OXFORD, Ohio — Searching for fossils isn’t just for kids. At Hueston Woods State Park, you never know what you’re going to find or how old it might be.

“Well, southwest Ohio is actually world famous for its fossils,” said Mark Peter, a paleontologist with the ODNR Division of Geological Survey.

Peter said the bedrock at Hueston Woods State Park is perfect for fossil hunting because the thin-bedded limestones and shales allow fossils to easily erode out. 

“There are very fossil-rich limestones elsewhere in the state, but a lot of times, they don’t give up their fossils nearly as easily,” he said.

Ohio’s landscape looked quite different 450 million years ago. Global sea levels were much higher, and Ohio was a shallow inland sea abundant with marine life. Finding fossils “kinda allows you to imagine what not only this area, but what our earth was like several hundred million years ago,” said Peter.

Hueston Woods State Park Naturalist Shawn Conner said at most Ohio state parks, you can’t take home natural items found within the park. 

“But here at Hueston Woods, the fossils are so abundant, it’s hard to kinda pick up a rock near a creek that doesn’t have fossils in it, and because of that, we allow open collection here for personal uses and personal collections,” said Conner.

Peter said countless fossils have been found at Hueston Woods, and there are many thousands yet to be found and described.

“You’re actually preserving something that if it’s just left to weather and erode, it will eventually be destroyed, and it's also a way that you could potentially contribute to science. You can contribute to our knowledge of life in the past,” said Peter.