Search the Community

Hi everyone! My name's Cameron and I'm an amateur fossil and mineral collector from Central Texas. My primary interest is in local cretaceous fossils (who doesn't love echinoids and ammonites?), but lately I've had a small obsession with finding and reassembling Nerinea steinkerns. I'm currently on a short trip to Dallas just exploring the city, but I'm thinking of heading up to Lake Texoma June 17 to poke around for about a half day. I don't really know where to look or what the water level is like since this wasn't part of the itinerary, but I remember seeing pictures online years ago of Macraster echinoids and Duck Creek ammonites that I've always wanted to look for. I'll also share a few of my favorite finds of the past few months when I get back home. I just found my largest Nerinea fossil yet and am eager to see if there are any other Nerinea enthusiasts on here. Anyways, happy collecting and thanks for taking the time to read my member intro! :)

I've driven by this field for years with a big ravine in the distance and decided to check it out since it wasn't fenced or posted and glad I did. The ravine was a good 30-40 yards long, probably 10ft+ at deep end and around 5ft wide, as I got closer the dirt changed to grey clay mud with little vegetation, the surface was sandy and rocky. First thing I saw was the large Echinoid, then peices of what I thought were ammonites until I found a more intact one, then I thought Turritella but didn't quite fit. Had a heck of a time trying to ID them and finally ran across Turrilites, I think that's what they are. I went in shallow end of ravine to grab a few things and ended up with 10lbs of mud stuck to my feet so anything else was retrieved by reaching over edge of ravine. Couldn't tell what half of it was until I got home and washed them off. So here goes my ID efforts, Hemiaster echinoids, a Texigryphaea, the group with clam, and possibly a Trigonia, and what looks like deformed echinoid ? Not sure about the last 2 tiny ones, some kind of bivalves? This is the most fossils I've found in one spot and I'm unfamiliar with some so appreciate any help!

This little rock is from Eagle Ford, since it was cracked I broke it open to be surprised by all the fossils in it and that I saw shiny things with color. Definitely not what I'm used to seeing! I assuming most of these have original shell, there are gastropods that are different colors, and also bivalves with different color, different sub order? Several heteromorph ammonites I think, and some kind of worm. Curious what the shiny multicolored area is, a couple unknowns, dendrite I think, and last one I'm not sure about, scaphite maybe? Appreciate any help!

We go in Hautes Alpes with a friends find some callovien ammonites in may with the rain,it was a nice day

Hello Fossil Forum, For the last few weeks I have been reading through the volumes of knowledge on this forum, in particular as it relates to fossil preparation. I have been a long time fossil enthusiast, reading and admiring the pursuit from a distance. However, in the last few months I've gotten interested in fossil preparation and have been amazed at the wonderful, knowledgeable folks on this forum who's work is truly inspiring. My very basic tools are getting me started, but I have an eye to growing out my "prep lab" to take on more projects. Many thanks for the help along the way!! Cheers, Fossil Fen (Ryan)

We went camping last weekend out at Delintment Lake in eastern Oregon. We went to check out the ammonite fossils. It was a great place! Kids loved it. Here are some of our finds. Interesting area because you could dig in one area and it was really loose compacted clay and in another area less than a mile away it was hard slate type material that really needed some work to get it to split. Naturally the slate material had the more robust ammonites.

Hi all, I picked up a lot of partial ammonites and ammonite imprints on my latest fossil hunting trip. I was wondering if anyone may have an idea as to which types of ammonites I've come across. They come from the Paja formation in Colombia which is part of the Cretaceous. Thanks in advance

Hi all, some of you may remember a while back I took a trip to Villa de Leyva to see the Kronosaurus and have a little go at finding some fossils myself. The town is renowned for its ammonites and other fossils, and you can find them in the streets and walls all over. I've included some pictures of these 'load bearing' ammonites here and the main square. The first time around I was close, finding a tiny imprint of an ammonite in a round nodule. This got me excited but I was ultimately left disappointed. This second trip was a total departure and more successful than I could have hoped for. After four hours of searching in the blazing sun, I finally found the spot i'd been looking for. More details below.

Man was it hot today! Would you believe it? 30°C on the 9th of May! I did a lot of sweating, but even though it was somewhat exhausting after 7 hours of digging, I did have some fun too. I cleaned out this area during the first few hours. And came up with at least a few things. I then decided to move to another spot. And promptly found the best one to this point. The fossiliferous area in the hypselocylum zone which I am working consists of two ca. 20cm. thick concretionary limestone beds separated by about 20cm. of friable soft marl. The fossils in the marl, which are numerous, are mostly flatly pressed and usually fall to bits. The ones in the limestone beds are strongly cemented in and there is a lot of ammonite brekzie and an awful lot of sponge material within. So I spend a lot of time whacking away at them once they are extricated, which necessitates a lot of energy, since they are extremely hard. They don't always come out complete, so there's some glueing to be done at home, but every once in a while I get a lucky split as above. The up side of this is that the fossils from the concretions are very well preserved, once you manage to get them out intact. Here's my booty at the end of the day. Tomorrow I should be getting down to some preparation.

