fossil collection

[chipsanddust]

Is anyone out there interested in collecting fossils.

I have been collecting for years, but unfortunately due to a house fire last winter I lost almost my entire collection(as well as everything else). Well I am back in my home and on my feet as well and am ready to begin building the collection back up.

I live in the Middle East of the U.S.A. If anyone knows of any sites that I could visit to do some collection I would greatly appreciate the info. I would particulary like to dig up some trilobites. Ammonites and other nautiloids are also of interest to me. But I am really interested in just about any marine fossils. I also used to have an extensive collection of Pennsylvanian land and swamp plants.

I would appreciate any info that could be sent my way.

 

[Mr. G]

It's been more than a few years since high school and college and my first teaching job, years when I was into fossil collecting in moderation.

My small, currently extant fossil collection is mostly populated by leaf and twig fossils in sedimentary rock, a few fish scales in shale, and a couple specimens of coprolite.

Way back when, I did occassionally participate in digs for rhinos, sabre cats and, once, avian coprolite.

Paleo was outside my field of expertise but, since astronomy was my gig and the daytime hours were mostly free, I bummed around alot with paleo-rats from the same institution when my field excursions happened to coincide with theirs.

 

[Tristan]

Hmmmm... I got some cool fish fossils that I found on the beach at my grandmas house on lake erie. But thats about it. I think I have a few others but I was always mainly interested in minerals and gems. I still am and thats why I work for a jeweler. But I also LOVE astronomy

 

[chipsanddust]

replies

Mr. G:

Your mammalian paleo expeditions sound like they were extremely interesting. I have never had the opportunity to work at that kind of a dig. I have heard that areas of Florida are prime for tertiary fossils though. Sounds like a really interesting time.
I am also very interested in astronomy. I am getting ready to order a nice refractor to partially replace the scopes with were destroyed in the fire. What kind of stuff were you into, Star splitting, messier spotting, comet searching, or were you working with a Big scope. Just curious.

Tristan:
If you want to try out fossil collecting you are in an excellent place to do it. Ohio is extremely fossiliferous. Virtually every rock outcropping has fossils in it. At one time I had quite a few cone corals, bryozoans, and even a few trilobites from Ohio. I even spent months cutting Brachiopods out of limestone I collected there. Once I carefully cut them out of the rock and Carefully cleaned them off with a dilute hydrochloric acid solution, they were a very attractive pinkish color. If you find some and decide to try this I must warn you to be very careful and keep a supply of water around to wash the acid off the stone. At least the fossils that I collected were easily damaged by the acid. You have to be very careful to get them clean without damaging them. AS far as I am concerned it is worth the effort though.

 

[Mr. G]

Going way off-topic...

chipsanddust,

Mr. G: I have heard that areas of Florida are prime for tertiary fossils though.

Most all my paleo-related experiences occured in my home state of Oregon. Floriduh has its significant paleo- and archeo-sites, but I haven't really been "boning" up on them.

I am getting ready to order a nice refractor...

My first two scopes as a pre-teen were affordable refractors. For a couple years, way back when, I worked on a university solar research project using a 6" refractor. Some day I'll have a 10" solar refractor all my own; he says, blissfully pretending...

What kind of stuff were you into, Star splitting, messier spotting, comet searching, or were you working with a Big scope.

Ever since I began when I was still a kid, I've done a bit of everything: solar, stellar, asteroidal, lunar, planetary, cometary, meteoritical and what not.

I've used mostly reflectors, ranging up to 72" (that, just once) but generally in the 14"-36" range.

For additional background, I did organize and lead a Halley's comet expediton to Peru in '86, and two total solar eclipse expeditions in '79, in Oregon/Washington, and in '92, in Mexico.

My last career-related project was a short-lived, ultimately mostly unsuccessful fundraising effort on behalf of JPL's/Eleanor Helin's near-earth asteroid research project (back in '92, when most people still thought the risk to be laughable and not worth their money.)

I ceased teaching mid-'97.

Not possessing the requisite math skills, I never have been published in a peer-reviewed, refereed journal. I have been published in the popular press and, over the years, been one of those talking-head folks who appear on radio and tv to wax eloquently about things cosmic -- which is why I have the public image that I here am known for: an arrogant and insufferable attitude.

Over the years, I've stood intellectually exposed before thousands, cummulatively millions (in tv and radioland), in various speaking venues and I've survived the risks. What is a message board's population's opining on my character in the grand scheme of my universe?

Oh, and I'm an atheist because I have no need for gods. I am too self-sufficient.

(This message has been brought to you as a public sevice by the Authorities Against Arguments of Authority Network).

 

[Mr. G]

Oh, and to belatedly answer your question, since '97 I haven't done very much recreational astromony. Down here, south Florida's ubiquitous atmospheric humidity and nighttime light pollution together make recreational atronomy much less visually impressive than astronomy by recall.