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| It was an Ames, Iowa kind of a weekend. The Skunk River runs through the town and there have been rumors of a dry river bank. A dry river bank makes for good fossil hunting so KP, the dog, and I decided to check it out. Lo and behold, that damn river was dry. We counted 2 puddles in a 2 miles stretch. There were hundreds of minnows and frogs in each patch of water. It was an interesting microcosm if not a little crowded for the poor guys. |
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| Here's one of the pieces I found on the river bank. I believe it to be a solitary coral of some sort. It looks unlike the other solitary corals I've found in the past (see horned coral). I know it takes a lot of pressure to make a fossil so perhaps it's just a squished horned coral. I'm not an expert, I'm still a novice but none of my fossil books have a picture of this fossilized fellow. If any of you know anyone I could ask that would be great. Maybe I'll put the image on a fossil forum website later today and get back to you. |
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| This is the back of the same solitary coral (or what I believe to be a solitary coral). It's about the size of a dime. |
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| Left to Right: 1. a rock that looks like a silly profile. 2. This fossil was odd, I'm not sure what it is. If you hold a magnifying glass up to it it has a pattern like some kind of a dense coral. Lots of circular patterns. 3. A piece of a fossilized bone (the outside). 4. A piece of a fossilized bone on the inside, you can see the marrow. 5. A piece of a fossilized tooth. This one was a heart breaker because it would have been so awesome had it not been broken. The enamel of the tooth looks like pottery glaze. Sigh. Oh, well. At least I still found it. 6. A piece of native American pottery. This piece was found in Marion County. |
