Our fascination with the Biggest, Fastest, Strongest, Most Rare, etc.

[Rock Hound]

One man's junk, is another man's treasure.

 

We all have our own perspective; on what is good enough, big enough, etc.  I never wish, to fail to appreciate; the smaller or more common fossils.  Every fossil tells a story.

 

Does anyone else, feel this way?

 

***Edits are now made to the above original  post; because apparently, I suggested the exact opposite of what I was trying to say?  I never wish to overlook the smaller or.more common fossils.  Dog gone late night posting.....  Either that, or I'm just getting old?

Edited November 6, 2023 by Rock Hound

[North]

Im not giving much toughts how rare things I collect are, but rather pick creatures that I like and find fascinating.

 

But I pay attention to quality. Also a good thing if it happens to look nice.

[FranzBernhard]

3 hours ago, Rock Hound said:

One man's junk, is another man's treasure.

Indeed!

This applied mostly to my ore collecting habit. I was after the typical stuff, not the crystals. Especially for slabing and polishing it.

 

Its a little bit more difficult with fossils. If you dig hardly for rare stuff, you will find a lot of common stuff. What do to with it? Leaving behind? Does not always work, some fossils are not very resistant to weathering. But what is the other way to find the rare stuff? Better to stop!

 

At the moment, I am writing up various sites in Styria for the public, each one on two pages. Fossils, minerals, ores, rocks. Based on short re-visits of well-know sites or sites discovered by myself. Here is the latest, I have already presented these sites on TFF about 4 years ago:

franzbernhard.lima-city.de (pdf, about 9 MB).

Sorry, this pdf-format can not be translated, but you can see the common and abundant stuff.

 

Well, I also looked a little bit around and found these at these sites:

(No, the right one isn´t a rudist .)

Same, but little bit better stuff, but still common. And too nice to leave them behind.

Franz Bernhard

[Fossildude19]

A lot depends on what you can afford, or what is locally available for you to collect.

For instance, I have no real interest in bones or teeth of dinosaurs or mammals, or Shark teeth.

I find all fossils cool, but, what I can collect locally, and in short day trips is more to my liking, if I'm totally honest. 

[Kane]

Focusing on the superlative aspect of fossils is fine for some in building personal collections, but may not always be suited to science. For instance, doing faunal counts of all organisms that appear in a horizon is informative to better understand the paleoenvironment, regardless of how rare/common, big/small each specimen may be. 

[Ludwigia]

Your attitude sounds like that of a strongly discriminating collector. I am open to collecting anything interesting to me, no matter how small or common, as long as it expands my knowledge or is aesthetically pleasing to me. As Kane already pointed out, scientifically interested people and profis have much different criteria.

[Tidgy's Dad]

I collect brachiopods, mate.

And am very much trying to build my collection of bryozoa at the moment. Lots of people don't seem to bother attempting to collect or ID the ordinary bryozoa, though it is rather a challenge.

Not particularly interested in the biggest, though I have to confess, obtaining rarer ones is always nice, but not a priority.

Just nice specimens with the best preservation possible, though anything is better than nothing.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Tidgy's Dad

[Denis Arcand]

  

8 hours ago, Rock Hound said:

I have a desire to never look at the smaller or more common fossils, and think of them as not being worthy of my appreciation.

In fact, the fossils in my collection that I have found the most fascinating and beautiful are the smallest, measuring only a few millimeters.

 

 

4 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

I find all fossils cool, but, what I can collect locally, and in short day trips is more to my liking, if I'm totally honest. 

Like Fossildude19, I find fossils cool and collect them locally, I collect them by a river and try to save as much as possible before they are carried away by the current.

 

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

I am open to collecting anything interesting to me, no matter how small or common, as long as it expands my knowledge or is aesthetically pleasing to me.

Like Ludwigia, I collect anything that I find unusual or to my taste, generally anything that is beautiful to my eye from which I can make beautiful pictures, usually plates that I find fascinating.

 

6 hours ago, North said:

but rather pick creatures that I like and find fascinating.

