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2023 VERTEBRATE FOSSIL OF THE YEAR (VFOTY) The winner of the 2023 VFOTY goes to... Crocodile skull - Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias - Yorkshire Coast, Whitby, England Congratulations to @LiamL !!!

Hi, welcome to the 2023 Secret Santa party ! A sunny Secret Santa that begins here, today, in France, with an outsider temperature of 33° Celsius ! We're in summer !

2023 INVERTEBRATE/PLANT FOSSIL OF THE YEAR (IPFOTY) The winner of the 2023 IPFOTY goes to... Cryptolithus tessellatus trilobites and unknown starfish - Ordovician, Trenton Group - Central Pennsylvania Congratulations to @KompsFossilsNMinerals !!!

Here we are with our 2023 IPFOTY contest entries. These are all 12 of our IPFOTM winners from 2023, listed in the order of the month they won. Carefully review these entries and vote for the one you think deserves the title of 2023 Invertebrate / Plant Fossil Of The Year! Poll closes on the 25th of January just before midnight. You can also vote for the 2023 Vertebrate Fossil Of The Year contest HERE. 1. Ameura missouriensis trilobite - Pennsylvanian, Deer Creek Fm - Missouri 2. Hammatoceras sp ammonite - Jurassic, Upper Lias - Ravenscar, North Yorkshire, England 3. Metacoceras sp. nautilitoid cephalopod - Late Pennsylvanian, Kasimovian, Conemaugh Group, Glenshaw Fm - Armstrong County, Pennsylvania 4. Eromangateuthis soniae (previously referred to Boreopeltis) giant squid - Early Cretaceous, Toolebuc Fm - NW Queensland , Australia 5. Eurypteris remipes eurypterid - Upper Silurian, Fiddler's Green Formation, Phelps Waterlime - Lang's Quarry, Ilion, New York 6. Helicaulax pyrenaicus gastropod - Cretaceous, Upper Santonian - Southwest France 7. Cryptolithus tessellatus trilobites and unknown starfish - Ordovician, Trenton Group - Central Pennsylvania 8. Euproops danae - Mid Pennsylvanian, Francis Creek shale - Grundy Cty, Illinois, Mazon Creek 9. Neithea regularis bivalve - Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), Laumont Horizon, Nekum Chalk - Province de Liège, Belgium 10. Mecochirus magna lobster - Cretaceous (Aptian), bed 17 Atherfield Formation - Atherfield Point, Isle of Wight, UK 11. Paleocrinus planobasilis crinoid calyx - Ordovician, Benbolt Frm - Scott County, Virginia 12. Asterophyllites sp. horsetail ally - Carboniferous - Vigo County, Indiana

Here we are with our 2023 VFOTY contest entries. These are all 12 of our VFOTM winners from 2023, listed in the order of the month they won. Carefully review these entries and vote for the one you think deserves the title of 2023 Vertebrate Fossil Of The Year! Poll closes on the 25th of January just before midnight. You can also vote for the 2023 Invertebrate / Plant Fossil Of The Year contest HERE. 1. Parrotfish (Scaridae) dentary (beak) - Oligocene (Ashley Fm/Chandler Bridge Fm) - Summerville, South Carolina 2. Paramylodon harlani (Harlan’s Ground Sloth) upper second molar (M2) - Pleistocene, Peace River Formation - Hardee County, Florida 3. Mammuthus columbi, Columbian Mammoth, lower left molar - Undifferentiated Pleistocene Sands - Hardee County, Florida 4. Ceratopsian horn - Late Cretaceous, (76.5-74.4 Ma) - Cretaceous, Dinosaur Park Fm - Steveville Area, Newell County, Alberta Canada 5. Hadrosaurid ungual w/ pathology - Late Cretaceous, Campanian, Dinosaur Park Formation, (76.5-74.4 Ma) - Alberta, Canada 6. Crocodile skull - Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias - Yorkshire Coast, Whitby, England 7. Brachauchenius lucasi pliosaur tooth - Cretaceous (Middle Turonian), Kamp Ranch Limestone - North Texas 8. Pelagosaurus sp. (crocodile skull) - Upper Lias, Lower Jurassic - Whitby, UK 9. Hadrosaurid tooth battery - Late Cretaceous, Dinosaur Park Frm - Newell County, Alberta, Canada 10. Pachycephalosaur skull dome - Late Cretaceous (Campanian), Dinosaur Park Fm, (74.4 Ma) - Newell County, Alberta, Canada 11. Platypterygius australis ichthyosaur - Early Cretaceous, Toolebuc Formation - NW Queensland, Australia 12. Pelagonithid bony-toothed bird jaw - Late Miocene / Pliocene - North Canterbury, New Zealand

2023 ended up an amazing year, a whole mess of cool fossils- from micro to macro! Here is 2023 year in review!

