Show us your fossils collected in parts on different trips

[Doctor Mud]

What makes a special find more special?

 

To me when you find a partial fossil of something great. You think to yourself: wow! What a find, but I sure would love to find more of this! Maybe it has driven you to look, you lay awake at night dreaming about that missing piece. Or maybe you forgot and the memory is only triggered when you find the new piece - hang on a sec! Does that fit onto? Surely not! 
 

Please share your fossils found in parts over several trips. I know of some that were found over many years! 
 

This came to mind as I just found a second part of a Miocene fish skull this weekend. 
I saw it in the field and my brain started sorting through images of pieces I had found… I started to wonder……was excited to get home and get that other piece out. Does it? Will it….? You finally have both on the desk and…..

 

it’s so satisfying to fit them together!!!

 

Let’s see yours!!

 

Now….. can I find those other little missing pieces? I’ll be looking! 

Edited May 6 by Doctor Mud

[FossilNerd]

That is wild that you were able to find the second piece to your skull on a different trip! 
 

I have never been so lucky as to find a second piece on a different trip to the same spot, but I have found multiple parts to the same specimen on the same day. Sometimes hours apart. I thought that was exciting to fit those pieces together, but I would probably pass out if I found a second part of something days/weeks/years later. 
 

Congratulations on the improbable find! 

[Doctor Mud]

3 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

That is wild that you were able to find the second piece to your skull on a different trip! 
 

I have never been so lucky as to find a second piece on a different trip to the same spot, but I have found multiple parts to the same specimen on the same day. Sometimes hours apart. I thought that was exciting to fit those pieces together, but I would probably pass out if I found a second part of something days/weeks/years later. 
 

Congratulations on the improbable find! 

Thanks!

 

Oh that’s really exciting too finding them on the same day.
 

When you find a piece and have to collect your thoughts and go: ok don’t move, take a sec, where did you pick it up. Tempting to walk away to your collecting buddy in excitement! I’ve done that before!

 

I do a systematic search if it’s really good, radiate out on the beach or walk up the hill to see if I can find the motherload!

[FossilNerd]

35 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

When you find a piece and have to collect your thoughts and go: ok don’t move, take a sec, where did you pick it up. Tempting to walk away to your collecting buddy in excitement! I’ve done that before!

 

I know the feeling! It’s definitely a rush of adrenaline and excitement in those situations.

 

The below (as yet unidentified) orthoconic nautiloid was collected on the same day, but it took a long time to find all three pieces. I actually found the top part first then systematically worked my way down the slope to find the bottom section. The middle part took a lot longer to find, and I had almost given up hope. I actually walked away from it for a couple of hours and then circled back around to look one more time just before leaving for the day.
 

It’s not the most detailed specimen, but there are a few septa visible on the bottom section.

 

The three dimensional shape is nice (orthocones are typically found more flattened and deflated in my area) and I love how well the pieces fit together. 
 

 

[Doctor Mud]

3 minutes ago, FossilNerd said:

I know the feeling! It’s definitely a rush of adrenaline and excitement in those situations.

 

The below (as yet unidentified) orthoconic nautiloid was collected on the same day, but it took a long time to find all three pieces. I actually found the top part first then systematically worked my way down the slope to find the bottom section. The middle part took a lot longer to find, and I had almost given up hope. I actually walked away from it for a couple of hours and then circled back around to look one more time just before leaving for the day.
 

It’s not the most detailed specimen, but there are a few septa visible on the bottom section.

 

The three dimensional shape is nice (orthocones are typically found more flattened and deflated in my area) and I love how well the pieces fit together. 
 

 

 

That reward from patience and perseverance make the find that much sweeter! You followed your instincts and went for one last look… and boom! 
 

Quite different from what we find around here. Congratulations! 

[Wrangellian]

I'm trying to think if I've ever gone back to a site on a separate trip and found another part of an earlier-found fossil. Not that I can recall at the moment... but I once did something similar. When I was a kid I found a flower fossil locally (or later someone told me it is supposedly a flower-like 'fruiting body' - anyway, not important)... I did not know what it was when I found it, just that it looked like something and I should take it home. A few years later it's sitting on the shelf above my desk and I start looking at it and realize it is a flower! Fast forward many years later, after moving house, I'm going thru a tray of bits and pieces from that site, to see if there is anything important before I throw it out, and lo and behold, the counterpart to the flower! on a smaller chip of rock. I had one of those processing moments as you describe... "Is this another flower? I found another flower! Wait, it looks a lot like the other one..."

