Intermediate Fossiling

     One of my stepsons was looking at my Zookeeper Fossils web site and immediately categorized my fossiling experience:

     Venice Beach is for beginners, Apollo Beach is intermediate, and Peace River is advanced.  Pretty astute for a 12 year old.

     When I'm with someone who is fossiling for the first time they always ask, "How do I know what to look for?" and I always reply, "Look for order in chaos."  The key is spotting shapes that are straighter, rounder, or more angular than the surrounding shells or gravel.  I honed this skill at Venice Beach.

     It was at Apollo Beach where I started finding fossils that, while still small, were in excellent condition. I went there so often during the summer of 2012 that some of the locals started to recognize me.  One woman, in particular, was there almost every time I went.  She lives in the area and included a walk on the beach in her daily exercise routine, using it, also, as an opportunity to pick up trash and broken glass littering the sand.  Like many people, she was curious to know what I was looking for, and I shared my scant knowledge and immense enthusiasm.  I'm proud to say I got her hooked on the hobby and she found some great fossils that summer, making sure to keep them with her for show and tell in case she ran in to me.

     The photo includes drum teeth (4 and 5 sided objects on the left side), tiny armadillo scutes (6 sided objects above the drum teeth), a pointy alligator tooth, spiny sting ray barbs, and fragments of mammoth tusk, among other things.