harpo568 Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 At 5am yesterday (Monday 9/22/14) I found out that I needed to take my wife to Iowa for business. I had time to pack, load the car and head out. I had no time to research the area at all. So, here I sit in my hotel room trying to find something to do for the next 2-3 days. Are there any easy to access fossil hunting sites in the area? Any suggestions would be fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to give this a quick look. Richard P.s. I haven't been active in fossil hunting this year due to work and a few minor health problems and would like to do something while I am out here. Fossil collecting newbie... (I may be from Illinois but I didn't vote for Obama!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 I don't have a specific site to recommend, but here's some background on your area... bedrock map of Nebraska http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space§ionnav=state&name=Nebraska bedrock map of Iowa http://www.paleoportal.org/index.php?globalnav=time_space§ionnav=state&name=Iowa If nobody makes a specific recommendation, I would take cruise along the Mississippi river and check out road cuts along the river valley. If you don't find fossils, at least you should have a picturesque drive. The river valley is Carboniferous and here is what paleoportal says about that time and area... " Warm, shallow seas covered Iowa during the Early Carboniferous (Mississippian). Spectacular fossils of crinoids and asteroids (“starfish”) have been collected from rock layers of this time, and lacy bryozoans, cephalopods, and other marine animals are common in the limestones and shales. As the sea retreated from Iowa at the close of the Mississippian, a sequence of river and lake sediments was deposited. Some of the world’s oldest amphibian fossils have been recovered from these layers of rock in east-central and southwestern Iowa. Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) rocks are quite extensively exposed in southwestern Iowa. Multiple cyclothems, repeating patterns of marine and non-marine sediments, indicate numerous advances and retreats of a shallow sea over this part of the state during this time. Seed ferns and scale trees were common in the coastal swamps adjacent to the sea. Their fossils can be found in abundance in some of these rocks. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, coal resulting from the rich plant life was mined extensively. Iowa’s Pennsylvanian rocks contain large reserves of coal, but its high sulfur content has discouraged continued extraction. " Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harpo568 Posted September 24, 2014 Author Share Posted September 24, 2014 Thanks! that should help. Unfortunately it was rainy and today looks to be the same way. When we head back I plan on stopping at every road cut that I safely can along the way. I spotted a lot of them along US36 on the way over. Plus a few stops in the Missouri/Illinois area. Fossil collecting newbie... (I may be from Illinois but I didn't vote for Obama!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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