What Sparked Your Interest In Fossils?

[Missourian]

How did you get interested in fossils?

I started out as a kid wandering the hills and creeks on land in Iron County, Missouri owned by my grandmother and her siblings.

The area is underlain with the Cambrian Potosi Dolomite. A distinction of the bed is the presence of large, fragile geodes that broke up upon weathering. The pieces of quartz-lined chert remained in the soil after the carbonate dissolved away. Eventually, they emerged in the leaf litter and often ended up in creek beds. I didn't know any of this when I was five years old. All I knew was that cool rocks magically appeared everywhere. Some examples of the quartz chunks:

I retained some interest in geologic things as I grew up. I eventually began to find little Pennsylvanian fossils mixed into the gravel in the creek next to my house, and the rest is history.

[pleecan]

Started late.... When I was in my early 40's .... went to a local quarry at the bottom of street to find some garden rocks... instead... had a chance encounter with a 9" isotelus trilobite.... and the rest is history

Edited November 29, 2012 by pleecan

[rejd]

I started late as well. I was 39. I had always had an interest in fossils but never really did much about it. Then a couple of summers ago I was out in the badlands for a star party and went for a hike during the day. Found some nice dino fossils and as pleecan said, the rest is history. I am now hooked and this snow on the ground is killing me right now. I guess it means time to start all the prepping that I have lined up. I am also doing some volunteer work and the Royal Tyrell museum sorting mircro fossils. it is amazing what you can find under a microscope!

[fossilselachian]

A single shark tooth washed up on a beach in South Carolina.

[cowsharks]

Long story short ...

Overheard two coworkers talking about "fossil shark teeth". An hour later, one of them ran home and grabbed some riker mounts full of fossil shark teeth and brought them back for show and tell. He also handed me a baggie full of scraps (broken teeth). A month later I joined him and another friend for my first fossil hunting trip. That was Jan 1996, and I've been hooked ever since.

Daryl.

[Bullsnake]

Growing up in the country, I've always been fascinated by natural history. When adulthood came along, it was off to a blue-collar job, nightlife socializing, and a passion for music. Now, trying to gain lost ground, I've found that fossils always offer new opportunities for discovery of things I never new existed, and no longer do exist.

[sound too much like a confessional? ]

[Grenzton]

My first find was a pygidium from a devonian trilobite, this was my first encounter with fossils, 43 years ago..

greets Karl

[Bev]

From the time I was a little girl my Mother would take us kids (6) on rock hunts up various drywashes in SE Minnesota. She was, and still is, interested in "sparkley creek rock" the same is Missourian describes. And we would occassionally find fossils! They fascinated me, but were of no interest to her.

When my kids were young, we were climbing in a dry wash and my son found was the locale university said was a "dinosaur gizzard" mid 80s. Now we know that these are concretions.

After my home burned I ended up moving over here to Spring Valley and this summer had a deck/retaining wall put in and it is full of fossils! Some nice sized ones! In trying to identify them, I ended up up on thefossilforum and with a new hobby!

I've become obsessed with fossil hunting! So much to learn! I love being outside and I love the hunt. And now my Mother and sister are becoming interested! But Mom would still prefer sparkly creek rock

Bev

[Malcolmt]

First started when I was about 10 years old in Kingston , Ontario. There was a rock cliff near where we lived where all the kids played. Used to find very large straight cephalopods all over the area. 48 years later I've still got the bug even after laying off for quite a while to spend it in hockey arenas with the kids..........

Edited November 29, 2012 by Malcolmt

[crabfossilsteve]

Good subject...ha ha

My obsession with fossils has gone through cycles. It started back as a kid when my parents took us to a YMCA family camp out in western Pennsylvania and the camp's naturalist took us on a visit to a local limestone quarry. We found gobs of Mississippian brachiopods and my little sister found a small 3/4 complete enrolled trilobite. From there I discovered a book on Pennsylvania fossil locations. My mom or dad would take me collecting at what are now very famous locations in PA (the old Fruitville Quarry and Swatara Gap). Then in college a buddy and I found a large complete brittlestar starfish at Swatara Gap that we eventually sold to the Smithsonian Museum. During Grad school in Virginia didn't do any collecting. After that I lived on the Chesapeake Bay where a buddy and I would hit the beach at Westmoreland Park after winter storms for you know what...those teeth. When I moved out to the Shenandoah Valley is when the obsession really to hold. Started going south for some blind trilobites and north to Swatara Gap and Ontario Canada whose limestone quarries had a world class array of bugs and echinoderms..oh my. Vacations to the Pacific Northwest also hooked me on crab fossils. This all lead to the need for a shop and an assortment of prep equipment. Wow.... I'm now an addict.... and that was a very short summary of how I became such..

Crabfossilsteve

[Wrangellian]

Yes, good subject (thanks again, MOan)..

