Clayton Kern

Team Member Profile
Responsibility	North America Fossils Galore Live Events Organiser.
Location	USA
Qualifications	Bachelor's degree in Environmental biology, and minor in zoology
Birth Year	1985
Interests	Scuba Diving, Hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, geocaching, and fossil hunting obviously
Quote	Even one rain drop raises the sea.
Occupation	Marine Science Instructor
Favourite Geological Strata	Devonian
Favourite Fossil Tool	Cold chisel
Picture of Favourite Fossil	Carcharodon megalodon, lived during the Miocene, is thought to be ancient relative of the now living great white shark. Most recent size estimates put the megalodon at 15.9m (52.1 ft) long with a body mass of more than 35 tons maximum. Lived around the globe in many different oceans.

The Genesis of a Fossil Collecting Madman

It all began on a sunny beautiful day in 1990. As I, a 5 year old kid scanned the beach for pretty shells, and other beach treasures on the beach at the Outer Banks in North Carolina, a mysterious shell slowly washed out of the surf.  I reached down and snagged it before it could get eaten by the sea once again. Examining my new found snail shell, I noticed it was different than any I had ever found before seen. Even at 5 years old I realized that this shell wasn’t made out of the same shell type material most of the shells were. It was more like a rock that was snail shaped.  Thinking nothing more of it, I tossed it into my bucket full of other shells, and continued on my way.

A few years later as I decided to sort through my staggering array of shells I had amassed over the years, I came across that same shell once again. I looked at it more intensely now. I had gained a few years since I had seen it last, and it dawned on me why this shell was so different than the rest. Maybe it was a fossil, I proudly thought to myself! Not knowing what to do I grabbed it, and asked everyone I knew if they thought it was a fossil. My parents, my neighbors, my friends, my school teacher, no one could give me a definite answer. So I decided to take it too my banjo teacher who was known to collect odd things. He said with a solid and definitive, “yes I believe this is a fossil”.  Slowly a huge smile crawled across my face as I realized I had found my first fossil. Suddenly I began blurting out question after question, like how old is it? Is it worth anything? What is it made off? Of course he had no idea, but I wanted to know everything I could about it.

Slowly as I grew up, and found more fossils here and there, I began reading, and learning all I could about them.  My parents were always too busy, and knew nothing about fossils so they couldn’t really take me anywhere to find fossils, or teach me anything so as I grew up I sort of forgot about them.  School and sports also kept me busy, so besides the random fossil here and there that was about it.

That’s until I got to High school. My Mother was a bus driver and drove buses for schools, and field trips, and other special events.  She found out she was going to be taking a few college field trips to some fossil sites. Knowing how much I enjoyed learning, and enjoyed fossils she invited me to go. I had to skip school obviously, but as a high school student going on a college field trip was the best thing that could have happened. So I went and learned and found fossils, and so ignited my fossil hunting spark once again.

Now that I knew about these sites, and had a vehicle I could go to them and find fossils myself, I was free! I started up a fossil forum to try and talk to and meet other people interested in fossil hunting.  I didn’t have much time to devote to it, but we had a few active members. Through my forum I met a guy from Michigan, he really wanted to come out to PA and find fern fossils. So I decided to organize a trip on my forum, and go. I met him, and we went up, and found tons of fossils. I taught him about everything I knew about the area and he had a spectacular time.  

This initial “guided” fossil expedition then led to a great idea. I was going to college in Maine during most of the year, but came home for the summer. Unfortunately I had to work full time to pay for college and didn’t have much time to go fossil hunting.  Since I knew there were so many people interested in fossil hunting, but didn’t know where to go, so I decided to make a fossil expedition business where I could get paid to take people fossil hunting and go fossil hunting myself. 

And CoolClay’s Fossil Expedition began. The first summer we took one family fossil hunting, they had a great time. The second summer we were slightly busier with a few more customers. Everyone enjoyed themselves immensely and found lots of fossils.

My forum was pretty lame, and we only had a few active members, and I didn’t have tons of time to devote to it. Then a friend of mine (the person formally known as Fossil Kid) invited me to combine forums, and bring our members together instead of having 2 forums doing the same thing. So we combined forums, and so the World Fossil Forum was formed.

Then here we are today, the World Fossil Forum has 740 members and very likely may be the most active Fossil Forum on the web, I am getting ready to graduate with an Environmental Biology Degree, and just recently got accepted as Marine Science Instructor at the Catalina Island Marine Institute off the coast of California. And so ends (at least for now) 3 years of operating CoolClay’s Fossil Expeditions. We will still continue to supply Self-Guided expedition kits. And of course it’ll never end my fossil collecting endeavors, which will continue no matter where I go around the world. Who knows maybe CoolClay’s Fossil Expeditions will start again somewhere else around the world, or even maybe back to the original expedition sites? Only time will tell.