I still find fossils, guys! even though I've been a terrible blogger.

I found these lycopsid tree root fossils a few weeks ago. 5 dollar bill for scale coz I'm fancy like that.

Fossils 9-26-13

We had to stop at Kyle's camp site at lunch so I took a chance and paroozed the river's edge for fossils.  I found a few!  Well...I found two.

The fossil on the left (not the penny, as if you needed to read that) is part of a bison tooth and the fossil on the right is part of a head of coral.  So cool.

Oh yeah, while I was trying to scan these I spilled coffee all over my crotch and butt.  I'm at work...ugh.  The things I do for this blog.

A Trip to Central Illinois.

Fossils we found on the Mackinaw River.

If I wrote every detail down from my amazing trip we'd be here all night.  I'll just write down some highlights:  

Took Friday off work and drove to Illinois, landed in East Peoria at two and picked up Matt, ate Thai food, find two abandoned kittens and save their lives, go to Rhodell's to drink micro-brews with my amazing professor (Oscar Gillespie) and a smattering of others (we play darts, I hate darts).  Hug Juice Wallis. Go to the Mackinaw  River with friends (Steve, Jessie, Chris, Dave, Christine, Matt, and a few new friends) where we float in tepid water, look for fossils, and drink beer.  Go to Steve's house to see Rishika!  Get some nostalgic photos while we listen to music and do "other" things.  Sleep.  Wake up at 9 and have some food with Miss Elizabeth Carol.  Leave for Bloomington, IL to see my brother, Barton.  Get some food and beers while we wait for my mom to show up.  Go to the National Guard gym and see my little brother, Paul, receive three awards (he's at the top of his class, woot!).  Mom arrives and feeds the three of us at another micro-brewery.  Boys leave and mom and I get a hotel.  We buy swimming suits and beer.  We sit by the poolside and catch up, drinking beer and smoking cigs (ahhh!)...coz, we cool like that.  We watch dumb teenager poolside antics and meet a young man that was about to audition for The Voice (he wouldn't perform for us...he's gonna suck).  Mom and I get hungry and go to Stake and Shake....mmmm.  Go back to the hotel, sleep, wake up, hug mom "bye", love her so much!  Hit the road for Iowa.  The sadness from losing my Ryder-dog is heavy in my heart on the ride home.  I think about him a lot.  Think about my Ryder-Dog and what a good life we had and how it's ok to be sad for awhile.  Come home to a happy boyfriend and a happy dog.  Life is good.  I had an amazing weekend. 

Fossil Hunting in Iowa. April, 2013. Brachiopods and Horned Coral.

I pulled more horned coral out of this creek bed in 30 minutes than I have over the course of the entire 2012 fossil hunting season.  Thank you rain.  If it wasn't for you all of these fossils would have been hidden under stagnant dirt and sand for many years.

As you can see, I found a helluva lot of horned coral.  I'm not sure of their various taxonomies but there appear to be three different variations.  I base this off of size, segments, and the appearance of the outside and inside of each specimen (bumpy, smooth, varied?).  But, damn, I'm not a geologist so I'll leave the tedium to those paid poorly for it (always end with a preposition).

As for the brachiopods, there appear to be several of those as well. I believe I have four or five variations. Not to mention a nice piece of branched coral (hanging out above the penny in the bottom photograph). 

As always, happy huntings.  I hope you find something good today.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa: Ditch (creek bed) Time Adventure Time!

Found some nice Brachiopods and a killer horned coral over the weekend (top right, it's segmented and huge, totally excellent).  The ditch was full of biting flies, mosquitos, and itchy plants...if I didn't make it out with a handful of fossils I would have looked pretty pathetic.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa.

1. A rock with a hole in it...soon it will become a beautiful necklace.  2. A strange and orange piece of coral.  Look at that fantastic ridge.  3.  Another small piece of coral or a sponge.  Not totally sure which one it is...I still vote for coral.

Found in Marion County.  It's a rock with a bunch of shells in it...I didn't show the whole fossil but it's shaped like a foot.  My guess is a size 11 in men's shoes.

I think this as a very beautiful impression fossil.  I've never seen a shell type fossil this large.  It's shape reminds me of a tulip and the oranges and ochers of the rock are simply lovely and beautiful.

Phew!  That's a lot of fossils.  As you can tell, I've been very busy tromping around on the look-out for ancient rocks.  Unfortunately, the fossil hunting season is coming to a close.  Two reasons: It's damn cold and the trees are dropping their leaves.  Said leaves cover the ground and it's almost impossible to search for my little treasures without a rake.  I'm not going to use a rake.  That makes it sound like a chore.  So, expect many more posts about paintings.  I hope you've enjoyed looking at this year's finds as much as I've enjoyed collecting them.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa: A few impression fossils.

What my amateur ass assumes to be an impression coral (it kinda looks like this one http://www.flickr.com/photos/85591315@N00/3154262600/).  If you look at my previous fossil blogs, I found another one of these guys earlier in the year (http://fluxbiota.blogspot.com/2012/04/fossil-find.html).  As always, if anyone can enlighten me or suggest a good fossil book I'd certainly enjoy that. 

