A Fossil Show Victory - My White River Formation displays takes first place at a gem and mineral show!

[Opabinia Blues]

So this happened back in late March and I’m just now getting around to posting (or boasting?) about it. At this years gem and mineral show in Loveland, Colorado I entered a display case of White River Formation fossils which I have collected mostly in Colorado over the last few years. I emphasized diversity, attempting to show the diversity of the organisms (or at least prominent organisms) in the ecosystem while aiming to educate show visitors about the under-appreciated Eocene to Oligocene transition. Over 4,000 people came to the show, and at the end of the weekend the judges selected my case for first place in the fossils category, which I was very happy with because there were some other really awesome fossil displays people had put together.

 

For the win I received a trophy and blue ribbon. I definitely intend to display again next year at the same show!

 

 

Edited April 5 by Opabinia Blues

[Randyw]

Congrats! Great dysplay!

[Yoda]

Well done!

And great display 

[Coco]

 

Coco

[MarcoSr]

Congratulations.  Really nice display.  Really nice fossil variety.  The bird bone is really rare for the White River Group.  Have you found any bird eggs/eggshell?  Bird eggshell is very common in the anthills of our Nebraska White River Group Ranch, and my sons have found 3 complete bird eggs.  I don't know if you bring home and search anthill matrix from where you collect, but I've found thousands of micro jaws and teeth in the anthills of our ranch.  I like the pictures on the ID cards and the models, which really help to understand the fossil species.

 

Marco Sr.

[minnbuckeye]

Excellent  display! Let the judges know next year's trophy should be a fossil! LOL

[Fin Lover]

Congratulations!

[Balance]

Congratulations! Loved reading the display. Great collection!!

 

Jp

[Darktooth]

Congratulations, the display looks fantastic!

[Danielb]

Congrats!

[trilobites_are_awesome]

Congrats! What a great display!

[jpc]

Great job.  Some day I would like to do this sort of thing, but probably only after I retire.  Takes a lot of time.  Bravo!

[Opabinia Blues]

4 hours ago, MarcoSr said:

Congratulations.  Really nice display.  Really nice fossil variety.  The bird bone is really rare for the White River Group.  Have you found any bird eggs/eggshell?  Bird eggshell is very common in the anthills of our Nebraska White River Group Ranch, and my sons have found 3 complete bird eggs.  I don't know if you bring home and search anthill matrix from where you collect, but I've found thousands of micro jaws and teeth in the anthills of our ranch.  I like the pictures on the ID cards and the models, which really help to understand the fossil species.

 

Marco Sr.

 

My friend Noel does anthill matrix all the time and has found a few small things there on the ranch I collect on. I don't typically look through anthills because harvester ants are super aggressive and although I've never been stung Pogonomyrmex occidentalis ranks fairly high on the Schmidt sting pain index if I remember correctly. Nonetheless, hearing about all your finds makes me want to try it this season! What technique do you use to collect the matrix, if you don't mind me asking? I have not found any eggs or eggshells (tortoise or bird), but I would love to at some point.

[Pagurus]

Awesome display! Terrific finds and fascinating reading. The illustrations and models are marvelous. A crowd-pleaser, for sure. 

Congratulations! Well deserving of a blue ribbon and, of course, a Laurel and Hardy handshake.

 

 

[MarcoSr]

10 hours ago, Opabinia Blues said:

 

My friend Noel does anthill matrix all the time and has found a few small things there on the ranch I collect on. I don't typically look through anthills because harvester ants are super aggressive and although I've never been stung Pogonomyrmex occidentalis ranks fairly high on the Schmidt sting pain index if I remember correctly. Nonetheless, hearing about all your finds makes me want to try it this season! What technique do you use to collect the matrix, if you don't mind me asking? I have not found any eggs or eggshells (tortoise or bird), but I would love to at some point.

 

Not all White River Group anthills have lots of microfossils.  The flats of our ranch are the top of the Eocene Chadron Formation, which has a very high microfossil density.  On neighboring ranches, the flats are lower and middle Eocene Chadron Formation.  First, there aren't a lot of anthills there.  I think there are chemicals in the formation that the ants don't like.  Secondly, the microfossils are not common at all.  I found thousands of microfossils in the anthills of our ranch, vs only a few beat up specimens in the anthills of neighboring ranches.  So I hope your anthills have a high fossil density.  Sample the anthills and keep track of which sample of matrix came from which anthill.  You may find all the anthills are productive, none are productive, or only certain anthills are productive.

 

I've never had a problem really with the ants.  You want to collect on very cold, overcast days.  The ants go deeper into the anthills and are less likely to come out when you disturb their anthills.  Only scrape the anthills at their very surface and remove their outer protective fine gravel shield.  If you get below that level, there is only sand with no fossils, and you will definitely cause the ants to exit their anthill in large numbers.  I use a garden trowel to scrape the anthills and place the matrix into my 1mm mesh sieve, which I use to get as much loose sand out of the matrix.  I put the sieved matrix into gallon freezer bags which I backpack out or into five gallon buckets which I carry out.  At home, I wash the matrix down in a 1mm gold sieve which fits over a 5 gallon bucket and dry the matrix on cookie pans that I leave out in the sun.  I then search the matrix under a Luxo magnifying lamp.

 

If it is warmer and sunny, I put a small tarp near the anthill and dump the matrix with the ants from the trowel onto the tarp.  I'll come back a few hours later, and most of the ants have left the tarp and gone back to their anthill.  I try my best not to hurt a single ant.  However, if you don't get the ants out of your sieve with a piece of grass or weed quickly, they will bite the wire mesh and will not let go, which leads to them not surviving shaking the matrix with your sieve to remove the sand.

 

Our ranch is a very harsh badlands environment and the ants have to do a lot of work to recover their anthills, so I leave a number of sugar cubes at each collected anthill to help the ant colony survive.

 

I have a number of threads here on TFF that discuss the anthill microfossils from our ranch.  Below is a thread that you might check out.

 

 

 

 

Good luck with your anthills.

 

Marco Sr.

[jpc]

excellent instructions from marco.  And yes, their bite is memorable.  Cold days or col early mornings are best for painlessly collecting anthills.  

[Ludwigia]

Congratulations! Keep up the good work!

[PFOOLEY]

What an awesome display! Congratulations on the recognition!

[aplomado]

You found all those?  

That Hell Pig tooth is amazing!

[Opabinia Blues]

3 hours ago, aplomado said:

You found all those?  

That Hell Pig tooth is amazing!

Yes, I did! This is material found on family property, I’ve been fossil hunting there every summer since 2020.

[Randyw]

You’ve got wrf land you can hunt when you want? With all that good stuff!
Color me  that’d be a dream come true for me!

[Opabinia Blues]

2 hours ago, Randyw said:

You’ve got wrf land you can hunt when you want? With all that good stuff!
Color me  that’d be a dream come true for me!

I do indeed, there’s a very productive bit of exposure on the ranch. It’s Brule Formation (if you want to break up the stratigraphic taxonomy that way), and there’s a neighboring ranch I’ve been allowed to go on a few times with some Chadron Member/Formation exposure that gives up titanothere bones sometimes (and also a spilled rhino skeleton I picked up last summer).

Edited April 13 by Opabinia Blues

[Sjfriend]

Congratulations. That us a great display. Between the photos and the diversity, a great set up.

 

And I too am jealous, very jealous lol. Having access to land like that is a dream.