how long did it take you to find your first full trilobite?

[Newbie_1971]

So how long did it take you to find your first full, or mostly full trilobite?

[Elmo]

About 3 minutes. online auction site is great!!! 

[Newbie_1971]

7 minutes ago, Elmo said:

About 3 minutes. online auction site is great!!! 

Obviously I meant finding one yourself. Have found more than a few online

[Kane]

A year. I had to expand my sites, travel far, dig well, and know my geology.

[Elmo]

33 minutes ago, Newbie_1971 said:

Obviously I meant finding one yourself. Have found more than a few online

I know. I haven’t been out to find any yet, gonna get out next year to find some. I’m patiently sitting back and reading everything I can here so that when I get out for the hunt my odds will be better than before. There’s a ton of great advice that is gonna make life a lot easier in the fossil world. 

[Fossildude19]

First complete took me a year or two, but just because I don't live in an area where the fossils are native.

I have to travel at least 4 hours away to find decent trilobites. But persistence is key, and shape recognition is also important.

 

I should add, that LUCK plays an important role, as well.

[Newbie_1971]

8 minutes ago, Fossildude19 said:

First complete took me a year or two, but just because I don't live in an area where the fossils are native.

I have to travel at least 4 hours away to find decent trilobites. But persistence is key, and shape recognition is also important.

I can totally understand that. I  mean if I  were to hunt for shark teeth here, chances are I would never find one. But go elsewhere and find a bunch in an hour or two. I  am just asking because it seems that I can not find a somewhat whole/whole one. Finding what I  believe is a decent amount of partial/sheds.

[Fossildude19]

4 minutes ago, Newbie_1971 said:

I can totally understand that. I  mean if I  were to hunt for shark teeth here, chances are I would never find one. But go elsewhere and find a bunch in an hour or two. I  am just asking because it seems that I can not find a somewhat whole/whole one. Finding what I  believe is a decent amount of partial/sheds.

 

It really helps to understand the depositional environment of the area. Do research on what formations are in your area, to be able to read up about the depositional environments.

High energy environments will have more molts (Trilo -bits) than complete ones, where as  more placid, deep water environments may have more complete specimens.

Think of the similarity of how things are distributed along a beach. You'll get the picture when you find out what formation you are hunting in, and read up on the envrionment.

[minnbuckeye]

I am in the 2 to 3 year camp. Just remember the longer it takes, the more enjoyment from the find!!!

[Mark Kmiecik]

Still looking.

[Newbie_1971]

1 hour ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Still looking.

How long you been at it?

[erose]

Years. But at some localities you will almost certainly find one such as Penn Dixie, a few of the Cincinnatian sites, some of the Oklahoma sites.

[patelinho7]

4 hours ago, Mark Kmiecik said:

Still looking.

Me too! 

[Ludwigia]

I was dreaming about it ever since I started collecting fossils back around the turn of the millenium, but never had the chance to delve into the appropriate paleozoic exposures until I finally had the opportunity to visit Hungry Hollow about 10 years later. Then it was just a number of hours before I managed to split out my first complete Greenops on the river bank.

[t-tree]

My first ever trilobite (though partial) took me by surprise, after years of looking in a lower carboniferous quarry for fossils I extracted a brachiopod and there it was a very small trilobite pygidium ! Over the years I have found two more pygidiums in this quarry but they are so hard to find  being so tiny!

 

At least 4 years till this partial !!

 

John

[FossilNerd]

The fossil that got me into this as a serious hobby was a mostly complete trilobite I found as a teenager. What teenager me, and even new collector me, failed to realized was that it was a mostly complete trilobite steinkern. Still a cool find, and one dear to my heart, but no actual shell.

 

It would take me 7 years of collecting to find a recognizable trilobite part (pygidium) in the field. I’m sure I found a few fragments before that, but failed to immediately recognized what they were.  I instantly knew what this pygidium was. 
 

It would take me another 2 years before I found my first complete trilobite, and I actually found 3 that day.

 

Like Tim, most areas that I can hunt locally are all high energy depositional environments. Whole trilobites are rare to nonexistent. I had to drive almost 3 hours away to have a chance at finding any. 
 

Trilobites are indeed a common fossil and are sometimes called “cockroaches of the sea”, because they look like bugs and they are everywhere. But… I try to remember that not all houses have roaches. 
 

@Fossildude19’s advice is something I will echo. Understanding the formation you are hunting in and the environment in which it was deposited really goes a long way to finding a complete trilobite. Sure, you might be able to find trilo-bits in a high energy environment, and even a whole one if you are extremely lucky, but your chances go up astronomically in a formation laid down in a calmer environment. 
 

I really do feel that in order to maximize success in this hobby, research and study will take up 90% of your time and hunting fossils 10%. Finding the fossils is the easy part once you know where to look. 
 

Good luck in the hunt! 

[Mark Kmiecik]

19 hours ago, Newbie_1971 said:

How long you been at it?

 

I'm 72 years old. Since I was about 9 years old.

[Isotelus2883]

Took me 7 years, then I dropped it and it broke. I have other complete ones, but they are all distorted/enrolled.

[Andúril Flame of the West]

I suppose it depends on what you mean by a complete trilobite. If you mean a complete trilobite with no elements missing, then I am also in the 'still searching' club. Otherwise, I have found some relatively complete specimens after about a year of searching. As others have said, there are some places where it is easier to find complete trilobites than others. Some depositional environments were relatively calm and suitable for preserving articulated specimens. Others were pretty violent and only leave disarticulated fragments for us to uncover. 

[patelinho7]

19 hours ago, Isotelus2883 said:

Took me 7 years, then I dropped it and it broke. I have other complete ones, but they are all distorted/enrolled.

 

Haha. I dropped my first shark tooth in my neighbor's lawn when I was 10. I have an unfortunate habit of dropping some of my first and/or best finds  I dropped my first dino track and it broke in half, but then the cross section aided the ID process 

[Sjfriend]

I got lucky. When I was about 10 I was exposed to some fossil shells near my grandma's house and started playing with them. Shortly after getting started my great uncle took me on a camping trip to the desert of Utah and we went to U-Dig quarry! So, technically I found my first complete trilobite on my first trip to look for them within the first year I started my fossil life. Guess it helps to be staying near one of the most well-known trilobite quarries in the world. 

[ScottBlooded]

About a year of driving to a place an hour and a half away. Tried a new exposure, one of the first few rocks I picked up basically fell open in my hands to reveal not only my first complete trilobite but what turned out to be a new genus and species. Still haven’t found another one (of that species) since and I’ve been trying avidly for years. I might be the luckiest man alive. 

[Newbie_1971]

34 minutes ago, ScottBlooded said:

About a year of driving to a place an hour and a half away. Tried a new exposure, one of the first few rocks I picked up basically fell open in my hands to reveal not only my first complete trilobite but what turned out to be a new genus and species. Still haven’t found another one (of that species) since and I’ve been trying avidly for years. I might be the luckiest man alive. 

Awesome! Congrats.  Photos?

[jpc]

my first was in the Wheeler Shale at Antelope Springs in Utah.  I stopped at a fresh hole in the ground and found little blind trilobites almost immediately, Pernopsis, I think. .  Have not found one in the Midwest; just parts.  

 

edit... that was in 1982, before U-Dig was there.  

Edited October 12, 2023 by jpc

[ScottBlooded]

40 minutes ago, Newbie_1971 said:

Awesome! Congrats.  Photos?

Thanks! First one is exactly as it came out of the rock when I found it, second one is after being prepped and described (not by me! A man named David Holloway). Needmorella simoni.