Whats Everyone's Favorite Finds

[Paleo-shark_hunter]

I've seen some REALLY good finds here on the Fossil Forum, now I'm just wondering which are you favorite finds, and a Story behind the find.

To start, my favorite is probably my Ammonite that I've narrowed down to the Phylloceras sp.

It measures about 1" in diamiter

Edited June 14, 2011 by Paleo-shark_hunter

[bmorefossil]

3 years ago my father and I began collecting along the potomac river for a little change of our usual miocene era finds from calvert cliffs. We only hunted the rich late paleocene deposits for roughly 3 months finding otodus, various species of sand tigers, croc teeth and even a few paleocarcharodon teeth. Most of the spots we would collect at were fairly over worked and usually only a few nice teeth would pop up but it was a wonderful change of pace for once being able to collect a whole new era of fossils. One day while we were down there I spoted something I had only seen others find along the potomac, croc verts. One after another all in a 20ft section of the dark sand beach. It was so odd that I had never found one before and now all of a sudden these verts were poping up so I searched up and down that section of beach before I spotted it sticking out of a block of matrix, not knowing exactly what the bone was I picked up a section of the unidentified fossil that was broken off and took it home. When i began to work on the small block of matrix at home i began to expose teeth, croc teeth! I was shocked and to this day still am! I never thought i would ever find something this cool. So the next day i went down to the beach instead of school to finish removing what i thought at the time was just a croc jaw. The block weighed in at close to 150lbs so hauling it back the nearling 2 miles was going to be a hard one and took me a good bit of time but it was well worth it. After the prep. process the skull contains over 50 teeth, a few scutes and at least 9 verts free of matrix and in the left eye socket! this most likely will be my greatest find till i die.

[Cerbios]

That Croc's jaw looks amazing. It was well worth your toil.

[Dave pom Allen]

My favorite find would have to be the stretch of beach i call "HEAVEN" located here in Taranaki New Zealand that i share with a handful of people and it has been constantly producing world class Marine Mammal and Sea Bird fossils of the late miocene early pliocene

PS found today a 2 foot rib of a cetacean and the skull of very large unknown seabird

[Terry Dactyll]

Paleo-shark_hunter... Weve had a couple of these threads 'Favoroute finds' kinda thing...I like reading through them and I never know what to put down TBH out of so many fossils I have and last time I picked my North Somerset Coast Cenoceras Nautilus with an Arietites leaning on it as my favoroute... I thought this time I have the opportunity to pick something different (LOL) and not keep repeating myself so thanks...

I had looked at this a few times in the past sat on the beach peeping out of a massive chunk of rock in Lyme Regis and had disregarded it as not worth further investigation, and my mate even said what was showing was infact a large worn shell or something, so even with a more expert second opinion we agreed and left it... it must have been sat there for many many years I presume... anyway, as there wasnt much about one day I decided to investigate it further and it didnt take long to find out it was all there, and it was something rarther a bit rare and special... It took an hour or so to get the rock down so it could be moved and would just about squeeze into my rucksack so I lay on the floor and I put my arms through the straps and rolled over so it was ontop of me and I was face down... I got to my knees then tried to get up and I couldnt just do it... I needed something to pull up on and on a beach theres nothing there...I saw a family walking down and I asked the bloke to help me get it on my back and get me stood up which he did and I thanked him... it was much easier with some help lol... It seemed a long walk back but probably only just over half a mile and with the car in sight about 50 foot away something 'pinged' in my leg and it wouldnt work properly... I got to the car and opened the boot 'tail gate' then sat on the back loosened the straps and let the rucksack drop in... I couldnt wait to start work on it as I had no idea what it was...The 3 1/2 hour drive back was effortless... Its supprising how your car glides up the motorway with some weight in it and very often I go back with the suspension flat looking like a low rider... Heres a couple of photo's...

Heres a photo of it before I started work on it... I dampened it with a rag...

Heres a couple during prep... It was a nightmare the shell is only 1/2 mm thick...

Heres one of it finished...Its VERY rare ammonite for this neck of the woods Sulciferites cf. greenoughi (Sowerby). Lyme regis Dorset...

And something the 'seasoned collector' will be familiar with... Once you find something 'the knowledge' you aquire in finding where it was can very often find you another pretty quickly after, even if it is rare... and shortly after I found another 2... this is the best of them...Its an absoloute belter