The Fossil Hunter

Along with our recently found hobby of rock hounding, hunting for fossils may be our new favorite activity. It takes a bit more muscle because the rocks are bigger than little crystals but the reward is well worth it. Recently we had the chance to dig around in a shale quarry near Boulder, CO. It’s a working mine that produces rock for asphalt. They dig it up, toss it around and grind it down to various grades and sizes. It’s amazing how people can make money selling dirt! This mine opens on Friday afternoons for school groups and other amateurs interested in digging for fossils because it is known to have them.

We met up with the rock club at the quarry entrance with our hard hats, steel toed boots, rock hammers, buckets and gloves in tow. We took a safety seminar and then caravanned down into the pit. Only about seven people from the club showed with four cars. Once we arrived, everyone unloaded their stuff each with an orange Home Depot bucket. We looked like little clones of one another. The leader of the trip was a geologist. He and his friend/business partner told us they had been searching for fossils for 25 years in this same area. So, they gave us a quick lesson on what to look for and sent us off into the mounds of dirt. A few hammer sledges later, voila! An Ammonite appeared in one of my rocks. They told me I hit a fossil rich vein. Beginner’s luck, I say. Ammonites are 65 million years old and resemble a Nautilus in today’s day and age. They grow in a spiral shape and lived under the sea. We identified where to dig based on looking for white calcite in the darker grey rock. My hot vein was close to a red iron ore line within the grey rock and proved to be littered with sea life. We discovered many clam and mussel shells as well as ammonites of all shapes and sizes. Adam also pulled out a Baculite (a tubular animal related to the Ammonite but looking more like a snake) which added to our jackpot day. Unfortunately that rock weighed about 10 lbs because we had to keep both sides (the fossil and the cast).

This past weekend we had the chance to search for fossils in a sandstone quarry near Florissant, CO and Fossil Bed National Monument. Located on private land (which is a good thing because you cannot dig on nationally protected monuments) the family simply mines section of their sandstone walls for individuals to come out and fossil hunt. They have found many leaves, plant life and even a bird in this location. So, we loaded up our bucket and gear and prepared for a heavy day of rock lifting. We arrived at the gate met by two teenagers who directed us to the site. The girl gave us a razor blade, butter knife and a putty knife and set us off to work. That’s it? What about my hammer and my bucket? I thought I was going to get to dig out my slice of sandstone, but instead there were piles of it lying on the ground from which to pick. She showed us how to scrape off the layers of sandstone very carefully to reveal potential fossils. So we picked up the largest sandstone blocks we could find (as recommended by our friends at the last fossil hunt) and sat down at a table to split them open. First tap, slice, open sesame! I found a leaf in a huge piece of sandstone! Beginner’s luck, again? Maybe not. Maybe I have the skill or possibly a new career?

We tapped and scraped away until we had a nice stack of leaves, one flower, a piece of wood and some weeds fossilized in sandstone. I elected to stick with splitting open a large piece at a time instead picking away at tiny corners of stone. There was a better chance of finding a whole leaf rather than bits and pieces. After two hours of tedious work we cut our losses at not finding a fish or a bird, and piled up our stack of stone to go on our way. I don’t think I have the patience to make fossil hunting a true career, but it sure is a fun activity for the day! For anyone with kids, I highly recommend joining a rock club or even simply picking up a book on rock hounding in your area (it usually includes fossil sites too). It’s a great, mostly free activity for the whole family. And if you have the choice, I recommend digging in sandstone rather than limestone or shale. It is lighter and easier to pick up and carry home.