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Who Else Might Collect Fossils Besides Me?

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  • #16
    I collect fossils as well. Mostly the NC Megalodon shark teeth but I've got mammoth, mastodon, Pleistecene horses, etc, and a hadrasaur egg, etc from all over. Even some Texas mosasaur verts!
    In 2009, I sold the collection of a longtime NC collector that was accidentally killed at a phosphate mine. He and a retired friend had gone to a private quarry with permission and set up a table in an unused place. His friend would bring him buckets of matrix to screen. Apparently they set up too close to a hill and vibrations from equiptment shook the hill loose, and he was buried alive.
    This incident sent ripples of fear through the quarries, and most were closed to hunting. Even the big TexasGulf mine, that has turned out tons of superb fossils, has been closed the last two years to hunting. Before that, hunters had to go through training and be a part of a monitored group within a defined area. Hunters had to wear hard hats and steel toed shoes, etc. Now no one can recover these exquisite fossils in the mine. However, the Aurora Fossil Museum has truckloads of the matrix brought in to town, where it fills the Aurora town square up to 5' deep. There, hunters can hunt and dig and sift all day long for free and in safety. A lot of smaller shark teeth are found in the piles, but I saw a boy find a nice 3" meg a year or two ago. BTW, by experiment, a 5 gallon bucket of matrix from 40' down will yield OVER 500 shark teeth!

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    • #17
      Wow Cliff thanks for the info.Wow those mines are dangerous unh?..Its amazing The mosasaur.Fossils of this carniverous marine reptile have uncovered in so many places..Check out these two associated mosasaur vertebrae from Montana's Milk Formation...Pretty cool?

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      • #18
        Here are a few of mine.
          The name Ammonite comes from the Greek ram-horn God called Ammon.  Ammonites are the most widely known fossil; they are cephalopods and first appeared in the seas 415 million years ago, in the form of a straight shelled creature known as Bacrites.  During their evolution three catastrophic events occurred. The first during the Permian period (250million years ago), only 10% survived.  They went on to flourish throughout the Triassic period, but at the end of this period (206 million years ago) all but one species died. Then they began to thrive from the Jurassic period until the end of the Cretaceous period when all species of ammonites became extinct.

          This is an excellent fossil turtle. It is a Stylemys nebraskensis from South Dakota. This specimen is fully free of matrix and can be viewed from all angles. The turtle is complete and very well-articulated. The fossil has great natural color and very nice detail. The underside shell (plastron) is intact and fully articulated. The turtle is extremely inflated and 3-D, not crushed flat like most fossil turtles

        I found this Gryphaea (pronounced 'gry-fee-a') or 'Devils' toenails' near Martindale Texas on the San Marcos River near my brothers house. 

        Jack

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        • #19
          Rock On Jack!

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          • #20
            Here is an album of some of the fossils displayed at our museum, the Hamme's Mill Museum in Warrenton NC. I'll try to remember to take pics of the larger pieces later.

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            • #21
              I Checked it out...Very Cool..

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              • #22
                Here's a little fossil trilobite.  An extinct marine arthropod.  Similar to a horseshoe crab today.  This one's about 520 MYO, from Morocco.  I first started hunting fossils here in RI in the early 60's, mostly plants.  I've collected trilobite fossils for many years, but artifacts have been my priority for the past 20 years.
                Rhode Island

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                • #23
                  Hey Rocks are rocks very nice.Im glad you bring up morocco.Ive see many fossils from there but not a trilobite..must be more rare than the other fossils from there.My avatar course is from there..A good subject we shall get into soon..

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                  • #24
                    Very nice. Like the color contrast.

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                    • #25
                      All your fossils are wonderful, I only find plant and shell fossils.

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                      • #26
                        Well Plant and shell fossils are very cool..Have you uncovered any full leaf fossils like maybe a fern leaf?.....

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                        • #27
                          I have only found a small amount of leaf fossils, I have a bunch of horsetail fossils in my rock garden. I wish I could find a trilibite.I have found alot of corals, but you guys find the cool fossils.

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                          • #28
                            If you ever cross over a couple of states into North Carolina from where your at..stop off in one of the rivers there and grabs ya a bucket full of wash from the river..when you get home?...get ya some window screen maybe? and wash the dirt thru and let what is on the screen dry...then take on in to the house and look closely as you will find all kinds of shark teeth and other cool fossils from the miocene.....cool?...If ever missouri way ,do the same..there you have a chance of finding fossils from the cretaceous...yea the dinosaur period...cretaceous sharks and some rare reptile teeth...anyway closest to ya i can think of at the moment legal like...jn

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                            • #29
                              Shoot I was in NC this past summer for a family reunion, passed so many huge creeks that I would have loved to point and fossil hunt in! I live about 35 miles from the  Mo border, I guess I need to cross over and hunt. Suppost to be 54 degrees here this weekend so I will be in the creek hope to find something good.

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                              • #30
                                Missouri is the place to go..Remember its not the size of the fossil that really matters.Its the rarity..dont be afraid to use magnifyers to find some of these super rare Dinosaur teeth..remember to wash out the matrix from the bucket.sure check out the creek but carry what you can out and go collect fossils right at home...jn

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