aplomado Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 What are the world's rarest fossils? Post a picture if you can! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnJ Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 It's relative to different geologic contexts, isn't it? If I only find one, or a few of a new fossil species, that is rare. However, there are different kinds of fossils found in similar numbers, worldwide. The human mind has the ability to believe anything is true. - JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLB Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I can't because they are that rare JK lol I would assume they are ones like blue grass shale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossildude19 Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I would think Homonid fossils would be right up there. Regards, Tim - VETERAN SHALE SPLITTER VFOTM --- APRIL - 2015 IPFOTM -- MAY - 2024 _________________________________________________________________________________ "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." John Muir ~ ~ ~ ~ ><))))( *> About Me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordTrilobite Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Archaeopteryx is probably one of the best known rarest fossils. Only 11 specimens have been found in over 200 years. 1 Olof Moleman AKA Lord Trilobite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldigger Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Oh come on Olof, you can pick those up for a song from China. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Just about every sedimentary deposit has fossils never before studied. A pollen spore, foraminifera, brachiopod, etc. Fossils are past life...3 billion years of it and billions of species. Open up the curation drawers at the Geological Survey and there are tens of thousands of specimens not yet studied. An entomologist in the Amazon could collect a dozen new species of insects in a day. Someone who studies bacteria could gather a hundred species in an hour. Anyways, it all depends on context. A lot of specimens that members have in their own collections are 'the only one'. This is why its important not to treat fossil collection like stamp collecting. There isnt a known finite list of fossils to fit in some album. For every fossil species identified there's a dozen more sitting in a box and a thousand more never collected. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 When it comes to preservation, then exceptionally preserved soft-bodied biotas are relatively rare occurences. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troodon Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 The rarest fossils in the world are those that are yet to be uncovered just beneath our feet and have yet to be described. So let's get with it forum members, find them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herb Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 I would say hominid fossils also "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"_ Carl Sagen No trees were killed in this posting......however, many innocent electrons were diverted from where they originally intended to go. " I think, therefore I collect fossils." _ Me "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."__S. Holmes "can't we all just get along?" Jack Nicholson from Mars Attacks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpc Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 There is only one complete or near complete mammal skull from the Cretaceous of North America... Only One. And lots of folks collecting these beds. Pretty rare in this writer's opinion. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 Hominids arent nearly as rare as many other families of life. There are lots of remains from Neanderthals and of our own species. In contrast some vertebrate families are only known from a few teeth. And vertebrates are only one of a couple dozen phyla of animal life...and animalia only one of a few Kingdoms. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted October 17, 2016 Share Posted October 17, 2016 20 minutes ago, jpc said: There is only one complete or near complete mammal skull from the Cretaceous of North America... Only One. And lots of folks collecting these beds. Pretty rare in this writer's opinion. True re early mammals. In South America there's something like a 60 million year gap between two mid Creataceos specimens and the next mostly complete skull. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmaier Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 "I would think Homonid fossils would be right up there. " Hominid fossils are much more common than of the jungle dwelling monkeys and apes. The jungle environment is really bad at preserving fossils. Hominids live in more arid environments that were more likely to cover the bones with sediment, preserving them. The floor of the jungle is like a digestive mat, decomposing everything that falls into it. Think of the jungle floor like a big garbage disposal animal, made of bacteria, fungus, insects, and worms. So to think about rare fossils, just think of environments that are destructive to the making of fossils. As an experiment amny years ago, I took a fresh three foot salmon skeleton and put it on the forest floor in Georgia. I covered half of it with humus and left the other half exposed. For a week I checked the prgress of the decomposition of the carcass, and the buriied half was being disarticulated by the bacterial decomposition, and the exposed half was staying more intact. Then the whole carcuss disappeared, I think a racoon dragged it away. :) Many creatures and plants will probably never be known (and thus rare, or beyond rare... nonexistant) because of their native environment. There must be a lot we don't know, and will never know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridgehiker Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 A hundred billion birds can live and die without leaving a single fossil bone. A trillion insects, etc. The way we were taught to visualize preservation is to do as tmaier suggests above...what would be preserved in your own region? Country? In North America today there's only a small chance of any terrestrial macro vertebrate being preserved. There's gaps of millions of years with 'nothing' yet found. Most recent vertebrate fossils...mammoths,camels, horses, bison etc. are already being re-exposed and will have leave no fossil record in a couple million years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erose Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Fossils from certain environments can be rare. The fossil record is biased toward what actually gets preserved. Rivers, lakes, shallow oceans, etc. can preserve them but not mountainous areas or deep ocean basins so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcfossilcollector Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 Early chimpanzee fossils are extremely rare! For reasons stated by tmaier. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonianDigger Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 On 10/17/2016 at 2:31 PM, LordTrilobite said: Archaeopteryx is probably one of the best known rarest fossils. Only 11 specimens have been found in over 200 years. I had an absolutely beautiful 1st generation cast of the infamous Berlin specimen... during a move it was smashed to pieces. I almost cried. Jay A. Wollin Lead Fossil Educator - Penn Dixie Fossil Park and Nature Reserve Hamburg, New York, USA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted October 19, 2016 Share Posted October 19, 2016 7 hours ago, DevonianDigger said: I had an absolutely beautiful 1st generation cast of the infamous Berlin specimen... during a move it was smashed to pieces. I almost cried. I WOULD have cried! Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 On 2016-10-17 at 10:58 AM, DLB said: I can't because they are that rare JK lol I would assume they are ones like blue grass shale Blue Grass Shale? Never heard of that site - its fossils must be pretty rare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 just a guess: aves(birds) myrmecophagidae(anteaters) Tardigrada Onychophora primates monotremata complete Tunicata/Ascidia Vermes(worms)(serpulids and chaetognaths excepted) siphonophora Posidonia(seagrass) flowers complete mycenid fruiting bodies(more commonly known as "mushrooms") Needless to say,that the taphonomically most challenged species are the ones without skeletal hardparts(the unmineralized ones) I think no-one has found a fossil Bugula yet,though the Bryozoa have a good fossil record The Bluegrass shale has some well-preserved banjos,i think 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 LOL Ben, that last comment "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe" - Saint Augustine"Those who can not see past their own nose deserve our pity more than anything else." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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