Here's the original piece (old photo, no counterpart shown as I didn't know I had it when this was taken. I should take new pics of this thing. This is a scan of a print photo, to give an idea of how old it is). The dime is 18mm, same as the US.

 

 

[Fossildude19]

I shared this one long ago:

 

 

[Doctor Mud]

3 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

I'm trying to think if I've ever gone back to a site on a separate trip and found another part of an earlier-found fossil. Not that I can recall at the moment... but I once did something similar. When I was a kid I found a flower fossil locally (or later someone told me it is supposedly a flower-like 'fruiting body' - anyway, not important)... I did not know what it was when I found it, just that it looked like something and I should take it home. A few years later it's sitting on the shelf above my desk and I start looking at it and realize it is a flower! Fast forward many years later, after moving house, I'm going thru a tray of bits and pieces from that site, to see if there is anything important before I throw it out, and lo and behold, the counterpart to the flower! on a smaller chip of rock. I had one of those processing moments as you describe... "Is this another flower? I found another flower! Wait, it looks a lot like the other one..."

Here's the original piece (old photo, no counterpart shown as I didn't know I had it when this was taken. I should take new pics of this thing. This is a scan of a print photo, to give an idea of how old it is). The dime is 18mm, same as the US.

 

 

Wow that’s wild! Realizations on 2 fronts. First that it is a flower then much later finding the counterpart! 
 

I’d love to see new photos when you get the chance. This must be a special fossil for you - lots of layers of personal history and memories! 

[Doctor Mud]

Thought I’d add this one. This site has reworked fossils on top of an unconformity.

 

I found 3 parts of a large tooth years apart from the same outcrop. We don’t get many shark tooth producing sites here so teeth like this are harder to come by. 
 

was it reworked and broken or munched as he was being shed 

 

 

Edited May 7 by Doctor Mud

[Doctor Mud]

3 hours ago, Fossildude19 said:

I shared this one long ago:

 

 

Sounds like a reward for your generosity as you found this while going through fossils to give away.

 

looks like there are some stories in the from other folks on bits of the same fossils found on separate trips.

 

Like someone says on that thread. Always keep fragments of something special if you are going back frequently to a site. 

[FranzBernhard]

I have 4 blog (but just one story) entries from 2018 elaborating this topic :

In total, I had 3 such happenings at that particular site, but only this is somewhat documented.

Franz Bernhard

[Ludwigia]

When you look at the photo, you can see that this Brasilia decipiformis ammonite from the clay pit in Geisingen, Germany consists of two pieces connected approximately in the middle by a layer of stonemeal consolidating them into one. I found the piece on the right in the fall of 2006, and even though I wasn't searching for it, I stumbled upon, or rather dug out the piece on the left in the spring of 2007.

 

[minnbuckeye]

A few years ago, I was splitting shale when this nice Isotelus was exposed. In my excitement, I did not notice the eye had broken off the specimen. Once realized, I decided to look for it. A month had passed before I would return to the site but was able to locate it and glue it to the trilobite.

 

[Doctor Mud]

2 hours ago, FranzBernhard said:

I have 4 blog (but just one story) entries from 2018 elaborating this topic :

In total, I had 3 such happenings at that particular site, but only this is somewhat documented.

Franz Bernhard

Wow! They look impressive when put back together. Persistence and returning to the same site pays off.

[Doctor Mud]

3 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

When you look at the photo, you can see that this Brasilia decipiformis ammonite from the clay pit in Geisingen, Germany consists of two pieces connected approximately in the middle by a layer of stonemeal consolidating them into one. I found the piece on the right in the fall of 2006, and even though I wasn't searching for it, I stumbled upon, or rather dug out the piece on the left in the spring of 2007.

 

Wow! Did you have it in the back of your mind they maybe you might find the other piece? When did you realize they fit together? 

[Doctor Mud]

1 hour ago, minnbuckeye said:

A few years ago, I was splitting shale when this nice Isotelus was exposed. In my excitement, I did not notice the eye had broken off the specimen. Once realized, I decided to look for it. A month had passed before I would return to the site but was able to locate it and glue it to the trilobite.

