Subduction's Rock, Fossil, and Shell Collection

[Subduction]

Hello there everyone! While I'm working on my prehistoric animal collection, I wanted to share my rock, fossil, and shell collection. I don't have too many rules for this collection. As long as it's interesting, acquired legally, and something I don't have too much of, I'll collect it. I prefer collecting things from the field but I won't guilt trip anyone for buying from other collectors. Heck, not everything I own was collected from the field.

[Halichoeres]

Looking forward to seeing what you've got to show!

[Subduction]

Looking forward to seeing what you've got to show!

Thank you so much, Halichoeres! Hopefully what I've got is interesting!

[Subduction]

(Important note: The vast majority of these photos are from 2018 to 2020. Many of them don't have a scale but I think they're still worth sharing.)











Here's the first round of photos! These were collected during a field trip to Pennsylvania with my Invertebrate Paleontology class. They're Devonian in age. The Mahantango Formation contains an abundance of fossils. You can find echinoderms, corals, bivalves, brachiopods, and even trilobites if you're lucky enough to find them! We didn't find any trilobites but these are still my favorite fossils in my collection. The rocks themselves are black shale.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

Your fossils look like they're from the Mahantango Formation. I've collected from several different Mahantango localities in Pennsylvania. You have a nice sampling of the typical fossils that are found there.

Do you remember where in Pennsylvania you went to collect?

[Libraraptor]

Cool,  some Echinodermata!

In Germany we have the name for those "Discs" : "Bonifatiuspfennige" , meaning Bonifatius  pennies.  This saint is said to have lost coins in his way to the poor.

[Halichoeres]

Very cool. I'd love to take an invertebrate paleontology class.

Cool,  some Echinodermata!

In Germany we have the name for those "Discs" : "Bonifatiuspfennige" , meaning Bonifatius  pennies.  This saint is said to have lost coins in his way to the poor.

That's a great folk name for them. 

[Subduction]

@Pachyrhinosaurus
Possibly! I collected these fossils in 2015 and can't really remember the geology too well. But we were in the Delaware Water Gap. I wanna say we were near the Kittatiny mountains since I remember us traveling a highway through two mountains but I could be wrong.

Thank you!

@Libraraptor
Thank you! I agree with Halichoeres. That's such an awesome folk name for them.

@Halichoeres
Thank you! I really loved the class. My professor believed it was impossible to reasonably cover Vertebrate Paleontology in a single semester. And I can see why. But taking that class really helped me appreciate invertebrates, especially mollusks. 

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

@Pachyrhinosaurus
Possibly! I collected these fossils in 2015 and can't really remember the geology too well. But we were in the Delaware Water Gap. I wanna say we were near the Kittatiny mountains since I remember us traveling a highway through two mountains but I could be wrong.

I've never been up there but your fossils look similar to those from sites closer to me, which makes sense if it's all the same formation.

[Subduction]

@Pachyrhinosaurus
Possibly! I collected these fossils in 2015 and can't really remember the geology too well. But we were in the Delaware Water Gap. I wanna say we were near the Kittatiny mountains since I remember us traveling a highway through two mountains but I could be wrong.

I've never been up there but your fossils look similar to those from sites closer to me, which makes sense if it's all the same formation.

I did some research and you were correct! These are most likely from the Mahantango Formation! It's a pretty extensive formation. So I'm not surprised you were able to fossils from there as well, even if we weren't in the same location. Some of the nearby Devonian units have interbedded shale but I don't recall these fossils coming from an interbedded layer.

[Subduction]

(Important note: The vast majority of these photos are from 2018 to 2020. Many of them don't have a scale but I think they're still worth sharing.)

The second round of photos. I hope everyone's prepared for minerals!



A piece of tourmaline I purchased from the 2018 GSA convention.



Staurolite (Left) and Pyrite (Right). These were purchased at a mineral show in 2016 if I remember correctly.



A piece of rose quartz someone gave me a really long time ago.



