Yay, trilobite!

Its all cretaceous era stuff out here.
(Southern California sea bed deposits.)

But still worth a dig or two if you know where to go.

Mostly shark's teeth, Ammonites and clams.

Love the badge.



-Badger-

Ahh thank you! Out here in Wisconsin all of our rock is Precambian up to the Devonian period. You can find a lot of interesting creatures out here, along with early corals and crinoids.

I'm originally from Michigan and I'm not sure what is all out there, but the Petosky stones are fossils made of Rugose coral :>

I read somewhere recently that a guy found a Petosky the size of a washing machine.

Huge thing- I think he brought it up out of the bed of a lake or pond?
Been some legal issues as well- I think the state decided to confiscate it as a national treasure or some such.

Southern California was sea bed until something around a million or two years ago. I'd have to go look it up to be sure, as I don't pay much attention to post Cretaceous event timelines. (I am such a dinosaur nerd sometimes....well, dinos, ancient sea creatures and mammal-like reptiles, with some Devonian, Burgess shale and other precambrian flirtations... But you get the idea.)

I really love me some Dunkleosteus...But you'll never find one out here.

Ancient whale fossils show up on and around the Laguna cliffs though.
Mostly vertebrae and the odd tooth.


We have lots of ice age mammals too- The LaBrea tar pits are maybe 45 miles from me, at the Page museum.
Wish I had time to volunteer to pick apart tar balls in the lab...But they prefer volunteers who can keep a regular schedule and can show up for months or years worth of work.

We had plenty of deposits in Shasta lake when it drained ever year when I lived there. The banks of the lake are all shelves of sandstone.

But again, you mostly get clams, ammonites and the odd shark tooth up there.
Never heard of anyone finding anything more interesting.
I had bags of clams and badly eroded ammonites for years.
My grandmother threw it all out one day. But none of it was particularly valuable, as it was all well weathered and damaged.


I used to like collecting obsidian lumps in a few places up north as well, but my access is limited these days.
Too bad Lassen has gotten picked so badly...Used to find really beautiful brown/red obsidian lying on the side of the road.
Hard to find the stuff now unless you're willing to do some serious hiking.

As you can probably tell, I'm a casual rockhound, more than a geologist- But I still like taking trips to promising sites and picking through stuff.



-Badger-

Man, I really need to go traveling more! Even the Cretaceous period and beyond can yield some things, and to a geologist even a mundane fossil is worth something :>

You sound like someone right up my alley, if you ever want to chat more about rocks feel free to come chat with me! I'm still in school for geology(first year actually) but I'm happy to listen to just about anything about rocks and fossils!

The California coast is full of fossil bearing deposits.

I can think of at least 5 of them within 50 miles of where I live, in the heart of Anaheim, just a mile north of Disneyland.

About 90% of whatever you find will be either shark's teeth or clams.
The really cool stuff is usually further north.


Just as a for instance, walking along the beach in Laguna, its common to find clamshells washed out of the cliffs here.
I am pretty sure they are very young fossils, as the shell is usually intact.
You would have a hard time telling its a fossil, except for the rock clinging tenaciously to it. Usually in the hollow of the shell.

Some miles north, in Kern county, in an area thats now mostly out of bounds because of land development, theres an area thats filled with shark's teeth.
I mean, you could scoop up a bucketful of the fine sand/soil and sift a dozen teeth and tooth fragments out of it.
Theres literally millions of shark teeth in the loose soil of this ridge.

Its called Sharktooth hill.
http://inyo.coffeecup.com/site/sb/s.....rkbonebed.html


I'm friendly and always willing to chat.

Time can be a factor for me, as I work out of the home, and crunch time can leave me unable to be social for weeks at a time.

I try to get back to people afterwards, but patience is a necessity when trying to keep in touch with me.
That, and theres several dozen friends who want to hear from me too...but they tend to require me to contact them first, and I lose track easily.

I have many hobbies and interests, and rocks and fossil hunting are one of them.
I'm also a historian, knifemaker and armourer who makes reproductions of medieval European weapons and gear.
And many other crafts...Too many to easily list.
I can use pretty much any crafting tool known to man so long as I get a little time to practice with something unfamiliar.
I make a lot of things.


I've had friends who are paleontologists, archeologists, anthropologists and the like.
I seldom here from many of them these days, as we all went our separate ways long ago.
But I still enjoy field trips, when I can manage it...And when my body is up to it.

Feel free to PM me for whatever chat system you want to use.
We'll see what I can manage.

-Badger-