Some petrified wood (greyish stuff in the back), fossilized bone (in the front, note the texture), and a strange mysterious fossil that looks like a broken clam shell. 

A beautiful impression of a beautiful shell.  So pretty.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa : Bison Teeth Fossils.

A bison tooth fossil in it's natural habitat.

Sometimes people ask me, "How do you find all of those fossils?"  Sometimes it's the fossil that finds you, you just have to be in the right place at the right time and it's obviousness will blind you.  First off, a river bed is always a good place to look for fossils.  The river water cuts  through the earth and moves rock around, exposing objects that have been buried for years.  Also, rivers go through dry periods and wet periods. This getting wet, drying out, getting wet, drying out thing is a very good way to turn bone and teeth into fossils. It allows minerals to turn bone into stone.  Yup.

So, with that being said.  These bison tooth fossils were found on a river bank.  The one in the top photograph (or the bottom of my hand in the other photo) was found on a sandbar (and blinded me with it's obviousness) and the other tooth was found in the river water.  So, my advice? Eyes to your toes, keep looking down and eventually something will find you if you're in the right spot.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa. Lycopsid tree.

Lycopsid tree root or Stigmaria ("root")

Oh god, I just want to drag the description of this ancient plant straight off of the Wikipedia page.  That would be so much easier. Its early, guys.

Basically, we were walking around a pretty area and I saw some rocks that looked like tree stumps with the bark ripped off.  With a closer look, it was pretty obvious that these were plant fossils.  I looked them up (thanks, google) and according to the internets these were Lycopsid tree roots and are abundantly found in coal deposits (we were near a strip pit so it's appropriate that we would find these).

Now...here's the wikipedia link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycopodiophyta

Fossils, man.  So old.  I sound intelligent today.

Fossil Hunting in Iowa: Deer Knuckle Bone Fossil.

I found a few more things while walking through the skunk river.  This deer knuckle bone was one of the first things I picked up from the dry river bank.  One will come across a plethora of bones while hunting for fossils.  Most bones are just bones, nothing too special.  This one struck me as odd...deer have run around Iowa since the ice age ( http://www.uiowa.edu/~osa/Silos/Ice_Age_Residents.html  this is a nice little article that describes the time, it's short so don't be afraid) and a fossil can be made in about 200 years in the right conditions; pressure, amount of water it's exposed to, the type of soil it's in.  It looked old.  It looked very old.  Like Discovery Channel old.

The bone struck me as odd because of the color, feel, and heaviness of it (there hasn't been water in the creek for a month, so the heaviness was not from being water logged.  Which is the case in most bones found in water).  So, I did my "tooth tap test."  Bone will make a hollow clunk on the tooth while a fossilized bone feels like tapping a rock on the tooth.  It felt like a rock.  The I did the "tongue touch test".  If you stick your tongue to a fossilized bones, all of the little porous areas will slightly stick to the tongue (yuck, but a paleontologist suggested the test).  It slightly stuck.  So, in my pocket it went.  I did some research on the internets the other day and it does appear to be a fossilized deer knuckle bone.  Which is cool.  A week later it's still heavy, rock like, and still gets an A on all the gross fossil on mouth tests.  I think it's a fossil.

I did not take this picture.  It just shows you what parts of the deer knuckle bone look like when they are fresh. http://rs.leaftradingpost.com/images/thumbs/0000000047852_600_0.jpg  This is where I borrowed the image, thanks Leaf Trading Post.

Skunk River. Fossil Hunting in Iowa.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Fossils in Iowa: Mahaska County.

The dry weather has hindered my adventures.  It's a sad thing, really.  When rain water doesn't flow through creek beds weeds quickly take over the crevices.  Poor Jane is left standing in sad, weedy mud puddles wondering what happened to all of her wonderful fossils.  I'm a tough cookie, though.  When I decide I'm going to find something I'll do it and I managed to find a few fossils on the Des Moines River this Saturday.  There's a few shell fossils and a pretty nice chunk of coral (i can't take credit for finding that one, my partner in crime did).

It's always neat to find something that is millions of years old.

Green River Fish Fossil. Knightia Eocaena

Entrance to the Rock Shop.  So Scary!

Beautiful stuff.

The fossil I purchased at the rock shop.

(Vacation was amazing.  Rachel and I had a wonderful adventure traveling across the United States.  The trip began in Boise, Idaho and ended in Davenport, Iowa at the worst hotel I've ever seen in my entire life.  So, yeah, a wonderful time was had by all and this week will be dedicated to vacation adventures.)

First adventure:  While trying to find a steak house in Evanston, Wyoming, Rachel and I came across a home with ceramic dinosaurs decorating their front lawn.  It was a rock shop called, Antares Fossils and Minerals (antaresfossils.com).  Of course we had to go in, I love me some rock shop.  While paroozing the various sections of the shop I came across this beauty from the Green River Fossil Biota.  The owner of the shop told us that he uncovered the fossil himself at his Green River quarry.  The owner and his crew uncover 30 (each) or more of these Fish fossils every weekend. The quarry is home to possibly the best fossil record of tertiary aquatic communities (of the Eocene, 55 million years ago!) in the world! 