In uncertain order:

1) younger brother interested in dinosaurs as many kids are at a young age... parents bought him books which I inevitably read (my thing at the time was astronomy/the planets)

2) met the local rockhound club who had a setup at the Fall Fair, joined them (with my mother - I was 7). I actually started out being more into rocks/minerals then transitioned more to fossils later.

3) family outings to the local river which happened to be the Chemainus... good for Cret. marine fossils.....

3) I should also mention, during rockhound days (the now 'late') Dr Al McGugan used to invite me on geo/paleo field trips around the area. I don't think I appreciated it then as much as I do now in hindsight.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Wrangellian

[jpc]

It was 1992. I was spending some time in Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota aiding in prairie dog research. ONe day a few of us went out to the Badlands (outside the same-named National Park) and I found this. I was hooked. I like to claim this was my first fossil, but I am sure there were other teeth and bones found that day before stumbling onto this. I prepped this with a drywall screw.

Edit: My hand is in focus... the fossil not so much. Sorry.

Edited November 30, 2012 by jpc

[glacialerratic]

Loved them since I was a little kid.

Wish the internet and TFF had been around in the 70's and 80's, I'd have a much bigger collection!

[Auspex]

As a very young child, My Father and Grandfather would take me to a small, early 20th century coal strip mine near our family hunting camp in northern Pennsylvania, and show me how to find lycopod trunks and roots in the spoil heaps. The whole county is also full of Devonian marine and Mississippian marine fossils. Finding them are some of my earliest memories.

[Xiphactinus]

I can't ever remember a time when I wasn't interested in dinosaurs. My kindergarten teacher told my parents that I was the first student she had that sent her to a dictionary to try and find how to spell words. I was lucky enough that I had a creek behind my house in the Kansas City area full of Pennsylvanian marine fossils. I still have a few that I found more than 40 years ago when I was about 4 or 5 years old. Been hooked my entire life.

[CH4ShotCaller]

Spent a summer with my Grand Pappy in West Virginia helping him shovel gravel for a septic tank (yea! no more outhouse with the boogeyman) and a new gravel drive. Started finding all kinds of 'stuff' in the gravel. I remember asking everyone, 'how'd these sea shells get inside rocks in the mountains'? Curiosity is the key.

[Terry Dactyll]

Museum organised trip into a quarry....

[bear-dog]

Fast forward 2 years of disapointment about not finding dino's in Tampa Fla. as a kid.I was luck to have a man [Pops Taylor] talk to us about fossils in Elementry School.The rest is now history.I also talk to schools myself.

Edited November 30, 2012 by bear-dog

[Uncle Siphuncle]

GETTING RICH QUICK!!! (now ducking a fusillade of oysters). hahaha

[Boneman007]

A friend told me he was a fossil hunter. I doubted him and he took me out. Fouind my first lower cretaceous ammonite and I was hooked.

The rest is history!

It's still one of my favorite fossils!!

[grampa dino]

I was born this way, just love anything dinosaur

[Down under fossil hunter]

Crazy about dinosaurs since I was very young so my dad would take me out looking for Triassic fossils.

[archaeor]

I started out 35 years ago panning/sluicing for gold in the Calif. mother-lode. While hunting for gold, I started finding old bottles. While out looking for bottles, I started finding arrowheads. While out looking for arrowheads, I started finding fossils. Still doing all those!

[Plantguy]

I too was in California..it was in the late 60's and my father was going to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. They were digging thru the hillsides at the time next to base housing to put in a highway and I got to check out all of the construction equipment when they were done for the day. Climbing on piles of dirt and picking up rocks was mandatory. Fossils were found by accident but the addiction soon followed...Still have the very first one....its puny and aint very pretty but its got tremendous sentimental value!

Regards, Chris

[smokeriderdon]

jpc, that is one heck of a first find! Not going to show ignorance by guessing wrong, so what is it?

I have always been interested in dinosaurs, as many have said already. Always read books about them. Dimetrodon and Triceratops were my favorites growing up. Still are really. And yes, I know now Dimetrodon is NOT a dino. Went to the Smithsonian Natural History as much as my parents/grandmother/school would afford me the chance to do. Also, growing up in Southern MD you can't avoid fossils if you are a kid who gets in the dirt. Construction sites around here hit the Calvert or Aquia formations on a regular basis. At a Boyscout camp (where, I can't remember, wish I could) we were climbing a hill where fossilized hearts ( actually Cuclea(sp?) clams from the Aquia) were all over the place. I took some home, but couldn't bring them in the house as they were too dirty. THAT is not an issue any longer.

Finally, in the early 90's, I managed to find out about a couple local fossil clubs, and I really got into the hobby. It kills me that I didn't know about these clubs until then and missed out on the days where you could drive yourself into Lee Creek and such stuff.

Now my disposable income splits time between fossils, coins and models. LOL