources to identify your echinoids?

 

Don

I started asking here in the forum first when I found them for the first time (i called them sea biscuits lol) and was provided with this tool https://www.jstor.org/stable/1301379 

[GallinaPinta]

21 hours ago, Jeffrey P said:

We don't hear much about the fossils of Puerto Rico. Judging by the wonderful specimens you've shown us, I'm hoping we'll hear a bit more. Congrats on your finds and thanks for sharing. That includes the photos of the wonderful rainforest scenery. 

I always find marine creature fossils here in the local rivers, and crassostreas are so common here that you stumble upon them if you go to San Sebastián's rivers. Echinolampas are common but only if you know where and what to look for, always search the rock beds across the rivers. Tube worms and other corals and fossil flora are found in the same rock beds. Its very fun

[GallinaPinta]

6 hours ago, sixgill pete said:

are echinoids regular finds for you?

 

They're slightly complicated to find but in the right place and a lot of time and patience for searching, you will definitely find an echinoid. Always search for the white round stones in rock beds near San Sebastián rivers. 

[GallinaPinta]

5 hours ago, FossilDAWG said:

It's my understanding that the geology of Puerto Rico is mainly igneous, and fossil-bearing rocks are very localized.  Clearly some nice fossils can be found, if you know exactly where to look, but there is a reason we don't see a lot of Puerto Rican fossils.

 

Don

Paleontology is a very scarce hobby and barely any locals here have any knowledge of fossils, and a lot of them still have the thought that fossils are only found in museums. I didn't know fossils could be found in my island so easily, and when I posted here in the forum and learned that fossils indeed can be found as locally as san Sebastián and moca, and that there's even a table of contents online specifically mentioning the type of fossils preserved by area, I started passing my whole day fossil hunting. I got absolutely addicted! I havent been online much cause of college and vet school but fossils are a huge wonderful discovery for me. 

[minnbuckeye]

53 minutes ago, GallinaPinta said:

vet school

 Which University are you attending? I am a retired veterinarian who vacations in the Virgin Islands. I may have to take a pitstop in Puerto Rico next time. 

Fossils and waterfall  are right up my alley!!

[GallinaPinta]

1 hour ago, minnbuckeye said:

 Which University are you attending? I am a retired veterinarian who vacations in the Virgin Islands. I may have to take a pitstop in Puerto Rico next time. 

Fossils and waterfall  are right up my alley!!

Ooooooo thats real nice! Im in UPR utuado taking livestock industry with concentration in avian medicine to later (hopefully) take pre-vet in upr mayaguez and find out how to go from there. Fossil hunting while swimming is my favorite way to relax after finishing the semester, nothing else I'd rather be doing than swimming under a waterfall in hopes of finding my next echinolampas!!!!!! Be careful tho, its 18 feet deep!

[Nimravis]

Christaleen- this is a great report and your finds are outstanding. Congrats, and as always you have great pictures to go along with the report. 

[GallinaPinta]

1 hour ago, Nimravis said:

Christaleen- this is a great report and your finds are outstanding. Congrats, and as always you have great pictures to go along with the report. 

Thank you, Ralph! Your knowledge and guidance is priceless and I learned a lot about american fossils thanks to your specimens. I forgot to post the strange crab claw-like fossil I shipped you last year. That was one of a kind as I never again found one like that. I think it was a crab claw, was it..? Or perhaps some flora? I definitely should have added that to the report! 

[GallinaPinta]

Also found under a bridge in san sebastian rivers

[Al Dente]

4 hours ago, GallinaPinta said:

Also found under a bridge in san sebastian rivers

I think this is part of a crab claw that is weathering. The main portion you see is the sediment that filled the claw and on each side is the remains of the shell that is flaking away.

[Sjfriend]

Great report! Maybe I'll have to slip away from the cruise ship next spring and go swimming