Entrance to the Fossil Pit

In June, Mathew’s class went fossil hunting at the Cargill Salt Mines. Unfortunately, Mathew wasn’t feeling well and stayed home from school. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed since I was chaperoning and heard great stories about the fossils that can be found there. Since we live rather close, we decided that we’d take a trip out there during summer break.

Salt that has been mined

Apparently, we live in an ideal location for fossil hunting, as it has some of the best Devonian aged rocks in the United States. That means the rocks in the area are between 416 and 359 million years old. The gorges and erosive waterfalls do an excellent job exposing the rocks, along with the salt mining that goes on. The rocks contain loads of fossils, which are among the most important in the world for studying events that occur during Devonian time. Since there is exceptional exposure of the rocks in this region, much of the basic work on defining geology in North America in the nineteenth century was done right here.

Fossil Pit

One of the best local dig sites is the Cargill Salt Mines in Lansing, NY along Cayuga Lake. It’s a very easy site to find; they even marked it with a sign. We met a paleontologist from the Museum of the Earth and a family from California at the site. Everyone was better equipped for fossil hunting than we were. For some reason, I forgot to pack a hammer; we just had a couple of garden tools: 2 spades, 2 hand cultivators and a small bucket. I am sure you are thinking – “What were you thinking?!” The truth is, I wasn’t. No worries, the shale in the fossil pit broke apart very easily in our hands; sometimes too easily because we lost quite a few beauties.

After an hour or so of sifting through the shale we were done. Just about every time we found something: a piece of brachiopod, trilobite, or clusters known as “life assemblages,” along with some that looked like fossilized plants. It was quite exciting and very satisfying.

While fossil hunting Mathew said that brachiopods were very common and that trilobites were more valuable, so we concentrated on trilobites. When we got home to examine our finds, we collected more trilobites than anything else. Therefore, trilobites are common in our home. In the world, brachiopods are more common because it is much easier to preserve shelled animals than it is to preserve fleshy animals.

Trilobites became extinct 255 million years ago, and were part of the largest mass extinction ever (so far). We found trilobites with their soft appendages preserved. However, once we released them from the rocks, they became very fragile and fell apart. We also found enrolled trilobites, similar to a pill bug, the trilobite is thought to roll itself up for defensive purposes, to protect its soft parts.

Here are some pictures of what we found.

If you plan to go fossil hunting, be prepared and remember to bring:

• hammer
• chisel
• pail/backpack to carry treasures home
• paper to wrap treasures
• hand lens
• hat
• sun block
• water

Remember if you find something unusual; bring it to a science museum for further identification. You never know, you might have uncovered the next new ground breaking discovery that will contribute to the ever unraveling body of knowledge about our earth.

Happy fossil hunting!