Abstract
Two hundred seventy-two kilograms of sediments and fossils were collected from 1 meter square plots on lake beach and river gravel bars to compare the efficiency of surface collecting with that of intensive laboratory processing. Collecting fossils by visual inspection of the outcrop required an average of 14 minutes 56 seconds per square meter and resulted in 319 vertebrate and 1320 invertebrate fossils. The ratio of time spent collecting and processing sediments to time spent in surface collecting fossils was 4.66:1. The ratio of invertebrates produced by the intensive laboratory process to invertebrates produced by surface collecting was 4.80:1. Vertebrate fossils produced by the intensive process amounted to only 0.91 of the amount collected on the surface. Surface collecting is, therefore, the more efficient collecting method, particularly for vertebrate fossils.
Recommended Citation
Ball, Kenneth M. and Davis, Leo Carson
(1990)
"Efficiency in Collecting Fossils,"
Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science: Vol. 44, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jaas/vol44/iss1/5