Of course I had to buy one.

fossil find.

I was very happy to have a three day weekend.  I feel it was well deserved.  So, what did I do with all my extra time?  I took some naps, I painted for over 12 hours (all together, whoopee!), and I managed to get some exercise.

I also found a few things.  I found a couple broken artifacts (they didn't photograph well so I won't be blessing your eyes with their presence), they were pretty cool but also very broken.

My find of the weekend was this creepy fossil rock.  Something about it reminds me of a spooky beehive.  If you look inside the rock holes you can see that some of the holes have other fossilized materials inside.  My guess, a very river worn piece of coral.

Any other guesses?  I'll probably send the image to the fossil forum website.  They'll know what it is.

Saturday was spent outside.

1. On Saturday I met Cody. He's a registered Quarter Horse and was born in Hawaii. Yup, born in Hawaii and sent to Iowa. Mudd didn't know what to make of him at first (just a tiny bark or two) but I figure its best to get the dog used to horses. It lessens the chances of a brutal horse stomping.
2. Another day another fossil. Not to mention a very nice circular stone with a symmetrical hole in the center and flattened on the bottom.....my best guess, Native American bead. But, who knows...it's my rock. Other then that: some horned coral, some dead clams, the center of a geode, and a rock that looks like a bird standing on a stick.

treasure hunt!

Its been a good week for treasure hunting. First the fossils, then these geodes and finally........
A 1948 wheat penny! I found it in the take a penny leave a penny tray at Kum and Go (the most hilarious name for a gas station...ever).

Happy hunting, people.

sunday fossil hunt!

Sunday was pretty nice. The sky was blue and cloudless... sunshine made the air warm, no wind was present, and there wasn't a lot of snow to speak of. Sunday was perfection.

A perfect day is easily wasted and I didn't feel like doing that. Mudd, Kyle, and I hopped into the truck and drove towards my new favorite ditch. This is what we found.
Overall, pretty damn successful. We even found a new kind of fossil. In the top photo you'll see some fossils that look like branched coral...yup, I'm pretty sure those are branched coral. Its always cool to find a new specimen for my collection.

Another cool thing...THIS IS A GEODE DITCH!!! I found evidence of geodes. More on that tomorrow.

December Fossil Hunters!

(horned coral, bivalve fossils, flint, and various rocks)

Unseasonable warmth made for a good day of fossil hunting. I'm completely happy because I found well over 20 fossils on December 31st. Kyle found an arrowhead and we found out that the dog can leap off ten foot cliffs. A good start to a new year.

Here's a very distracted video of me and Mudd finding a horned coral fossil. I found four horned corals in one hour. Sidenote: when I yell "Whoa, Dog!"...its because he just jumped off a ten foot cliff. That terrier is a stuntman.

one week hiatus.

Can you see the shells in the limestone fossil? Not quite as fabulous as the last fossil-find but a find none the less. Its humble and looks like it would break easily.

As for me, I'm going on vacation today. I'm excited. My buddy Rachel is flying in from Eugene, Oregon to join me this evening. we'll order some Chinese food, bullshit, and leave for Illinois in the morning.

...And if you happen to be in Illinois tomorrow, I curated and am participating in a show at the Peoria Art Guild (along with Christoper Hutson and Jillian Ludwig. Its on 203 Harrison street in downtown Peoria. Free beer and handshakes for all who come and are of age...so, I guess handshakes for everyone!

wow, this is a large fossil.

People who suffer from mental illness or delusions should not hunt rocks. When someone believes books, movies, inanimate objects, music, or symbols are relaying special messages to them, they're going crazy. A good example of this : Charlie Manson and the Beatles' White Album.

Another good example of this...me while I rock hunt. I went to art school for 7 years...artists are trained to yank out all of the symbolism in an image. A rose is never just a rose. Everything has a hidden messages and hidden symbols. This skill is a blessing and a curse, I can't look at anything without over analyzing it.

Which is why rock hunting brings out the crazy in me. Rocks have shapes. Its really pretty wild how varied their shapes can be. I've seen animal shapes, phallic shapes, tool shapes, people, buildings...all sorts of stuff. And when you're in a particular mood the shapes can tell you things. They didn't tell me to murder slews of people or start a cult but one rock told me to keep looking.

We were in a ditch searching for arrowheads and fossils. It was buggy but nice. The only problem was that the surrounding trees had dropped their leaves all over every sandy patch in the ditch. A tree leaf looks exactly like an arrowhead, they trick your eyes. I was getting a wee bit frustrated, every time I bent down to pick up a nice looking rock...it was a damn leaf.

I was getting ready to call it quits when I looked down and picked up a rock that looked exactly like a human eyeball. I thought,

"why not just go crazy for a minute and assume this rock is talking to me?"

So, I did. And I decided the rock was telling me to keep my eyes open. I kept them open and around the bend I saw a large orange/pink rock. I picked up the rock and it was the best fossil I've ever found. Period. Good thing I allowed myself to go schizophrenic for a brief moment or I may have walked past this bad boy.