Personally i have gotten out quite a bit this year. And i thought it would be fun to see what others have found and show people my favorite find/finds. Please only post 2023 finds. here's one of mine Pseudodechenella nodosa Thank you to @Tidgy's Dad and @Fossildude19 for encouraging me to prep it!

Today I got up early and drove 1 hour and 45 minutes (118 miles), one way, to Freeport, Illinois’ Eagle Club for the last show of the season presented by the Northwest Illinois Rock Club’s Show. This show runs Saturday and Sunday. This is a very small show, but I like to go, because you never know what you can find. Unfortunately, I did not find any fossils that I wanted, but I bought a number of pieces of obsidian, here is a piece of Mahogany Obsidian, this piece is about the size of a 16” softball. I picked up this piece for $8.00, a great price. Here are some pictures of fossils, one vendor has some nice stuff from Lebanon and Solnhofen. He showed me a few larger pieces that he had boxed up, very nice pieces, unfortunately I did not think about taking pictures. Pics of the venue.

This weekend was the MAPS (Mid America Paleontological Society) Show, held at the Orr Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The actual show started on Friday and ended today. Prior to the start of the show, there was a hotel show that started on Wednesday at the Fairfield Inn. I arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday. As usual, both venues were fun and it was nice to see friends that I knew from shows in the past. There were a number of forum members in attendance including @stats, @crinus, @ParkerPaleo and @fiddlehead. Like most shows, there were exhibits, a kids corner, fossil ID’s and lectures. The keynote talk was by Dr. Jed Day (Illinois State University) and his talk was titled “North American Records of Devonian Extinction Events”, and it outlined the key features of the Fras, Kellwasser and Hangenburg events. Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I took. There were also a number of fossils for sale from the Dr. Bruce Stinchcomb collection, below are a few. Continued on next post.

It’s that time of year again, Denver Fossil Show time, still open ‘til the 17th. This being my 3rd time visiting, I felt I had a better idea of where all the dealers are, and what I wanted to see most. I go mostly to look at all the interesting fossils from all over the world, I saw dealers from every continent other than Antarctica. The show contains a lot of polished minerals and gems although it seemed like there was an ammonite at every table. The majority of the fossils available came from the United States and Morocco. There were plenty of stunning dinosaur bones and trilobites, fish and ammonites but as always there were many, many, fakes, composites, and poor resto jobs and whatever the weird scorpion things in the first image are considered.

I went to the Royal Ontario Museum for a class history trip last month. I haven’t been there for years and there’s a bunch of new things I didn’t get to see last time. Here’s some photos from the trip. Enjoy

Abstracts for the CSVP meeting happening later this year: https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/vamp/index.php/VAMP/article/view/29391

As some of you may be aware there will be a paleontology symposium happening this year in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, from June 9th to June 12th. Registration is open and the planning committee will be accepting abstracts until March 3rd. Registration is open for all those who wish to attend regardless of professional or educational background, and until March 3rd we are offering an early bird discount on adult registration. We are planning a weekend of presentations, social functions, workshops, field trips, to list a portion of the activities planned for the weekend. There will also be a silent auction with plenty of paleontology related items and gift cards for local attractions and businesses available to bid on. For more details and to find out how to register, please visit the symposium's webpage. https://vicpalaeo.org/14th-bc-paleontological-symposium/

Happy New Year 2023 TFF Friends! It's been a long, sometimes tough year for me, but one that was still full of learning, fossils and this wonderful community here on TFF. We from Russia, Ukraine and the other republics celebrate the New Year's Eve, similar to how people here in the US celebrate Christmas, today we are gathered with friends and family and tomorrow we get to exchange gifts. I'm currently with my family and some friends enjoying some pelmeni and other foods. I hope that everyone here on TFF has had a wonderful Holiday season, and am wishing all of you a fantastic, fossiliferous 2023. Thank you all for making this community such a wonderful place! Misha

Once again it's time for the Paradoxides to dust off the top hat and ring in the new year. I'm eagerly looking forward to another great year of spectacular fossil treasures at TFF! Happy New Year 2023!

Hi I know this is not open yet, but if any are near Denmark next year, I think this looks amazing - Very rare we have anything of this quality around here. Allosauren Big Joe, Torosaurus and Archaeopteryx are some of the stuff going on display. https://knuthenborg.dk/evolutionsmuseet/ And if you are planning to see the museum, they also have a pretty amazing dino forest beside the rest of the safari park. Hope its OK to share something like this that is not open yet, but maybe some people had planned a vacation in Denmark next year, and this should be on your visit list Regards Henrik.