Amazing AMMONITES from the Tropic Shale of Utah
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- Опубликовано: 3 авг 2024
- I drove across the country to collect ammonites out of the Cretaceous Tropic Shale in Utah. I had a ton of success!
Many thanks to A Fistful of Fossils for showing me the area. Follow him here:
/ afistfuloffossils
If you enjoyed the music in this video, check out Sleeping Pandora on Bandcamp here:
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I live very close to Big Water and have been through all of the Grand Staircase. It is really amazing. I have even worked on the Xiphactinus. I can't wait until we can take it out and start processing it in the lab.
Great video man , that scenery is so dramatic, some nice finds too
Thanks so much! It really is a beautiful place!
Fun video! Thanks for all the back breaking work and editing to bring it for us to see!
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch! More to come.
@@randyblood8966 looking forward to more of your youtube postings. They are actually helping me plan a road trip.
Nice finds! Really dig the ammonites
Such awesome and varied styles of preservation!
Thanks so much for the interest in the locations in this video. I very much appreciate the inquiries to the locations, however a good friend of mine was kind enough to share some of these spots with me, and therefore they are not my locations to disclose. I will say, just so that it is clear, all fossils I collect are on public land open to collecting, or on private property with landowner permission. It is illegal to collect in National Parks or Monuments without a scientific collection permit, and in most cases (BLM land, etc) it is illegal to sell fossils obtained on certain public properties.
These videos are so fun.
Thanks so much! They are pretty fun to make.
Thank you for making a few videos on the Tropic Shale! I really appreciate it man, there isn’t ANYTHING on youtube pretty much whatsoever on the tropic shale! (not very well known formation to most people) So it’s very nice to see a video finally! Its such a interesting and fossiliferous formation!
Really glad you enjoyed it! I agree, its a pretty amazing shale and records some really interesting events that occurred in the Cretaceous marine environment!
This is such a cool area! I think we found the Devil's Toenails near where you were looking. We do most of our rockhounding in Southern Utah and find agate and petrified wood all over but we will have to try and find ammonites now!
Well done
Those were great finds. Did you find bigger ones? Yours are very small and easier to show to people that like these kinds beach of goodies, or landscapes treasures Lol😅. 😊 I ❤ the beaches I've have gone to in my 60+ years. I am looking for agates, petrified wood, she'll, and that beach glass. All are amazing finds.
The Dakota is a shore face marine sandstone...
Could you sometime do a video on how you prep out the fossils? Would really appreciate it!
check out my latest video, it has prep work!
Hello.. Thats amazing man! Is there a certain type of tool to use in removing the rock/sand to avoid damage?
Solid video. I gold prospect and have some very good claims however fossil hunting is always a GO for me. There are few things that provoke wonder like holding the remains of a creature that lived x million years ago. Very good stuff.
WOW
Nice finds for sure I do enjoy a good fossil but once and a while I can find some ammonites here in Montana,I have better luck with agates thought.
Thanks! I have found a number of baculites in Montana, but no ammonites yet!
17 degrees is a summer in Scotland.
Do you mind saying where you were exactly? Would love to go out looking myself!!
Where in Utah is this? Is this in Escalante or in the San Rafael Swell?
Hey Randy, were you able to get the gypsom off of the fossils? If so, can you share what you did?
Hey Daniel! Well, I was able to use an air scribe to remove it from the rocks that the fossils are on. Unfortunately the gypsum grows from BELOW the shell in many instances, thus breaking the shell. Imagine a flat grass field, with a bunch of pillars coming up through and the grass on top of those pillars. If you remove the pillars, you'll have spots of brown dirt all over the field. Same thing here. If I remove the gypsum crystals in the fossil, I'll lose that part of the shell and I'll have grey spots all over the shell. For these reasons, I've left the gypsum on the fossils, but removed it from the matrix. I suppose I could paint the spots over with a matching color, but that feels like cheating. hahaha
Where in Utah did you look for your fossils
So can you say where all the red formations come from? Point of origin? And what about all that gypsum?
I am no expert on these particular deposits. In general, red rocks imply a well oxygenated environment, the red resulting from the oxidation of iron-bearing minerals to hematite. This is one of the reasons terrestrial deposits are often red. I can't say for sure about the origin of the gypsum. It is a product of the oxidation of pyrite, however, I have seen more pyritic shales with less gypsum. I suspect (and this is just a quasi-educated guess as I don't work the Tropic Shale) is that the shale was likely deposited in a very saline environment, or was flushed with hypersaline brines at some point. Perhaps increasing temperature with burial evaporated the water depositing the gypsum. I noted that it occurs widely in fractures and along bedding plains, often splitting the fossils within those plains. Therefore this gypsum is post-depositional. However, this may be due to aforementioned brine migration, or present day cycles of hydration and desiccation given the climate in the area. I hope that helps, and please don't take my word for it! I'm sure there is more accurate information out there, but you can use this as a starting point!
Im heading to utah and wyoming to do some fossil hunting.can you piont me in the right direction for some ammonites??
Love the content but the camera work was too jerky and fast made me motion sick so can’t watch 😟