I say to  show vendors and rock club members “…I’m not really a collector”. I say, “I just admire the pretty rocks, the ever so long dead critters, and all that glitters, pyrite or not.”

But I’m a avid table browser and pick brains like an Egyptian undertaker. I say, what’s this thing?  Fossilized extinct whale ear bone you say? Miocene?

I say ” which animal made this poo?”

Or “shiny thing!”

Then I feel so guilty over-chatting the poor captive expert I feel compelled to buy something.

The vendors probably know I’m lying anyway. I’m a collector all right, just a really cheap one. Luckily, most have small specimens almost any avid fossil fiend could buy and love.

Which brings me to Saturday’s finds at the Roseville Rock Rollers tail-gator swap/sale.

And, yep, Sergeant Major Tightwad got each fossil/mineraloid for only $5 USD per item.

Typically, I get so excited I forget the obvious questions, what kind and how old? Because these mud eaters lived and even dominated for so very long. Vendors might know or not but it’s worth asking.

Hard to tell from this buried-in-the-mudstone obverse view if this an actual dead trilobite or the molted and discarded carapace of one. Below are more from my tiny collection.

I also forgot to ask the rockhound seller which small dinosaur lost this tooth; it ended up encased in sandstone. I generally prefer specimens still in the surrounding rock matrix.

Finally, I bought this beautiful chunk of amber, chocked full of inclusions and animal burrows. This fossilized tree resin, often preserving ancient flora and fauna, was first found in the Baltic Sea.

Why didn’t I say, “what kind of animals, how long ago, ya know?”

Cause he might have known, these old timer rock nerds knowing- and telling you too if you ask nicely-lots of things about these very old bits.

But no matter, I’ll bring my new finds to the RRR educational meeting Tuesday at 7:00PM (1900 hrs) at the Roseville Fairground and ask Jim. And he will educate me.

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