| Road Cut Fossils
Forrest M. Mims
III
Road cuts are an important source of many kinds of fossils.
Shown here is one of many large cuts made along Interstate
Highway 10 west of Kerrville, Texas.
These cuts are through Cretaceous limestone
that contains countless non-vertebrate fossils, such
as those shown in the inset. It's not uncommon to find
ammonites 25 cm across lying on the surface at some
sites.
Laws, rules and regulations that govern
the collection of fossils from public roadways and road
cuts vary, so it's always important to check before
taking specimens. Collecting must never be done on private
land without prior permission. Collecting is prohibited
at State and National Parks.
Safety is also an important consideration,
especially when collecting at the base of a high road
cut like the one shown here or along a busy highway.
I am unaware of any rules that prohibit taking photographs
of specimens.
The novice fossil collector would be
well advised to become familiar with basic procedures
before beginning to collect specimens. Expert advice
can be found by searching on "fossil collecting"
on the web. There are a number of excellent articles
about fossils on The
Amateur Scientist 2.0 CD-ROM available from the
Society for Amateur Scientists.
Contributions to "Gallery"
are welcomed. Please submit sharp JPEG photographs and
a caption of from a few sentences to several paragraphs.
Be sure to include the full name(s) of any people in
your submission. To the best of your ability, provide
both the common name and the genus and species of any
plants or animals. Common names are lower case, as in
the live oak tree. The genus is capitalized and the
species is not, as in: The live oak (Quercus virginiana)
keeps its leaves during winter. Also provide information
about the camera that made the photograph.
Send your contribution as an e-mail
to the Editor. Place
"Gallery" in the subject line. Be sure to
include your full name. Attach the photograph as a JPEG.
Thank you for considering The Citizen Scientist.
Editor.
|
