Researching and Deciding

It might be a good idea for you to find out about the geology in your area before you start a collection. Fossils, rocks and minerals are easy to find in many places. For information you might want to try the local museum or tourist office. It is also a good idea to choose a theme for your collection - for example, fossils from a certain area, period in time, or species. This might seem pointless to start with, but it will prevent you from overcollecting and make it easier to organise your collection.

Equipment You May Require

• A hammer (geological hammers available from specialised stores)

• Goggles

• A magnifier or low-magnification microscope

• Geological maps of local areas

• A few decent books for background reading and identification

• Some containers suitable for home collection

• Plastic collecting bags (or sandwich bags!)

• A notebook, pencil or biro.

Field Trips

On your field trips you should take a magnifier, collecting bags, a hammer, safety goggles, geo-maps, a notebooks and a pencil / biro. Do not take fountain pens or felt tips in case it rains and the ink smudges.

Of course, you will have to choose your site carefully. You might want to pick a site with cliffs or a stony beach. Fossils can be found just about anywhere, but as many good sites are privately owned, you ought to research the sites you plan to visit. It's a good idea to join an organisation or club. They will support you and encourage you, and occasionally send you specimens.

Don't wear your best clothes, or even your second best. No serious palaeontologist can ever expect to return from a field trip without being covered in mud.

Guidelines

Some collecting guidelines are so obvious it seems silly to state them, but you would be surprised at the sort of idiotic things that some collectors do.

Don't go climbing up cliffs without proper helmets, and don't stand underneath cliffs or you might get squished flat by giant boulders. Don't start hacking rocks up with hammers unless you're wearing goggles. Don't make unsightly holes in cliffs or walls. Don't collect fossils out of walls at all! Don't look for fossils on private land without permission. Don't search for fossils in quarries unless you have permission and helmets Don't pick up pathetic useless specimens which you have already got five of. You need to limit yourself to only collecting significant fossils and leave the less exciting fossils for others who might not have any.

Extra Guidelines For Kids Like Me

Always make sure someone knows where you are and when you should be back.

Be grown up. Don't leap over barbed wire fences or jumping off cliffs just to get to promising looking boulders.