You hear that statement made by fisherman telling stories about the "one that got away" on their fishing trips. I've even used it when I lost the big one. Now the same can be applied to fossil collecting. Several years ago, say 2015 while on a fossil collecting field trip with APS to Tupelo Mississippi I let "one get away".
Tupelo is a site that contains 65 million year old Cretaceous Period fossils...an ancient seabed during the time of the dinosaurs. The coast is several hundred miles from this area, currently. This hunt was my first with the Alabama Paleontological Society so I considered myself as a real noob back then (first timer). That day I found numerous shells of mollusks, crab and crab pieces...yes I brought home crabs from Tupelo. On site I stumbled upon a large, what I thought was a Turritella (spiral shaped gastropod snail shells). I'd seen smaller versions of them throughout the day. When picked them up they were very brittle and broke apart! Thinking this one was the same but larger I didn't want to fool with it so I took a picture and left it. When I got home I posted the picture on The Fossil Forum and the responses poured in saying I found a Cretaceous lobster!
Yep, found it and let that "one get away"! Typical "noob mistake"! Now it resides in someone else's collection and not mine! From that point, every-out-of-the-ordinary fossil that is found is identified first, if it isn't significant then it's tossed!
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