Finds from Buffalo Creek park on Fossil Creek in Texas. This is a very busy park and there are sometimes questionable people around. I did however meet a nice guy, looked like Gandolf, minus some teeth, who gave me my only unsquished sea urchin. How can you keep the top layers of the sea urchins from chipping off? First photo are ammonites and some pieces of ammonites. Second photo are my sea urchins, with one tiny bivalve and also some devil toenails, gryphea in a clump. Third photo gryphea. Fourth photo sea urchin. Fifth photo I don't know yet what it is, but it's pretty cool.

Texas Springtime is my favorite - we haven't had much rain, but the weather is....typical Texas. 60 one day and 90 the next. But I find my tolerance for random temperatures is way better when I am out fossil hunting! So here are some finds from recent excursions. Plus a few shots along the way..... Some local Longhorns. As I head out of my neighborhood, these critters are sometimes out enjoying the Texas sunshine The fossiling started with a nice trip out with Erich Rose to a Glen Rose spot - first thing I spot is something i've never found in our Central Texas formations....a vertebra! So exciting!! Turns out it's a large fish -Ichthyodectes. Size 3/4 inch Also found a lovely big gastropod that Erich ID'd as a Caliopea - I was happy to find a new gastro! Size 3 inches Plus something really special - Erich have me a starfish ossicle he found. ( I guess he already had enough to make a starfish? I'm really going to need some more) Size 1/8 inch A week or so later, I hit up a few local Walnut Formation areas, hoping to find a Dumblea echinoid. It is eluding me. No luck, but I did find a REALLY nice Engonoceras stollyi just sitting at the bottom of an embankment.. waiting for me to find it! Mother Natures Gift.... All cleaned up: Also found this really beautifully preserved Bivalve Inoperna concentricecostellata Size 2.5 inches At another Walnut spot I had some good luck finding Leptosalenia mexicanas Biggest one is 3/8 inch Back at home, the Redbud was blooming: and the butterflies were landing in the purple verbena Next excursion was out to my favorite Glen Rose location where I picked up some matrix to look at under the microscope. I took my mom with me and she had a good time finding little crab claws and tiny crinoids. I found a variety of Crinoid Isocrinus anulatus - I am always surprised at the variety of shapes and designs! Size 1/8 - 1/4 inch Plus some really nice tiny tiny crab claws Went to another Glen Rose spot and found this big ole Jackrabbit wondering why I was crawling around on the ground: To find the Fossils, silly rabbit! Heteraster texanus size 1 inch Gastropod Nerita bonnellensis Size 1/2 inch Loriolia rosana Size 1/2 inch Another day was back out to another couple of Walnut Formation locations Found a nice, if not complete, Protoengonoceras gabbi Size 2 inches (And a special thanks to @erose for the egonocerid paper so I can properly ID these ammos! Turned out a couple I had just labeled as Engonoceras, were actually Metagonoceras and a Platiknemiceras! Also found this cool, unknown Gastropod (possibly a Natica, but none I could discern that fit the species) Size 3/4 inch And a really nice (both sides preserved) Bivalve Ludbrookia arivichensis Size 1 inch The family took a trip to Enchanted Rock State Park - no fossils here!! Solid Pink Granite batholith. See those tiny people at the top? The rock is huge! And yes, I made it up to the top, but I certainly found out how out of shape this Pandemic has made me!! To prove I made it: Yesterdays hunt was back out to the Glen Rose, to a spot I had found a couple of interesting echinoids (before I really knew what I was looking for!) so I went back to see if I could find anything else...but literally ALL I found were more of these Plagiochasma echinoids! And a clam. So I don't know if it was a little nest, or what, but 7 in total, none in great condition, but they are really beautiful (and rare) echinoids. Plagiochasma texanum Size 1/2 inch And finally, another unknown Gastropod Size 1/2 inch I Hope all of y'all are enjoying spring (if it has sprung in your area) or are at least looking forward to it!

Hi I'm Suzanne a new member but a fossil hunter of long standing. After studying geology at university for a while I never lost interest in both geology and palaeontology and have a collection of rocks and fossils amassed over many years. I was recently given a fantastic cabinet for my 60th birthday to store and organise my sizable collection (rather than having them literally all round the house!) I spend time in Lyme Regis and so am most familiar with the Jurassic fossils of SW England but interested in all periods and types.

Hello, here are some fossils I found in northern Israel in the oren river. I found a lot of rocks that where filled with fossils and mainly ammonites. If anyone knows the species of these fossils I would be happy to know that. I know that there are a lot of real fossil experts in this forum so I figured maybe these fossils will be helpful to someone (maybe it's an unknown species or a species that was not found in this area). I added a covid mask for general size reference and I would be happy to hear anything you have to say about these fossils.

