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Nathan Newell posted an update in the group
Virginia and West Virginia Fossil Collecting 5 years, 1 month ago 5 years, 1 month ago5 years, 1 month agoLet’s start this group with the first location that I went fossil hunting, which is a road cut along Lost River in West Virginia. I found this site on FossilGuy.com and it can be a good place to get some cool (if headless) trilobites. The road cut has a big mound of scree with a substantial flat area that you can use for parking. Be sure to wear gloves; the scree consists of millions of sharp little shards of shale. (Fun with alliteration!) The site sometimes yields some nice trilobites and brachiopods, and the occasional horn coral, but it seems pretty picked over sometimes. I suspect that since it’s not only shown on FossilGuy but also published in a couple of books, it’s one of the more popular fossil sites in the area.
- Site: Lost River, WV
- Coordinates: 39.064757, -78.660888
- Age: early to middle Devonian
- Formation: Marcellus Formation and Needmore Shale
- Fossil Types: Trilobites, Brachiopods, Corals
Whoa, very cool!! Any echinoderm pieces from this area?
@jbauer Yeah, I see lots of crinoid stems (at least, I think that’s what they are) but they’re all in pretty rough shape. They tend to look decayed and rusty.
@nathan-newell – that’s sad but not surprising. Echinoderms like to fall apart into many pieces. I’d really like to get back up into the Appalachians. I did some mapping in the WV area but not much collecting. I’ll *never* find peace with the Tuscarora Sandstone, that unit does some weird things!!!
@jbauer Cool, I love collecting in the Appalachians. Stay tuned, I’ll post more locations that you might want to visit next time you’re up here. 🙂