Tag Archives: fossil

Tucson Gem, Mineral, & Fossil Shows-Brown Eggs & Green Cactus

Another very fine Ammonite.

Azurite/Malachite

The crowds are building for the weekend here in Tucson. The early birds get the parking. We just had a few errands to run today, picking up a few things we regretted not getting during this last week. We lucked out on parking at every location, ending up at the Fossil Show again. OK, I’ll fess up; I went back and got some more Seymchan Meteorite slices.

Linghams

The other day I saw these egg-looking things at the fossil show. I’ve seen them before, but did not know what they were. There were big ones and smaller ones. So here is their story, right from the vendor:

They were Tantric Shiva Linghams, sacred to the Hindu traditions. They are gathered once a year from the muddy banks of the Narmada River, one of the 7 sacred places of pilgrimage in India. Of those found, very few have the characteristic patterning that make the Tantric Lingham so unique. They are naturally formed of the Crptocrystalline Quartz (Jasper FYI), with iron oxide deposits said to have been implanted in the riverbed by a meteorite millions of years ago… .and it goes on to describe the metaphysical powers including stating that these stones contain the loftiest vibration of all stones on earth. I admit I touched one and did not get any “lofty vibration” (and I would have know if that happened). Of course I kill a lot of rocks and do not feel their pain either. The Lingham I felt up was a big one, so maybe I should have sat on it to feel the “vibration”.

Real Cactus (Prickly Pear)

Fake Cactus with fake Dino's.

Fossil Croc.

I apologize if I have offended any Hindu in writing this article. This was not my intention. I just say what the little voices in my head tell me to.

I took a few other photos for your viewing pleasure.

Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Shows-Arizona Mineral and Fossil Show

Sunny 75

The Arizona Mineral & Fossil show at the Tucson Hotel-City Center has long been one of our favorites. We noticed that it is approaching 300 vendors. Like all the other Hotel shows sales take place out of individual hotel rooms, in ballrooms, or lobbies. There are also dealers in tents and other buildings outside.

This show has always been great for bargain hunters as well as those looking for high-end specimens, fossils, dinosaurs, and Meteorites. The Hotel has three buildings, each one two stories. You can roam the balcony or the sidewalk and drop in on any room you want to look at. We see rough, slabs, finished jewelry, specimens, and fossils. Fossil fish can be your wall art, or a sculpture, and dinosaur bone can be had for pendants, or to decorate with.

This large gem grade black & Red Kentucky Agate was priced out at $4000. I never saw a 10" Kentucky, in these coveted colors, that was so nice.

This large gem grade black & Red Kentucky Agate was priced out at $4000. I never saw a 10" Kentucky, in these coveted colors. So nice!

Very nice picnic tables.

I know at least one person that would like to own this.

Awesome Smithsonite surounded by druzy-encrusted Quartz Crystals

Flowers and Rocks

Run, Bonnie, Run!

A fossil fish mobile.

Ammonite

The only way you can control these varments

The only way you can control these varmints, keep 'em in their packaging!

dinofam1

Bumblebee Jasper Skulls

scaryteeth treedino

An orange drops off a tree and they're on it.

Megalodon Mouth

Crinoid wall from Morocco

My Meteorite slab. Sorry about the reflections. This slab was mirror polished.

I mentioned earlier today on my Facebook page that my goal was to find something special to make jewelry from. That treasure appeared as a slice of a Pallasite Meteorite from Seymchan (Iron II E), Russia (found in 1967). Pallasites are wonderful meterorites containing Olivine, and the slab I found (later went back and got another slab), was chuck full of greenish-yellow gemstones. I am making myself a pendant and I have extra when someone else begs for one.

The market must be good for fiberglass dinosaurs, because they really multiplied from last year, so I’ve scattered a few photos in this blog. They can be bought for $2000 and up; way up!

The hotel is wonderfully landscaped with trees loaded with oranges. I even saw one baby dino trying to eat one that had fallen from the tree. Bonnie found some outstanding Lapis drilled pendent stones, and I found a great “Rock Star” T-shirt that pretty much describes me.

It was just a wonderful beautiful laid back day in Tucson.

Tucson Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Shows-22nd Street Was the Only Game in Town.

65 cloudy

The 2013 Tucson Rock, Gem, Mineral and Fossil shows are ready to begin, but the city roads are a mess with orange cones and construction signs. If you are on your way here, be sure to bring your GPS to help navigate. Street construction is underway everywhere and I predict frequent bottlenecks.

Xiphactinus (TPI)

Turtle (TPI)

??? (PCI) The only game in town today was the 22nd Street Show opening a day early. Their parking lot was filled up and they have a new hard sided tent this year, much larger than last year. There were a great many fossil dealers at this show this year, but a scattering of dealers selling jewelry, gems, rough rock, cabs, beads, wallets, old glass bottles. The majority of dealers were set up and ready, but we noticed a few dealers still sitting up. I would say there were in excess of 100 dealers.

My favorite of the show was Triebold Paleontology Inc (TPI)(www.trieboldpaleontology.com). Their fossils are always top notch. A tortoise and another small-ish Preditor that resembled a small T-Rex, but they were not sure if it was, in fact, a T-Rex or a new smaller Raptor (adult). But is was from the Hell Creek area in South Dakota. TPI also had a reproduction of a Xiphactinus fish over 15′ for $36,500 and if you have a room big enough he has an real Xiphactinus at home, 18 ½ foot long for just over $300,000. Great display guys!