Hi everyone, now that it is a prohibitive time for fossil hunting (at least where I am!) I though it was a good opportunity for a little throwback. This summer I travelled to southern France and I had the chance to visit museums, paleontological heritage sites and, of course, collect fossils. Towards the end of August I met with a friend and we headed to an area that was quite popular among professionals and amateur collectors alike, but we didn't know any exact location. We stopped at a place that looked promising and we asked the owner of the land permission to survey and, potentially, collect. And we were very lucky indeed! Note that I cannot pinpoint the spot to you, because the owner asked not to disclose it. Here's a picture of the outcrop at the end of the day. It was a 1.5 m (5 ft) thick bed of grey marls with limestone interbeds, Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) in age. As I am chiefly interested in the scientific aspect of collecting, I managed to record bed-by-bed stratigraphy and fossil occurences. I drew a few sketches and a log, so that no info will be lost. We found a lot of material. Large inoceramid bivalves (not pictured) were very abundant. Ammonites were relatively common, but very fragile and most of the time fragmented. We did find however a few complete ones. Here's the first find of the day. This large boulder was detached and, in hitting it with the hammer, this ammonite popped out undamaged: This was the largest specimen, before and after collecting: Another very delicate specimen, it may need a bit of prepping: And, finally, one of the most interesting find, a heteromorph ammonite, still to prep: In conclusion, I hope you enjoyed my post and my finds. Let me know if you have any ID suggestion, they'd be much appreciated. Cheers, Fabio

Found all these in the same place, north Irving ( Dallas County) in eroding drainage canal, lots of shale and concretions and neat little rocks you crack open with surprise inside. Is the small one Metoicoceras? Hard for me to differentiate that and Calycoceras, which the bigger one looks like to me but they wouldn't be in the same place, correct? And the little guy a Heteromorph maybe? I seem to find a lot of those. My favorite part of these is the suture mark patterns.

Hello, I would like to propose a trade with these ammonites. Preferably ammonites from outside Europe. 1. Double, Androgynoceras maculatum, Pliensbachian, Schandelah, Germany 2. Multi, Arnioceras semicostatum, Sinemurian, Holderness, UK 3. Multi, Hecticoceras and Choffatia, Callovian, St Laon, France 4. Multi, Parkinsonia cf. subarietis, Bajocian, Sengenthal Germany 5. Pseudolioceras lythense, Toarcian, Saltwick Bay, UK 6. Stephanoceras humphriesianum, Bajocian, Caen, building of the Route de periferie, France 7 and 8 Lucky split, Dactylioceras commune, Toarcian, Port Mulgrave, Yorkshire, UK Greetings Walter

The weather has been so accomodating lately, that I figured that the snow should be gone by now from the slopes of the Wutach area in southwest Germany. I'd been thinking about a particular spot in the Middle Jurassic Callovian and decided to spend some time there. Sure enough, the snow was long gone, so I could scramble down the slope to the site. There are a few other local collectors who visit this site fairly regularly, but it was obvious that no one else had been there yet so early in the season. So I first made a quick inspection tour and found a few blocks which had weathered out over the last months. Here are the ammonites that came out of them. Then I got down to some serious work on the exposure. After a while, I noticed this. I was hoping for a large Macrocephalites, but unfortunately it turned out to be just the outer whorls. The inner ones were completely weathered away. However, as luck would have it, a few smaller ones nearby popped out. Another large one showed up a little later. It's not easy to see. Just to the left of the point of the hammer. Once again, it was just a partial, but there was a good Macrocephalites right next to it. It broke in two, but I was able to salvage the pieces and shall repair it once I get down to the prep work. I spent about 5 hours working the exposure and then decided to call it a day. Here's a photo of the harvest. Now it's time to get under the shower.

Hello all, One of the many drawings/art works of me. Black pencil and edited with pc. This artwork comes perhaps in a book that will be published in July/August 2021. The Cretaceous sea (Kreidemeer) of Europe (late late Campanian and/or early Maastrichtian, 73-69/73-68 mya). Kind regards and happy fossil hunting! Ruben

Hi anyone tell me how to tell the difference between a Desmoceras and Cleoniceras I have googled it checked all my books but come up with nothing Thanks Andy

Hi all, newbie here. This is my collection of marine fossils from the South Downs (West Sussex), Abbey Wood, and Lyme Regis (plus a couple of bought pieces). I hope you enjoy

A recent trip to the museum of El Fósil (an enormous Cronosaurus still in place!) And the Centre for Paleontological Investigations in Villa de Leyva, Colombia. They had a great selection of heteromorphic ammonites, icthyosaurs (including the only one in the world with the eye intact) giant ancient turtles and many more. I can provide more pics if you are interested

Hi all, I'm a British fossil hunter living and working in Colombia. Whenever I have free time I hop on the motorbike to Villa de Leyva or the Tatacoa Desert and start digging. I'm keen to meet people here with an interest in South American fossils and looking forward to learning from everyone here. Hope you've all had a good Christmas and New Year!

Hello members, I submitted myself before but never used this forum. Now I will try to keep up this forum too. I m member of a few other fora too. My interest are mainly ammonites but have other interests like vertebrae ans echinoids. Most fossils that I have are from Northwest Europe. Uk, Germany, France, Belgium and Netherlands I hope to be able to use the trading pages later as I m not allowed to it yet. greetings Walter