 

You managed to locate something as small as that eye!! 
 

[Ludwigia]

35 minutes ago, Doctor Mud said:

Wow! Did you have it in the back of your mind they maybe you might find the other piece? When did you realize they fit together? 

 

Well, I first just dug it out and was about to set it aside since it was just a piece of living chamber, but then suddenly a light went on upstairs and I realized that I was conicidentally digging in exactly the same spot where I had found the first piece. So I took it home with me and lo and behold, it fit.

There was however another one where I did go back to the earth and stone dump intentionally where I found the first part on a pile of debris that had been recently deposited there. It just wouldn't leave me in peace, so off I went a week later and as luck would have it, no one had disturbed the pile and after about a quarter of an hour of moving stone, I finally came up with it. I've marked the photo, since I prepped it in such a way that it's difficult to recognize the reconstruction. The part on the left was the first find and the one on the right the second. The square at the top was reconstructed with modelling plaster. I also posted a second photo below to show the entire piece. Arietites bucklandi.

 

 

[JamieLynn]

what a great topic. What good stories! I have heard about things like this...finding a partial and then another piece at a later date. I've not had THAT happen to me, but I did find what I am 99% sure are two fragments of the same crinoid bulb which were about 20 feet from each other. 

 

 

 

 

[Balance]

Jack, @Shellseeker found the first piece. 
 

A month later I was about 20’ upriver and found the second. We started joking on the forum about combining them and then it happened. 😂😂
 

Jack’s find 

 

My find

 

 

 

Reunited 

[Wrangellian]

9 hours ago, Balance said:

Jack, @Shellseeker found the first piece. 
 

A month later I was about 20’ upriver and found the second. We started joking on the forum about combining them and then it happened. 😂😂
 

Jack’s find 

 

My find

 

Reunited 
 

So who gets the reunited fossil, you or Jack?   

[Wrangellian]

17 hours ago, Doctor Mud said:

Wow that’s wild! Realizations on 2 fronts. First that it is a flower then much later finding the counterpart! 
 

I’d love to see new photos when you get the chance. This must be a special fossil for you - lots of layers of personal history and memories! 

Yes it is, I keep it in a little homemade wooden box with padding, though I'm not sure if that is very good protection if I happen to drop the box (perish the thought) - it might just be safer in a drawer with the rest of my fossils. I'll see about getting pics.

[Balance]

9 minutes ago, Wrangellian said:

So who gets the reunited fossil, you or Jack?   

 I traded Jack. His piece for the next good hit in my sieve. Literally next shovel I washed a complete eagle ray mouth plate on the screen. 

 

I was happy to hand it over. Jack appreciates the fossils most flip over with the spoils. Finding a complete ray plate was/is on my bucket list but the river gives you what you need. Jack had just finished researching and posting about Eagle rays the weeks before. His excitement over just an almost complete section was what delivered that fossil to us. His anyway. 😊

[hadrosauridae]

Last year I was searching the edge of a spoil pile at my Permian site.  The owner had dozed some land above to clear for a new fence. Near the middle I spotted a section of a headspine of Orthacanthus Texensis.  As I climbed the hillside, I saw another section of head spine.  When I got home, I did a test fit just to check for that 1 out of a 1000 chance and it fit!  I couldnt believe they were part of the same and I now had the largest headspine found so far.  A few weeks later, I was back out there with my son when he found  2 more pieces, which were immediately seen to connect; another great find.  That night while cleaning, we were talking about the headspines, and their shape. I said "I've got a base section I just found" and grabbed it to show him.  Thats when we saw that his pieces and my pieces were all from the same spine!  I know the missing tip is a fresh break, so its out there waiting somewhere.  We've looked more times, but never have found it.

 

Edited May 7 by hadrosauridae

[Doctor Mud]

11 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

There was however another one where I did go back to the earth and stone dump intentionally where I found the first part on a pile of debris that had been recently deposited there.

That ammonite is BEAUTIFUL! And I love how you left it in the matrix. Well worth the effort of locating the rest. 

[Doctor Mud]

1 hour ago, Wrangellian said:

So who gets the reunited fossil, you or Jack?   

I was wondering the same!