I'm looking for fossil localities!

[bigalpha]

Going to Benton County tomorrow (Saturday) for some fossils goodness. Hoping for trilobites. Does anyone know of any good sites in Benton county?

Along the same lines, does anyone know of some good sites in middle TN/KY?

[wendy]

Just curious, but what sort os locations do you normally look for fossils? Like rivers. old quarries? etc? You wouldn't get fossils from a cave would you?

[bigalpha]

You can find fossils on just about any outcrop or roadcut. Of course, the more shale, the more fossils. Old Quarries are usually off limits (private property) in a hardcore fashion. Usually, I think, any fossils found in a cave wouldn't be so plentiful [note: I'm talking about small fossils, not bear bones] since caves aren't known to cut through shale.

Of course, there are fossils in Limestone, but it's hard to collect those.

[Cheryl Jones]

Of course, there are fossils in Limestone, but it's hard to collect those.

Ummmm.....and you wouldn't do it anyway, right?

Cheryl[/quote]

[Squirrel Girl]

Oh for Pete's sake. Bigalpha isn't going to collect fossils in caves. Get ahold of your cave-protection instincts.

When I was in India, the limestone was filled with nummulites. I hadn't collected any rocks in years, but I couldn't resist. I brought back about 10 lbs of rocks! And they all came from my last day hiking on the surface.

Cavechatians are BA's friends. Just because he's asking about collecting localities here doesn't mean he's looking to vandalize caves. Everybody take a

[Teresa]

I thoroughly agree with SG--(Thanks for the little graphic--I've never seen it!)

For the last twenty years I've been trying to convince conservation-oriented cavers that though there are an astonishing number of cavers with geology degrees or jobs, and high interest in rocks, minerals, fossils, etc., that there is a huge difference between a responsible rock collector and a hammer-crazed kleptomaniac.

In the US midwest, many, if not most of the fossils are in limestone and shale. My interest in geology started in the shiny bits in the chat gravel driveway, and mound of fossils weathered out of the Burlington limestone across the street. The only time I've used hammers underground was against concrete, during 10 years of cave restoration in a former show cave.

Due to long experience with cracking geodes, and chipping away around fossils, I got a lot more concrete out with a lot less collateral damage than people whose idea was hitting harder was better.

Hey Big A-- good luck with finding some good stuff!

[bigalpha]

Thanks SG and Teresa! I am just looking for places that don't include only Crinoid Pieces.

Went out today to Benton county and got some Trilobites. My girl got some too. Nothing Museum quality, but still, they are pretty cool. I have a lot of stuff in my collection, but these are my first trilobites.

Teresa, you know of any good places to go? I've checked out all the ones I could find on mindat and the likes, but there is nothing too good. I have a gallon of brachiopods already.

[Teresa]

Big A--
Not in your neck of the woods...I pretty much by definition only claim to know stuff around Missouri and teeny bit of Illinois. I wish I could find trilobites sometime... the only ones I've found are perpendicular broken bits looking like curly brackets --the fossils seen edge on. My husband is wild about trilobites. I think they look like prehistoric pill (or roly-poly) bugs.

I am the crinoid kid--not unusual, since one is also our state fossil. And I've got a couple really cool gastropods (snail fossils).

If you ever get out my way, let me know.
Teresa

[bigalpha]

Teresa, want me to send you some stuff from around 'ere? What about you SG?

[Squirrel Girl]

I, for the most part, have tried to get away from collecting. Every time you move, you've got really heavy things to tote. And then there's the issue of displaying them. So I have some of my very best, and that's all. Plus my latest, prized nummulatites, but I'm trying to be on my FA plan (fossils anonymous).

But I'm here for ya, BA. I know that bein' a fossil collector is *not* the same thing as being a cave vandal. With a few exceptions, caves are lousy places to collect fossils.

Maybe we can have a one-per-thread "I'M NOT GOING TO COLLECT IN CAVES" statement, or maybe BA can put that statement in his signature line or something so that it's clear to everyone that the wrong message is not going out publically that a caver can simultaneously have a second hobby that includes collecting fossils from roadcuts and quarries and stuff.

Oh, BTW, one of the Germans on my trip to India worked with a museum and spent almost every weekend collecting Jurassic ammonites in a quarry back home. They moved the Oxforidan/Kimmerigian boundary by a good 5 meters based on his collecting. Rah, yeah, ammateur paleontologists!!!!

[ScottM]

Brookeville, Indiana has some great fossil bearing road cuts. It's been several years but I have found some nice stuff there. I forget the name of rock layer but it's Ordovician in age. There are mostly corals and brachiopods, but I have found some some trilobites. I have one that you can even see it's eye segments under a hand lense. Occasionally you can run across some fossils preserved in pyrite.

[sandalscout]

Hey Scott, got any specifics on Brookville? It's not too far out of my way to Indy to visit family.

I don't know about BigA, but I had a flipping blast in Benton county over the weekend, just felt bad that everyone was finding birdsongensis and he wasn't.....

[bigalpha]

That's it,

We're not friends anymore.

[ScottM]

If my memory serves me correctly there are several large roadcuts north east of Brookville on highway 101. The cuts I used to stop at were 50'- 100' tall. Back in the early 90's that part of the highway was fairly new.