Manatee

fish

We saw a prehistoric Manatee at another dealer, the more common (in Tucson) fish plates, and many other assorted fossils.

Quartz Gems with Gem of a Woman.

I always enjoy the giant Quartz plates, and the one we saw at this show was great.

Elephant Bird Eggs

Protoceratops

One of the most unusual things we saw was someone selling Aepyornis Maximus (Elephant Bird) eggs. These are 12 foot tall Moa’s from Madagascar that weighed half a ton. The bird laid giant eggs, and it was obvious that the eggs we saw were reconstructed from many pieces found. The last known Aepyornis died in 1658 or so. It is surmised that they were killed by a disease transferred by chickens or Guinafowl imported by humans.

Nearly all the shows start tomorrow. We will keep you posted.

Tucson Gem, Mineral & Fossil Shows-Jaw-Dropping Fossils

2-8 partly sunny 70

Tucson’s Mineral & Fossil Coop rivals any museum fossil display you have ever seen.

Mammoth Herd.

12-8-swimmer-dino

Imagine a massive warehouse with perhaps a dozen of the finest Fossil Dealers in the world. Spectacular fossils everywhere; featuring entire Extinct animals to small trilobites.

Cephalopods & Ammonites

TM&FC is a permanent wholesale vendor of fossils to shops, museums, and collectors around the world. The coop is listed as part of the Gem, Mineral & Fossil Show, and is a popular spot for those that are in the market for the finest fossils on earth. If they do not have it at the coop, they can probably get it. The coop is know for authentic fossils, but I did see a few manufactured fossils there. Not even close to some of the fake stuff some Moroccans sell, and if the fossil is manufactured or altered, the coop will tell you, unlike many of the less credible dealers.

Floor to ceiling fossils!

We saw million dollar specimens, dino eggs at $1000 each, and fishplates in excess of $5000. Flats of small fossils abounded, as well as almost any type of fossil-related home décor.

Megalodon Mouth

Meg teeth-Lower jaw detail

We saw a full Megalodon mouth featuring real meg teeth. It was amazing to see how new sets of teeth were ready to rotate in to replace teeth that grew worn or fell out of these giant prehistoric sharks.

Looks like the wild west, but I'd guess much older.

What a great palm frond wall hanging

The TM&FC is not the only thing we did today, but it deserves to be featured all by its self. You deserve to see it in pictures, although we wish all of you were here with us. One of the most amazing things we have seen here.

Huge Ammonite plate

Druzy (Drusy) Quartz

While in Tucson we purchased a substantial quantity of Druzy Quartz, both treated and untreated. Treated druzy is very popular right now, both because of its fantastic play of color and its “flashy-ness”. You just cannot wear one of these treated druzy pendants without being noticed. We sold every piece we had last year so it was time to re-stock.

Both treated and natural druggy Quartz

It is amazing how an ordinary piece of druzy quartz can be vapored with Titanium or other substances and magically turned into something extraordinary with such exciting results; each piece different than the next.

Some other druzy pieces that we found were wonderful natural druzy, not treated in any way. These natural pieces are generally higher, some much higher then treated druzy. I got so excited about this material, that I immediately made three pendants that are now for sale on this website.

Treated druggy

Natural Druzy

On another subject, if you recall I talked about the double trilobites from Utah we found. I cleaned them up and here is a fine photo of a few of them.

Let me show you a couple other pendants I just made also. It is very difficult to photograph these treated pendants because of the color-changing properties of the coatings. I’m fairly pleased with how they came out, but consider that these Titanium units are much flashier and brighter then shown.

Trilobites (Elrathia Kingi)

Yawah Opal

Blue Treated Druzy

Paint Brush Jasper

My Unusual Pendant

I do love the strange and unusual. A pendant I wear is a real jaw-dropper: a tooth from the largest shark that ever lived.

Megalodon became extinct approximately 2 million years ago. The earliest Megs dated back approximately 17 million years ago. Some Megaladon’s were 60 feet long and weighed 77 tons. And people thought JAWS was big!

Megalodon had 46 front row teeth, 24 in the upper jaw and 22 in the lower. p6280040 Most sharks have at least six rows of teeth, so a Megalodon had about 276 teeth at any given time. The largest Megalodon tooth found was around 7.25 inches long.

Some scientists estimate that Megalodon ate about 2,500 pounds of food every day, including whales and other large fish. One of the theories is that Megalodon became extinct because they starved out due to elimination of their food supply–they almost ate the whales into extinction, thus causing their own end.

Megalodon lived throughout most of the ancient world’s oceans.

Megalodon had a 6 foot mouth. If Megalodon was still alive you would not want to go swimming in the ocean. You would be considered a small snack food for this shark!

If you ever get to the Mall of America go to their Underwater Adventure. There you would see and could stand inside of a reproduction set of Megalodon jaws.

p6280038 The photo shown is of a bottom front tooth and is a bit over 6 inches. I wear it to some of my art shows. Price on the pendant shown is $650 firm. It is not posted on this website.