Last winter, I was planning a group fossil-hunting expedition for this fall. The coronavirus wrecked that plan, along with many others.
But, my original digging (so to speak) online, paid off unusually and late. The place I was originally planning to arrange the meet-up is still closed, but another fellow who owns a rock quarry eventually replied to my enquiry. They’re not hosting groups, yet, but an individual can come up and do some social distanced fossil hunting. So, tomorrow afternoon and evening I’ll be driving up to Rome, NY, then spending a day digging for fossils, and driving home. It’s funny how that, which would have been a normal day-trip for me a few years ago, now seems like a big project. It didn’t take me long to get unused to traveling. It’ll be nice; I’ll be going through Ithaca around dinner time and there’s good food to be had there. (I’ll probably go for thai!)
The reason I am particularly leaping at this opportunity, is because the quarry under discussion has pyritized trilobytes; the elusive “gold bug” of fossil-hunters. I suppose opalized fossils are rarer (in terms of minerology, not what they are fossils of) but pyritized trilobytes have a very high cool factor in my universe.
I don’t expect I’ll be posting much in the next few days.
I have some auctions expiring tomorrow; I’ll have to resolve them when I get home. I’m not going to sit in some diner and try to coordinate all that using my phone.
That is the bomb. I assume the formation is well dated? Are the species present well established?
An appropriate time for old fossils.
I ♥ trilobytes.
That should be really fun! I hope you find some really nice specimens.
We just took a mini trip to go see Carlsbad Caverns. It was wonderful – all my worries went somewhere else for a while and I could really relax and enjoy the caverns. You don’t notice you’ve been in the house too long until you get out and do something else for a change.
kestrel@#4:
Carlsbad Caverns is pretty amazeballs.
I remember back in 1997, my friend Andrew and I carried view cameras down there, on tripods. Great big 30-lb things. I think we were probably being stupid.
Crip Dyke@#1:
I assume the formation is well dated? Are the species present well established?
I believe it’s all well established; I’m going to find out!
Gold trilobytes! How exciting. It sounds like a fun day and the weather should be good! Good luck and happy hunting!
Daily WTF moment:
Mother bear and cub shot after climbing onto Russian nuclear submarine
Oooooh, what fun! Good luck finding some decent specimens.
@ 8 Reginald Selkirk
The Russians take their navel security seriously?
A bear and her cub is a dangerous combination. Assuming the sub was in dock there could have been any number of sailors and workmen in danger.