Anyone collect/hunt fossils?

FYI don't forget to right click and click on view image to see the whole photo. I left them at about 25% original so you can see details.

Thanks for posting your photo’s. I’ve been an avid collector since age 9. I earned a degree in Geology in my youth, even though I never worked in that field.

When my Father died in 1971 I was forced to sell our joint collection as his Union cheated my Mother out of his death benefits, but that’s for another thread. I sold most of the gemstone but kept my mineral / crystal / fossil collection until 1978 when circumstances forced me to sell that.

In 1999 I sold my second collection to help with my relocation to Alaska so I don’t have much left.

My wife was cleaning her lenses when I noticed your thread and she quickly took some shots of a few items for me in the sun on our enclosed back porch so please forgive the quality. She did not have time to set up a light box.

First is a Crinoid from Utah about 100 miles southeast of Dougway Proving Grounds. Matrix is Mudstone and Crinoids are quite common there. This is pretty good one. Mostly you find beds of stems and brachiopods in clay and mudstone.




Next is some fish from Wyoming that were collected near Kemmerer, Wyoming a famous location. I do not know the species.




Next are two Carcharodon Megalodon teeth collected in Florida and if I recall these two are from a river mouth on the Gulf Coast in S. Florida. I used to have some large ones over 6” but sold those. I kept these two as they are very nice specimens with the serations on the edges intact.




The one with three teeth includes one from Morocco I picked up in a shop somewhere. It’s a Mackerel Shark but I don’t recall the correct name (old brain cells).



This one is Dinosaur bone from the Greenriver Formation in Utah. It’s a small specimen of gem quality silicate replacement. There are sill locations you can legally get this material provided it’s on old enough patented Homesteads. The best I collected in my youth were sold to a Natural History museum.



Next is a leaf I picked up near a Coal Mine a couple of hours from Anchorage.



These next two are from China. First is a Keichousaurus (reptile) and the other is an Dinosaur egg. These are legal authenticated specimens with provenance that were aquired while it was still legal. No way of knowing what the egg is from and most of the many thousands that were found are never classified. This is not a very good one as it has very little of the shell still intact, but interesting all the same.

Note: Anyone thinking of buying items from china in shops beware! Most for sale now are either illegal or fakes. The keichousarus are mostly fakes and so well done it takes someone who knows how to tell the difference to buy them safely. Even if they are real, if you can’t document to the source you may have a Felony in your hand. Beware unless you know what you are doing. These were purchased from a person I know who was one of the first businessmen into China when it opened up and predate the current laws.





Warning:
If you find a vertebrate fossil don’t touch. The scientific community has manipulated politicians to make collecting illegal for amateurs. Before touching make very sure you have the landowners permission in writing and that the land was homesteaded early enough and patented so you can legally own the item.