Anyone live near a world famous fossil site?

[Libraraptor]

Feb 26, 2011 12:59:32 GMT neovenator08 said:

Yeah, I live on the Isle of Wight, which is famous for many new fossils; for instance, Neovenator.

Now that definitely explains your name ;D

[Griffin]

Feb 20, 2011 23:59:10 GMT simon said:

Feb 20, 2011 22:38:57 GMT Griffin said:

I'm roughly 20 minutes away from a huge trackway from the Triassic/Jurassic. Wouldn't call it world famous but it has been in the papers a lot recently.

Not the one that some developer has bulldozed I hope?

Actually yeah. They gave the state museum permission to go in and salvage what they can when they can once the workers leave for the day. But they aren't working around the fossils. :/ Guess its better than nothing.

[spiralhorn]

I don't know if I do... are there any well known fossil sites in Northern California?

[crazycrowman]

I am within reasonable distance to many excellent fossil sites - One of the best places for fossil ferns in the USA, a place you can walk the shoreline for Megaladon Teeth among others, another few places with REALLY nice nice Trilobites, AND a few sites with dino & other prehistoric animal tracks - All places I can legally collect fine examples from.

[Gorgonopsid]

I live close to where the Cohoes Mastodon was found. ;D

[jomes]

Apparently, there is a significant Permian insect site just a few miles from where I grew up. I never knew about it until I came across a book talking about the famous fossils of Elmo, Kansas. Elmo (Population <30) is a collection of maybe 15 houses at the intersection of two highways. The only services provided at Elmo is a stop sign. My best friend grew up in the "suburbs" of Elmo, also known as the house on the other side of the highway.

I actually grew up on a farm outside of Hope, Kansas (Population 364). President Dwight David Eisenhower was likely conceived in Hope. Efforts to place a road sign proclaiming Hope's only claim to fame were thwarted by residents with tact.

www.windsofkansas.com/elmo.html

[Gorgonopsid]

I do have Pre Dinosaurs like Trilobites, Orthocones, etc at my State Museum. But I don't live near them or if I do I don't know.

[stoneage]

Mar 15, 2011 22:32:25 GMT Gorgonopsid said:

I do have Pre Dinosaurs like Trilobites, Orthocones, etc at my State Museum. But I don't live near them or if I do I don't know.

You don't know where you live?

[dinonikes]

Feb 21, 2011 0:35:56 GMT totoro said:

I used to live in Joliet, Illinois, less than 20 miles from Mazon Creek ( www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/carboniferous/mazon.html , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazon_Creek_fossil_beds ), where some amazing plant fossils from the Pennsylvanian-Carboniferous Period could be had in nice oval ironstone concretions. Just like the trilobite fossil that I inexplicably left in the yard of our first home when we moved (I was 9, but old enough to know better! :, I failed to fully appreciate the treasure-trove just down the road from me until I had gone. Now, I'm surrounded by basalt.

Here's a photo of a fossil I collected as a kid:



I still remember opening that puppy up and seeing the fern fossil.

I have lived outside of Chicago my whole life and live within driving distance of Mazon Creek. I spent many days with my father and my siblings clamboring over the huge piles of rocks that were to be found along the roads near such small town as Coal City. My father would load us up into the family VW bus and we would just park on the side of the road and jump out and instantly be fossil hunting. I still have a fairly large box of fossils I collected-many like the one you picture here-ferns and other Carboniferous era plant materials. I also have a smaller box of these concretions that were never opened up- who knows what might lie within? Mazon Creek is also the only spot where the Tully Monster has been found, the state fossil of Illinois. Now all of the piles of rocks are fenced off and you cant go fossil hunting without getting permission from the coal companies- insurance liabilities got the best of those easy fossil opportunites-