[Rooster Cult]

When did these turn into an educational thing-
SO, my lovelies, time to show you some cool fossil stuff. First, Ammonites, cool right. We all love them, some fossils have been known to be nearly 8-11 feet in diameter though! Also, some of the fossils are extremely colorful and iridescent. I was too lazy to color the box like that, but feel free to use that fact as inspiration


Also, Dendritic crystals, you ever pick up a piece of limestone and find these branching black markings and think "FINALLY A FOSSIL." Not a fossil, but a very common formation of crystals. In fact so common that the limestone used for gravel on my college campus is full of them. But they are pretty, despite being common and not intrinsically valuable.

So many cool rocks are like that. Common, not valuable, probably in your backyard. Honestly one of the reasons why I took up rockhounding as a hobby (and used that to major in geology). There is probably a ruby deposit about 16 miles from your house or a cliff side filled with garnets within walking distance. Most of the minerals we gawk over in jewelry stores are just the perfect 1% of the crystals, but there are millions of imperfect rubies just lying around. You just need to know where to look.

Either way! I went on a tangent. Hope you learned something, or, whatever.

[Sullivan Maurus]

At Herkimer Diamond Mine in upstate New York you can either dig for gems or fossils. Unfortunately the visitor center burned down so I'm not sure if you can go there anymore. I only ever went there twice, but I recommend it if its still around. You could find all sorts of things there.

I have quite the collection of fossils myself. Here in New York its mostly stuff like shells due to this area being underwater for millions of years. I'd love to get some more interesting specimens, though.

[Rooster Cult]

hey hey, I live in California. There are a couple of places with fossils, a whole ton of petrified wood if you know where to look, but the most interesting is the minerals that come from faults, subduction zones, and volcanic activity. You usually don't think of "volcanoes" when you go to California, but trust me there are hundreds of ancient volcanoes, calderas, and lava flows in Inyo County and the high desert

[Sullivan Maurus]

Yeah California is located on the ring of fire, so that is to be expected. The entire west coast is essentially a semi-active volcanic mountain range, with Washington and Oregon boasting the more active ones these days. It certainly makes for interesting geological anomalies. I hope to eventually visit more active fossil hotspots, like the badlands in South Dakota. Paleontology has always been a passion of mine.

I'll be sure to do this challenge when I'm back from my break(I'm doing this out of solidarity for Stale mostly, but also for myself). I only check in 3 times a day because of an upcoming Kalon event that I don't want to miss. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be around at all right now.

Speaking of Stale, her archeologist boi Jones is either getting a boyfriend or a rival out of this challenge and I'm looking forward to it hehe!

[Rooster Cult]

Oh yeah, I know everyone thinks "earthquakes" when they think of California, but usually not "volcanoes." So it's somewhat fascinating. Every year before the pandemic my family and I would head out the Bishop and the drive there is amazing, there is rubble from volcano lava bombs right next to the highway and lava flows that make cliffs at least 20 feet tall.

I hope you have fun on your break though, and I will be excited to see what designs come out from the challenge.

[cswolf.]

This is so informative!

[Rooster Cult]

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