Like North, I collect fascinating creature like crinoid 

 

1 hour ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

I collect brachiopods, mate.

Like TidgyDad, I collect mostly brachiopod, 

 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Denis Arcand

[Rock Hound]

5 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

Your attitude sounds like that of a strongly discriminating collector. I am open to collecting anything interesting to me, no matter how small or common, as long as it expands my knowledge or is aesthetically pleasing to me. As Kane already pointed out, scientifically interested people and profis have much different criteria.

@Ludwigia @Denis Arcand @Kane @Fossildude19

I think perhaps I could have worded that better?  What I meant, is that I never want to overlook or fail to appreciate the smaller, and / or more common fossils.  I will edit my opening post to reflect that.  What I was trying to say, and what I actually said; may have been out of sync?  It was a late night post..... I was not trying to paint myself, as a discriminating collector.  The opposite, actually.  Sorry about that.

Edited November 6, 2023 by Rock Hound

[Rock Hound]

Sometimes I proof read my post before I post it, and then again after I post it; and I still don't end up saying what I meant to say.....

[FranzBernhard]

Yeah, your initial post was contradictory, but this nailed it for me:

11 hours ago, Rock Hound said:

Every fossil tells a story.

Franz Bernhard

Edited November 6, 2023 by FranzBernhard

[FossilNerd]

1 hour ago, Rock Hound said:

@Ludwigia @Denis Arcand @Kane @Fossildude19

I think perhaps I could have worded that better?  What I meant, is that I never want to overlook or fail to appreciate the smaller, and / or more common fossils.  I will edit my opening post to reflect that.  What I was trying to say, and what I actually said; may have been out of sync?  It was a late night post..... I was not trying to paint myself, as a discriminating collector.  The opposite, actually.  Sorry about that.

Well, now that makes more sense! Thanks for the clarification.  

I have to agree with you. I like to self collect locally, and don’t get out often these days (two small children will do that!). This tends to force me to appreciate the “little guys”. I get just as excited over a well preserved brachiopod or bryozoan as I do over a more rare find.

[FB003]

For me, sharks and dinosaurs were what interested me growing up and that's where my interests have tended to stay.  IT's just what appeals to me.  Occasionally, something outside of that narrow scope creep in (for example, I'm rather interested in an ichthyosaur tooth these days). What it really comes down to though is if something appeals to me whether its the looks, the story with it, or whatever it might be. It's less about size, commonality, etc.. and more about does it make me say oh wow I like that (and is it in budget of course). People like what they like.

Edited November 6, 2023 by FB003

[Rock Hound]

I'm not just fascinated with dinosaurs, mosasaurs, and sharks.  There are so many other interesting fossils.  Trilobites, Crinoids, Ammonites, etc.  Such a great variety!!!

[Psittacosaur9]

On 11/6/2023 at 5:22 AM, FranzBernhard said:

(No, the right one isn´t a rudist .)

 

Forgive me for my curiosity, but what is the fossil on the right then? What are the differences between it and a rudist?

[FranzBernhard]

1 hour ago, Psittacosaur9 said:

Forgive me for my curiosity, but what is the fossil on the right then?

Its all in the caption of the pic .

Its a scleractinian coral, possibly Mussismilia, but that´s very far from certain.

Not described from that area, but from the Miocene of Slovenia nearby etc.

 

You would like to check out also this, exactly the same site:

Coral-ID - Weißenegg-formation, Styrian basin, Eastern Alps (Langhian, Miocene) - Fossil ID - The Fossil Forum

Franz Bernhard

[Psittacosaur9]

On 11/7/2023 at 6:43 PM, FranzBernhard said:

Its all in the caption of the pic .

Its a scleractinian coral, possibly Mussismilia, but that´s very far from certain.

Not described from that area, but from the Miocene of Slovenia nearby etc.

 

You would like to check out also this, exactly the same site:

Coral-ID - Weißenegg-formation, Styrian basin, Eastern Alps (Langhian, Miocene) - Fossil ID - The Fossil Forum

Franz Bernhard

Thanks! I can't believe I didn't notice the caption though, lol.