Modern Fossils for Fun

Finding a fossil is amazing.  An average walk can be elevated to an extraordinary experience if a tiny fossil is discovered.  The idea of holding a rock that has the imprint from a living organism from a billion years ago changes your perspective.  It makes you wonder, it fills you with hope , it changes you.  Each fossil I find is displayed with awe and reverence.  I have never discovered a “ big” fossil, but I believe that all the rocks tumbling in a stream may have been stepped on by an allosaurus or a Iguanodon, so “fossils for fun” could be made from a collection of river rocks and pebbles collected while hoping for another fossil, even a tiny one.

Rocks and pebbles, hot glue, sharpie markers

Go hiking, wade in the streams, look along the banks of a creek, pick up a thousand pebbles, caress them, skip them across the flat water, put the ones that “feel right” in your pocket.  (Never collect rocks from National parks)  Add them to a jar, when the jar is brimming with possibilities spread out all of them  on the table, then imagine- a dinosaur, a bird, a mouse, a fish- fiddle around with the pile until a shape you love takes form.  Then hot glue the design to a larger rock and you have created a modern fossil to display with river rocks and your imagination.  It is a simple activity but very fulfilling.