# Fossils



## Niko (Apr 30, 2007)

Found these in a creek when i was scouting for bottles. Anyone know there fossils?






 [/IMG]






[/IMG]






[/IMG]


----------



## muddyfingers (May 5, 2007)

It is so hard not to say " It looks like a petrified quarter, stuck in some kind of rock! " 

 Sorry, sometimes I just can't help goofing around.
                                                                            Willy


----------



## diginit (May 15, 2007)

WOW, A stone frog.  Must have lost the jumping contest.


----------



## brokenshovel (May 15, 2007)

Petrified SHEIT?


----------



## GuntherHess (May 15, 2007)

Maybe they are fossils, I cant say.
 The first one looks like some sort of concretion.
 Not sure I would have judged them to be fossils if I saw them on the ground but then I'm not a paleontologist


----------



## LC (May 15, 2007)

> paleontolog


 
 I myself, love paleontology, I have collected fossils for years, mostly trilobites, Flexicalymene Meeki,  as well as the Flexicalymene Retrosa, that are found in  my area, all from the Ordivician Period, dating around 400 million years or so old. And of course there is the BIG DOG, the *Isotelus Gigas*, our state fossil , that grew up to two feet long and larger from the same age. Regretfully, I am not well versed enough to give an opinion on what is being displayed as to what it is. I am wondering though, if possibly a museum in ones area can be contacted by email. If so, a person could possibly send an email with a picture of what they have to the museum, and put attention Paleontology, and might possibly get a response from them with an explanation as to what they have. Yes , I know, *Why didn't I check first* !!


----------



## GuntherHess (May 15, 2007)

Our state fossil is just the boring old echphora snail [:'(]
http://www.mgs.md.gov/esic/brochures/fossils/gif/pl22_3.jpg


----------



## LC (May 15, 2007)

You crack me up Matt ! What is so boring about your boring old echphora snail ? !!


----------



## LC (May 15, 2007)

Matt, There was a Gentleman by the name of Dan Cooper who bought some land about three miles from me, for the sole purpose of collecting trilobites. He would have an area of ground bulldozed off till the Ordovician layer of clay would be exposed. The idea was to try and bring up large pieces of the clay, stand on edge and try to split it down into layers, of course, hoping to find the Isotelus trilobites. The nine inch one shown in the Picture at top was found there by Dan Cooper, I was there along side of him watching him at the time it was uncovered. Parts of this trilobite stuck to both sides of the clay when it was split apart, as well as many small pieces breaking away from the clay and falling on the ground. Mr. Cooper spent quite a while attempting to pick up every little piece that he thought was part of this fossil off the ground where pieces had popped loose from the clay. He then spent hours in reconstructing this fossil back together. I think it is utterly amazing that an individual has the talent to even be able to do thins, I am pretty sure that I could not do so. I had the pleasure of holding this fossil in my hands after it's reconstruction for examination. If I remember right, Dan had to threaten to kill me in order for me to hand it back to him ! I have never had a luck of finding one of these in the prone position, only a few smaller ones enrolled. Will try and post some picks of some I have in the future.


----------



## muddyfingers (May 15, 2007)

LC that little bugger looks pretty cool. What time frame is it from?
 History outside of bottles is most definitely not my thing. Although paleontology does interest me, mostly for the thrill of the dig. Hopefully that opportunity will come some day. Would be a neet experience.

                                                                             Willy


----------



## LC (May 15, 2007)

Willy, the time frame is Ordovician Period, dating around 400,000,000 years or so. If you were close, we would have to go out and do what I call some bug hunting ! I do not dig like the Gentleman I mentioned, I only go out and surface collect Ordovician clay exposures that I find in creek banks in my area. after a good rain where the creeks will flood and then recede. I can not afford to buy the land and pay for dozer fees to uncover the clay. Depending on the area and location of the clay, a dozer operator, may have to go down anywhere from ten to twenty or so feet before hitting the top of the clay deposits. I did help Dan do a little digging on one of his digs. It was something else to split open a big piece of clay and expose maybe as many as six or eight (six or seven inch Isotelus). Only problem was , I never got to keep any of them. Some times I will get lucky and find a few that got washed out of the blue clay. I never get tired of finding them, and I always get a thrill each time I find one. Most people who surface collect here locally find one, they will more or less say, THERE'S ONE, pick it up and put it in their pocket, and go on to look for another one. When I find one, I will just take my good old time to look at it for quite awhile before picking it up. I do not get any religious experience out of it, but if you think about it, when one finds one of these, he is actually the first human to have ever seen it, and I find that a bit exhilarating. Of course, this is not the actual specimen. but a mineral casting where the trilobite had been covered by a mud slide during a prehistoric storm, then eventually decaying away. Then slowly but surely, the empty cavity where the trilobite decayed away leaving an exact casting of itself, was filled by mineral deposits, and during the millions of years that went by became a fossil. I can never get enough of it. Regretfully there are not many exposures around here locally, being every time ones opens up in the creek, some selfish low life will go and dig it out till there is nothing left to surface collect.[/align]


----------



## GuntherHess (May 16, 2007)

That's an amazing large trilobite. I have mostly collected marine fossils. I had a chance to do some great collecting down in North Carolina at the Texasgulf phosphate mines.