A piece of petrified wood I purchased from the 2018 GSA convention. A lot of minerals I'm sharing today were bought from the convention.



A piece of dolomite I purchased from the 2018 GSA convention.



Some celestite I purchased from a mineral show.



A piece of aragonite I purchased from the 2018 GSA convention.

[Subduction]

(Important note: The vast majority of these photos are from 2018 to 2020. Many of them don't have a scale but I think they're still worth sharing.)

The third round of photos! My sea shell collection so far:



I collected the clam shells at a beach in New Jersey. I believe the scallop shells are from New Jersey as well but I don't remember. The large conch shell was a gift from my grandfather. He said that it came from Turkey.



These were the very first sea shells I collected. They're also the reason why I can't guilt trip people for buying stuff from collectors. Because I bought them from an art supply store.



Another example of buying stuff from a store. My mom found these at Walmart one day and I couldn't resist buying them.

[Halichoeres]

Nice mineral collection! I have a few but I have a hard time remembering what they are or where they came from.

[Subduction]

Nice mineral collection! I have a few but I have a hard time remembering what they are or where they came from.

Thank you Halichoeres! I'd love to see your mineral collection someday.

Minerals have distinct characteristics but they can still be difficult to identify sometimes! There are properties that help, such as a mineral's color, hardness, or cleavage/fracture. But unless you have access to laboratory techniques, usually the best thing you can do is take an educated guess based on what you can observe. I usually don't know where minerals come from either unless I'm told or I collected them from a specific location.

[Subduction]

(Important note: The vast majority of these photos are from 2018 to 2020. Many of them don't have a scale but I think they're still worth sharing.)

I just realized I haven't shared my rock collection yet! Here's the final round of 2018 to 2020 photos:



Both of these rocks are from upstate New York but they weren't collected in the same region. The bicolored rock on the left contains anorthosite (the white layer) and magnetite (the dark layer). The garnet-rich gabbro on the right came from Mt. Gore, a mountain in the Adirondacks.



I found this piece of diabase basalt in Pennsylvania. It's a part of the CAMP (Central Atlantic Magmatic Province) intrusion. In a nutshell, CAMP is a large igneous province and erupted during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic.



Some garnet-rich gneiss. These are from the Adirondacks!



I'm not sure what kind of igneous rock this is but one of my professors gave it to me. He collected it from Pennsylvania. I don't think this rock came from the CAMP intrusion. It seems to have more felsic than mafic minerals based on its color. Rocks from the CAMP intrusion are basalt, meaning they'd be darker since they have more mafic minerals in their composition.



And probably one of the coolest rocks in my collection. I got this from the Sterling Hill Mine Museum in New Jersey. These Sterling Hill Mine rocks are really special. Not only they're highly fluorescent under ultraviolet light but they contain minerals exclusive to this region, such as franklinite.

I have some other rocks, fossils, and shells in my collection that need to be photographed. But I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing that. My energy and motivation have been extremely low. But it's not DTF's fault. There's just a lot happening on my end.

[Gwangi]

Great collection! Thanks for sharing. It makes me want to post my own collection but I probably never will. Love the fossils, they remind me of the Devonian fossils I used to find when I lived in New York.

[Subduction]

Great collection! Thanks for sharing. It makes me want to post my own collection but I probably never will. Love the fossils, they remind me of the Devonian fossils I used to find when I lived in New York.

Thank you, Gwangi! Aww, I would love to see your collection someday! I'm not sure if the Mahantango Formation extends into New York but I wouldn't be surprised if it does! But New York has a lot of interesting fossils. I wish I remembered the name of the park but it had stromatolites. You couldn't collect them but they were so nice.

[Halichoeres]

I'm learning so much from this thread! Thanks for sharing these.

[Subduction]

I'm learning so much from this thread! Thanks for sharing these.

Thank you so much, Halichoeres! It makes me warm and fuzzy hearing that. ;o;