A Fossil Hunt

Have you ever been on a fossil hunt?

My preacher’s wife and I have become wonderful friends. She also homeschools and we have so much in common otherwise. Her children were recently studying fossils, so I suggested a short walk on our farm to see if we could find any fossils in the many rocks that are lying around. I knew we’d find some, but I had no idea that nearly every larger rock we looked at would hold a treasure!

Take a look at some of our finds. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what most of these are, but I’ve made some educated guesses. My friend’s husband (my preacher) was actually an archaeologist in Israel many years ago! We’re hoping to have him come on the next fossil hunt to help us make better determinations.

This looked very much like a backbone.

This rock was *covered* in a bone-like material. We were able to bring a sample home and my preacher felt like it’s probably coral. Coral in rock on a farm in the middle of Kentucky? And some say there was no worldwide flood!

These smooth rocks, almost shell-like, were embedded in the rough rock.

These were shells like a snail wears.

Take a look at this impression! Anyone want to venture a guess? I’d love to know!

This looked like plant material.

There you have it! I took tons of pictures, but these were the most varied and interesting. As moms, we had just as much fun on this nature hunt as our children did – maybe more! I’d love to hear about your finds after you take a fossil hunt!

You can find this activity suggestion and many more in the Hard as a Rock NaturExplorers unit!