OHIO FOSSILS 



WHERE AND HOW TO COLLECT . The most obvious place to go for fossils is the near- 

 est quarry. Quarries are private property and PERMISSION TO ENTER THEM SHOULD BE 

 OBTAINED FROM THE OWNER (fig. 1). 



This is not only common courtesy but a good safety precaution. In 

 operating quarries, blasts of dynamite are set off from time to time, 

 and heavy machinery may constitute a hazard. Quarry owners seldom 

 refuse permission to enter their property unless there is a good 

 reason. Abandoned quarries may be even more hazardous than 

 operating ones. Asking the owner's permission to enter them will 

 generally bring a caution about the hazards of a particular quarry. 

 In any case, ASK FOR PERMISSION and be careful. 



Railroad and highway cuts and fills are sometimes good collecting 

 grounds also. The cuts are better since the rocks exposed in them 

 are in place and those in the fills may have been brought from a dis- 

 tance. 



Streams and gullies are good prospects too. If the streams have 

 pig. 1 cut into fossil-bearing rocks, free specimens may be available in the 



stream bed and on its slopes and fresh ones can be dug out of the banks. 

 Road ditches may not look too promising at first but they often yield a rich harvest. 



Old strip-mine workings often make good collecting grounds, especially for fossil plants, 

 but sometimes also for invertebrates. In working the coal seam, the strip miner leaves 

 behind the rocks above the coal. These rocks break up by weathering and fossils can often 

 be picked up without any digging. A search of the high wall of the mine will often serve to 

 identify the exact stratum where the fossils occur in place. 



In many places where the rock has been weathering out for a long time, well preserved 

 specimens are found in residual soil and joint fillings. 



In short, you can collect fossils almost anywhere in Ohio, 

 particular kinds of fossils are noted in later chapters. 



A few of the better areas for 



We repeat that almost anywhere you collect, you will be on private property and the 

 owner's permission should be obtained before you start digging. 



On a collecting trip, here are the things you should take with you. (1) A road map of Ohio 

 which will permit you to locate the place you collect from. (2) A detailed topographic map 

 of the area where you collect. All of Ohio has been mapped at a scale of about one inch to the 

 mile; these maps are sold by the United States Geological Survey, Washington 25, D. C. , 

 at 20 cents each. (3) A bag to carry your collections. (4) Newspapers and soft tissue for 

 wrapping specimens. (5) Labels, which can be 3 x 5-inch slips of paper, to identify each 

 collection. They should be written in pencil, not ink, because ink runs if the label is damp. 

 (6) Paper sacks of various sizes for packing loose samples. (7) A hammer and a few cold 

 chisels. (8) A lens for examining small specimens in the field; an 8 -power lens is convenient 

 and not too bulky. (9) A notebook for recording your observations. 



KINDS OF FOSSIL PRESERVATION . Some of the fossils you collect will prove a little 

 puzzling. That is because fossils are preserved in different ways, and some knowledge of 

 these processes will help you understand your specimens. The entire animal or plant may be 

 preserved without alteration; this is called entire preservation . When minerals, precipitated 

 from groundwater, fill the openings in shell or bone, long after the flesh of the animal has 

 decayed, the shell or bone becomes heavier and harder; this process is called permineralization 

 and many Ohio fossils are preserved in this way. The groundwater may dissolve away some or 