----------



## LC (May 16, 2007)

I saw Dan Cooper open up slabs that would have six or more of these Isotelue in a cluster, six or so inches in length, it was like looking back in time. I had never noticed till I found his site on the net, but he stated that every time he would split the clay finding the Isotelus, that they are always found in the upside down position. In theory, they were supposedly cover over by mud slides during storms. I did not notice that when ever I saw him uncover some, guess I was too excited to notice. I believe somewhere in Indiana, they find a lot of plant life fossils, crinoids and the like. They will take a slab and actually exray it. If there is plant life in it, they will sandblast it down to the plants, talk about looking back in time. Everything is complete right down to the stems. Would love to have one of those specimens, too expensive for me though, or at least for now. Matt, below is Dan Coopers website in case you might want to check him out. He has of course sold many of the trilobites he has dug, but he has also donated many of them to the Meuseum of Natural History in Cincinnati, and has let college students do digs on his property for their thesis, and let them keep the fossils as well. He has done a lot for the community as for making people aware of fossils, and I am quite proud to have had the privilege of meeting him, as well as being his friend. 

http://www.isotelus.com/cincinnatian.htm


----------



## LC (May 16, 2007)

Matt, the last time I visited the Museum of Natural History, they had one there on display, and if I remember right  measured 21 inches in length, a fantastic specimen. It was found in Adams County, Ohio, which adjoins the county I live in. A plaque at the bottom read, anonymously donated by someone in Adams County. Made me sick to my stomach after reading that, he could have donated the blasted thing to me !! [/align]


----------



## capsoda (May 16, 2007)

Never really though about there being so many different kinds of little critters back then. Picked up a bunch at a fossel park in Colorado years back for my kids but i have no I dea where they are now.


----------



## PhilaBottles (May 17, 2007)

PA's fossil is a trilobite. Phacops. right?? nasty lookin things.

 if anyone is interested, ive got some _crytolithus sp._ trilobites from Swatara Gap PA...cant get em anymore. little guys, but rare. Rt. 80 plowed right over the collecting site. I do hovever belive they dropped spoils somewhere. Pretty much picked over. Ill trade for fossils or bottles too. I just figure a trilobite collector would want a rare PA mudbug.

 Matt.


----------



## LC (May 20, 2007)

I am familiar with the Phacops species Matt, they get to be a pretty good size as well, have a few castings of some rather large ones. Can you post a pic of a _crytolithus sp._ trilobite from Swatara Gap PA ?


----------



## LC (May 20, 2007)

Warren, here is a link to a place roughy three mile form me where they drydredge trilobites. Quite intersting if you have an interest in fossils. This is where I first met Dan Cooper who started all this in this area. There is a lot of things to look at on this site, I would say it would take quite a few hours spent there to see everything available. Hope you enjoy it should you decide to check it out.

http://drydredgers.org/trip02may.htm


----------



## PhilaBottles (May 20, 2007)

cant take a pic right now, but this is a cryptolithus from Swatara Gap. This photo was on that website you posted above. i have heads, butts, etc...the sizes range from 1/4" to 1".

 Ordovician Period







 Matt.


----------



## LC (May 20, 2007)

Thanks Matt, I like complete specimens, or at least near complete.


----------



## PhilaBottles (May 21, 2007)

these little buggers were hard to find whole. tons of pieces, but very few whole ones. i'd say i have 10,000 pieces and 1 whole one for every 100th piece. but thats 2 days of digging. lots of calymene too. brittle stars. very few brachiopods. just mainly cryptolithus in the outcropping. it was fun, just too bad its gone. 

 Matt.


----------



## capsoda (May 21, 2007)

Thanks LC. That looks like fun. We get a few trilos around here in the 1 an 2 inch range but we mostly get bone and bone fragments from the ice age.

 I am the Alabama state fossil.[:-]


----------



## PhilaBottles (May 21, 2007)

yeah. i read about your discovery in an 1846 publication by Conrad.

 []


----------



## LC (May 21, 2007)

Matt, are you sure you were not digging in the shedding bed layer, the whole ones might be in another layer of clay below that.


----------



## LC (May 21, 2007)

The way they dredge for these fossils is just as hard work as digging bottles Warren. I helped a few times on a couple of digs. It was a blast though, even if it was hard work.


----------

