Paleonet: help
Frank Holterhoff
frankholterhoff at gmail.com
Sat Jul 7 22:35:31 UTC 2018
Hi Mike,
There is a Facebook Group called Fossil Sponges. The administrator is a
friend of mine called Jim Wyatt. Jim is a serious amateur who collects and
researches fossil sponges worldwide. I think connecting with Jim would be
beneficial to you.
Regards, Frank
On Thu, Jul 5, 2018 at 12:17 PM, Mike Zimmer <zimrows at att.net> wrote:
> Honorable People of the Paleonet,
> I am in dire need of assistance from someone who has great knowledge of
> fossil sponges. Though I am quite an enthusiastic collector, particularly
> of fossil sponges, and belong to the local Paleontological Society, I still
> consider myself to be an armature at this, mostly because I have no formal
> education in this field. This doesn't mean, however, that I am not
> educated and have not educated myself in this field. On the contrary, I
> have taught myself an awful lot, partly from books. I own all five
> Treatises on fossil sponges put out by Kansas University. That's the
> heavy weights, but there are many more. I also have two microscopes
> hooked up to my computer and take pictures of my fossils. One is 0 to
> 200x, the other is 375x to 400x. These tools really make rocks come
> alive. Another talent I have is the ability to cut and polish rocks. This
> allows me to see what is on the inside that is pristine and has not been
> touched for millions of years. OMG what a fascinating world!!! I have
> ended up putting myself together a data base of literally tens of thousands
> of pictures so that I could make comparisons and make more sense of this.
> Here is the rub! The more samples I find and study, the more questions
> I have. What I am looking at is not always in books. In fact, most of the
> time it is not. Therefore more questions! Needless to say I have
> questions about the books themselves. Since I do this in my spare time, I
> have no teacher or fellow students to ask questions of and with whom to
> discuss my findings. What's on the internet is sketchy as well. I have no
> clue how to classify any of what I believe to be sponges. Nor do I feel
> qualified to do so on my own. Worst of all is that I can find no one to
> talk to about this at all! And, it is not for lack of trying! I have come
> to realize that very few people have any knowledge of fossil sponges, even
> in the academic world, for I have reached out to many professors. And, the
> one or two people that may have some knowledge have a very closed mind on
> what could be a sponge. The other issue I have is that I have no
> credentials, and as a result am rarely taken seriously. Some even think me
> a bit of a nut, yet they will not take time out to see my research. The
> hard proof!
> I need help! I don't know for a fact that I am going in the right
> direction. I need a critic, someone who knows more than I do and who I can
> have an informed conversation with about these things. I want to learn
> more! I am at the road's end where I now stand, and it is driving me
> crazy. I truly believe that there are countless fossil sponges that are
> being overlooked simply because everyone is looking for something that is
> really obvious, and they are missing the multitude of not quite so obvious
> sponges.
> Thank you for your consideration, Mike Zimmer
>
> zimrows at att.net (521) 963-1999
>
>
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