First Fossil Hunt with my 4 year old - Jackpot!

[discoidal roller]

My 4 year old boy has bugging me for months to go fossil hunting. Of course he's all into dinosaurs and so when he had the day off from school yesterday, I took him to one of the few places here in Maryland that is available for hunting. And quite to my surprise, we found some awesome stuff in a very short amount of time!

These are Cucullaea Gigantea (giant clams) apparently from the Paleocene era, about 60 million years old. These are internal molds, left over after the animal has died and the shell has dissolved. When I first told him we were going to look for clam fossils, he was none too happy - he wanted a Stegosaurus or Pteranodon. "Clams?? ohhhhhhhh no!" But it turns out that clams are really cool after all and he can't wait to take one to "show and tell".

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[old digger]

That's Cool! Nothing like inspiring a youngster to get out and looking.

 

[Ninjafossils]

That's how I got started. Take him up to big brook l, New Jersey for some shark teeth.

 

[yakker]

That's great- your boy is adorable, BTW! Those clams really are cool-looking, and I'd bet you're really glad you went Yakker

 

[austin]

Start of a bunch of great Show and Tell material for the future. Then a career in geology and a job with Haliburton for 6 figures here in Texas. It all works out...

 

[discoidal roller]

That's great- your boy is adorable, BTW! Those clams really are cool-looking, and I'd bet you're really glad you went Yakker

Thanks Yak. Yeah, he's a keeper but he doesn't look anything like me, haha. And of course now I've got to follow that up with something even more epic so the pressure is on...

 

[Plumbata]

I've collected those clams in MD before, very cool. You can also find shark teeth in the same creeks, of a very dark/black color if memory serves.