Newbie exploration of Pennsylvania and surrounding states

[Shale_stack]

Super new to the world of fossils with no formal education. Currently looking for locations near Berks county Pennsylvania or within 2-3 hours. Up to 6 is okay too but it’s a bit far. Feel free to PM  me. I’m feeling frustrated not knowing much. 

[Fossildude19]

What kinds of fossils are you hoping to collect?

[Misha]

There are a lot of fossils around the radius that you gave us, from the Ordovician going all the way to the Triassic I believe, and within those time periods the fossils themselves range quite a bit from trilobites and brachiopods, to plants, to vertebrates and much more. There are many websites online that can help you track any of these down if you research what fossils you are looking for, the stratigraphy around those areas, etc. as well as many books and papers that discuss such topics

[Shale_stack]

22 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

What kinds of fossils are you hoping to collect?

I’m looking for anything different then Devonian. 

[A.C.]

Do you prefer the Paleozoic? If not the Cretaceous New Jersey and Miocene Maryland are prime localities.
 

Pennsylvania is a big state with a decent bit to be discovered. Excluding Devonian there are Triassic tracks and occasional bone, Ordovician and Silurian trilobites and eurypterids, of course the famous Pennnsylvanian Ferns. Go out in Lancaster and York counties and there are Cambrian outcroppings with the occasional trilobite.
 

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by A.C.

[Shale_stack]

3 minutes ago, A.C. said:

Do you prefer the Paleozoic? If not the Cretaceous New Jersey and Miocene Maryland are prime localities.
 

Pennsylvania is a big state with a decent bit to be discovered. Excluding Devonian there are Triassic tracks and occasional bone, Ordovician and Silurian trilobites and eurypterids, of course the famous Pennnsylvanian Ferns. Go out in Lancaster and York counties and there are Cambrian outcroppings with the occasional trilobite.
 

 

I’m new to this and have only really hunted Devonian. Super interested in ferns and triassic. Would love to check out Cambrian, Paleozoic, Silurian and Ordovician. 
 

Do you have any tips on where to find sites you can collect at? 

[JohnJ]

5 minutes ago, Shale_stack said:

Do you have any tips on where to find sites you can collect at? 

Start doing searches on The Forum using keywords and general locations near you.  Otherwise, excellent advice has been offered above. 

[A.C.]

Pennsylvania is tricky. Lots of the better sites you can come across online (especially Cambrian and Triassic) are now under neighborhoods and or are on private property.

 

My best suggestion is to just search both the forum and your search engine and see what all you can find. 
 

Best tools are hunting maps or other property maps to be sure you are not trespassing and geologic maps to help pinpoint where good places to scout out are. 

[Oxytropidoceras]

The below web pages might be a place to start.

 

Online geologic maps for Pennsylania can be found at https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/mapview/?center=-76.079,40.585&zoom=9

 

Digital Base Maps of Pennsylvania

 

Geologic Publications and Data of Pennsylvania

 

Geological Map of Pennsylvania

 

DCNR Bureau of Geological Survey

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Oxytropidoceras
formating

[Dawson Sensenig]

Up in NEPA there are some cool spots to find really nice Pennsylvanian plant fossils! Also, I've made a map that has a bunch of fossil hunting locations in PA with information on how to get there and what you can expect, shoot me a message if you're interested!

 

[Auspex]

Up here in central McKean County, the rocks are mostly Pennsylvanian, with a bit of Devonian. Coal-swamp fossils are not to hard to come by, but known exposures are often overgrown.

[EMP]

The Cretaceous streams in New Jersey are fairly close by, and people seem to find a decent amount of stuff in them. There's also Purse State Park in Maryland to find Paleocene sharks teeth, shells, and other fossils, as well as Calvert Cliffs in Maryland for Miocene-aged stuff. Dinosaur Park in Laurel, Maryland is a good place to get your hands on dinosaur-aged material, but you're only allowed to take fossil wood home. The C&D Canal in Delaware used to be a good site for belemnites and other Cretaceous marine stuff, but I'm not 100% sure if it's still accessible or not. Closer to Berks County there's some Triassic fossils in the Gettysburg area, but almost all of the sites are off limits for collecting. Still, I know you can find dinosaur footprints in some pieces of rock used to construct fences and bridges in the region, so it might be interesting to check out. I know you said you're tired of the Devonian, but Penn Dixie is a quarry that lets you go collecting fossils, and people have pulled some pretty cool looking Devonian trilobites from there, if that's something you might consider looking into. Lang's Quarry in New York for eurypterids is also another possibility, but I'm not 100% sure what the access requirements are. I believe people have paid to collect there, so it might be a pay-to-dig operation that's worth looking into. 

 

Unfortunately a lot of the better public sites in Pennsylvania have gotten shut down over the past few years.  

[Jeffrey P]

A couple sites near Bernville where you might be able to find Ordovician graptolites. PM me if you're interested in that. Too bad you're not interested in Devonian. It's one of my favorite periods. Fossil fish, plants, mollusks, brachiopods, corals, bryozoans, crinoids, trilobites, and crustaceans, etc.., the Devonian has it all.