I found more fossils!
While wandering the mountain Sunday, I took the time to look. For years and years we’ve known they are there…
Up on Fossil Butte… you know, the one that appears in practically all my scenic photos of mountain work, like this one last week! Or this one I took… gee, Sunday. <note the smokey grey sky due to a wildfire somewhere…>
Well, that’s a known location, but I wasn’t *on* Fossil Butte… I was over on the Bar C ridge… where I ride and gather cows in our timber patch.
It turns out it is indeed like its big brother Fossil Butte, but with more “hair”. Fossil Butte is the bald one, the Bar C Ridge has plenty of dirt and tree coverage… with just a little bald edge peeking out. Think “Blago” with a bare spot above one ear. I climbed up to the ear, and immediately had success.
It’s a little difficult to see, but look below my chapstick and think swirl. Think spiral. Think seashell. See it? Well, I could. The thing to the left of my chapstick? I’m not really sure about that, but it did resemble shell. Too bad it was on a rock bigger than I could pack!
Then there’s this…
Perhaps a stalk of coral?
Most of what I found up there resembles either sponges or coral… and as of tonight, I’ve got some fossil books checked out to help with identification!
I am short on photos, I know… what a shock. I forgot to unload my treasures out of the pickup and then when the pickup is down in some field somewhere… I *can’t* take pictures of them! oops.
A large amount of them are unusual. Most have what I would call mica crystals inside them… I’ve a really cool “sponge” filled with mica… like geodes, but different. Are they just geodes or are they geodes inside shells? I don’t know. I need a fossil specialist! I’m lacking in this area!
See that round one on the small rock? Crystals. Cool.
Now I’ll use my new tile saw and literally cut my collection down to size and use them in my bathroom… sponges in a bathroom… how appropriate. Just a few bazillion years too late to be squeezable!
***********************************************************************************
September 20, 2009 Studio Beginnings
Find me here!
