Fossil Hunting Trip

[Terri]

I would be looking for a good excuse to go back out to that area too!

Excellent job D! These weren't that easy to spot.

 

[DWhatley]

I am quite proud that I did not just mark a bunch of weather marking on rocks . You get full credit for anything I got right though since I have only seen fossils in museums and photos and only tried to distinguish them when you started posting your finds.

 

[Terri]

Well, I'm just proud I finally took the time to figure out how to circle things on a photo and then post the photo! (it wasn't hard at all)

 

[DWhatley]

Most computer programs are not hard to use but figuring out HOW to use them to do what you want can be frustrating. We all have different reference frames and what is intuitive to one person is totally foreign to another so program designers have a real struggle making it simple.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

I have Photoshop, and use it for plates and figures in publications and posters etc. But I use Irfanview to annotate and draw lines for photos I post here, it has it's bugs, but is easy and free.

 

[DWhatley]

I use Xara for anything I do with graphics. I can export from it into an Adobe or other formats when needed. It is far less expensive (I have the $90 dollar version that I upgrade about every other year but there is a $300 pro option). It is robust enough to do most of what PhotoShop does but I like the user format much better (it is easier to use than paint). I have an old LE (limited edition) of PhotoShop that I no longer use for anything except to test any output that has to be compatible.

 

[Architeuthoceras]

5 is the magic number, the fossil I dashed-in is not an ammonoid mold.

Found this while splittin rocks. Explains why mostly just external molds are visible on weathered surfaces, only the body chambers are very well preserved. You can still see remnants of the phragmocone, but they are so delicate just touching the rock shakes them apart.


Just for kicks, find my truck in this photo.

 

[DWhatley]

I think this could be a truck :gin:

 

[Terri]

I see a little glint, could be a shiny rock though.....

 

[Architeuthoceras]

The road shown goes through a BLM WSA (Wilderness Study Area), so motorized vehicles are confined to designated routes, of which that wash is not. I could give you a hint that in a forest scene would seem ridiculous, but in this scene it would give too much away .

Terri just slid that post in while I was typing... that is not a shiny rock.

 

[Terri]

5 is the magic number

I should have stuck to my original count!

Explains why mostly just external molds are visible on weathered surfaces

Because they are worn away or broken? Why are they so delicate?

 

[Architeuthoceras]

Why are they so delicate?

They are 251 million years old... And the phragmocone, once filled with air/gas, closed off to the outside, was not filled or replaced very well, so the septae and shell were left to the elements and basically left a hollow inside the rock. What little replacement took place is left for us to see in the photo. The body chamber, open at the aperture, was filled with mud and preserved. As the rocks wear down to one of these fossils the (rushing) water finds a hole and washes everything away, usually including the body chamber mold, leaving the external molds in the bottom of the wash.

 

[Terri]

Excellent! Thanks Kevin.

 

[Terri]

that is not a shiny rock

But is it the truck?

 

[Architeuthoceras]

But is it the truck?

Yup.