Fossils!!

[Shelby]

I never lost my childhood obsession with dinosaurs.

One of my (ok I know it's funky) dreams is to have a full size t-rex skeleton replica in my house. You can buy them.. many museums use replicas vs actual skeletons.

[PrincessErica]

They use replicas instead of real bones?? Now I feel cheated!

[tigerlily]

They mold the original bones and then make casts of them. That way more places can have them on display. Then the real bones are used for studying or just kept safe. Shoot, some dinosaur skeletons had bones broken to make them fit the way they thought they should be. It's a very interesting field. I got to do some fossil hunting out on Calvert Cliffs, but danged if I could find one of those awesome Megaladon teeth. That woulda been so cool. *sigh* I did find a crocodile tooth, so that was pretty neat.

[Shelby]

Yeah, tigerlily is correct. Some museums DO use the originals, but some species are only known from one specimen. It's only fair to replicate it to allow more than one place to display it.. and study it.

I love to go to lake Michigan beach, because there are TONS of very cool fossils to find. Lots of shells, coral, plant stems, and misc animals that I don't really know what they are.

I have a fossil crocodile jaw too.. it has 5 teeth in it.

[tigerlily]

Did you find the crocodile jaw? Even if you didn't that's completely cool!! (can I have it ) I have an aweseome book for midatlantic fossil hunting. Now I need to expand my horizon. So Lake Michigan huh? I would love to find some trilobites. Those little buggies are just cool for some reason.

[Shelby]

No I didn't find the crocodile jaw.

I also have fossil fish.. those are cool.

Trilobites are my FAVORITES. Have you ever seen moroccan trilobites? *drool*

Check em out: http://www.trilobites.com/site/index...prod_id=3743&# http://www.trilobites.com/site/index...&prod_id=3948&

[tigerlily]

You should take a picture of that jaw. I would love to see it!

That is one awesome trilobite!! Too bad it's so outta my league. I would love to get a Smilodon skull and put it on the mantle. That would be cool, but the husband would rather have a moose.

[Shelby]

Pardon me.. it's an alligator.. and there are four teeth.



Smilodon is very cool.

[tigerlily]

Thanks for the pic. Very cool! (I'm so easily amused! )

I have a few fossils. Mostly coral, limpets, lots of shells and a few cool teeth. I also have a vertabrae of some marine mammal that my mother found. Maybe a dolphin, but I haven't had it id'ed yet.

One of my classes we had to collect a hundred specimens of one particular fossil and reconstruct the life. It was pretty cool. You can see on some shells where a snail has dissolved it and eaten the little critter right up. Plus the rings and such to determine age. Even the orientation while still in the substrate will give you clues as to wether it was alive or deceased at time of fossilization. Some really cool stuff. Good lord I need help, I can just go on and on.....blah blah blah

[Shelby]

Maybe we should start a fossil thread..? lol