Collecting Fossils

Collecting Fossils

While the Virtual Fossil Museum is not about fossil collecting, many of its contributors and visitors are fossil collectors, and a few words should be said on the subject. Many fossil collectors identify themselves as amateur paleontologists, and rightly so. It is amazing how much auto-didactically obtained scientific knowledge is possessed by many fossil collectors. Additionally, we are aware of no other scientific discipline where amateurs are so salient.

If you want to learn about collecting fossils, we suggest you start in three ways: 1) books – check them out at the library, buy them, or both; 2) join a fossil club (usually a rock and/or fossil club) – probably every state in the U.S. has one or more, and many have a web site that is easily found with a search engine; and 3) visit your state’s geological survey web site, most of which have information on the stratigraphy and fossils within the state.

Alas, fossil collecting the old fashion way, with rock hammer, sweat and bruises has become a rarity. Which brings me to the museum’s old friend, Ramblin Ralph, from whom we recently received an e-mail with a long distribution list that yearned for the old days of hunting fossils in the rocks, and ranting about self-serving disinformation on the internet related to fake fossils and fossil fraud and other related matters. We’ve had to bleep out parts of excerpts of the e-mail because Ralph, who poorly suffers fools, has a propensity to draw upon strong language to emphatically make his points. Other than that, Ralph comes with impressive academic credentials, but in his younger years in the 1970's found a lot of oil and fossils in the ground.

Ralph and some friends have supplied the VFM with pictures of fake trilobites and other fake fossils they took at the 2007 Tucson Mineral and Fossils Show. Fossil fakery is clearly an art form in Morocco. The question is: why do the show promoters allow these people to sell their wares at this show? Especially if you are neophyte, you may want to read this article on identifying fake trilobites, which has many examples of the fakes coming from Morocco.