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Hello everyone! I've been swamped with work, preliminary home building plans and trying to get my collection more organized, but I still managed to pull of a small hunt at Green's Mill Run in this weekend, as well as a short trip to Aurora back in February. I hadn't really made any strong plans for either trip, but a series of different events eventually let to me heading to the area, and the timing worked out in my favor both times. The Aurora visit in February was a quick one; I got up one Saturday morning with nothing much planned for the day, but when I looked into my surplus storage trailer and saw all the excess Hardouinia echinoids and Exogyra oysters that needed to be donated, followed by receiving word there was some special things going on that morning that could have been a decent opportunity to represent the fossil club I am in, I figured it was a good day to visit. After I made my donation and spoke with some folks, I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon digging through one of the piles that was poised to be relocated soon with a local friend. I ended up finding a few nice things! This is a group shot with most of the things I found that day. Only a couple of really big highlights, I was able to find quite a few Trivia gastropods! These are some of the coolest fossil gastropods from the mine spoils that I've found there, and they're really ornate. I was told the last batch of material had a lot of them in it, so I was glad to have found some before they moved it on. And the other really cool find, a Scaphella gastropod with some trace color patterning! I've only found a handful of these gastropods as well, and the fact that it had some preservation like this was really neat. It's not at the Florida level of preservation, but it's really nice regardless. Moving on to the present, I had previously made a few short attempts to locate a modern echinoid that is almost exclusively found in North Carolina, Rhynobrissus cuneus. However, none of them bore any fruit, and with the cost of fuel and lack of time making it difficult to continue taking detours on my way back from other trips, I figured it wouldn't hurt to see if I could attempt to locate someone that wouldn't mind swapping some things for a specimen. Fortune was kind to me, and a very nice lady was willing to part with one she found in exchange for some of my spare finds in my collection! It also included spines, which was more than I was hoping for. After talking a bit, we decided to meet "in the middle" at Greenville, NC to swap the specimen. Knowing I'd be in the vicinity of the site, I packed my creek gear and hit the road for a very rainy hour and a half drive. These are a couple of photos of said specimen, alongside a copy of the official description of the species that the USNM (AKA the NMNH) printed to give out to various institutions. After wrapping up, I immediately went to my preferred Belemnite hunting spot in GMR. However, I failed to realize how much rain had fallen not just that morning, but the night before! It was just shy of 6 foot on the Tar River, and the water was considerably high and rough in that particular par of the creek, which is narrow and steep. I was a bit disappointed in the turn of events, but rather than call it quits I decided to go to the other spot I have hunted at with friends, which was wider and much more shallow. I can safely say I have now learned my lesson with the height of the river's impact on the site, it was still quite rough in that area too! Still, since I was there, I gave it my best shot and got to work on some areas without strong currents. Ultimately, it wasn't a bad visit! I found a few surprisingly nice things, as well as a few finds that I did not expect. Unfortunately, this particular part of the creek is not very good for any sort of mollusk fossils, including my favorite belemnites! They are a bit rarer, and are highly eroded, but I still was able to find one decent quality specimen. The bivalves and gastropods are also more scarce and weathered in this area, so I ended up with fewer invertebrates than I was hoping for. My preferred spot has a higher concentration of Peedee Formation finds, and there are some nice belemnites that have come out of a small 2-meter area. However, this spot is really good for vertebrate material! I found quite a few cool things there, and there are plenty of large bone chunks to be found, such as these. On to my shark teeth, these are all my Squalicorax teeth! These are some of my favorite shark teeth to find, and most of the ones I've found at this Peedee Formation site are much smaller than the ones I found on Holden Beach. Here are some unsorted teeth I found. I'm still learning shark teeth, so unfortunately a lot of my finds are currently lumped together like this. GMR teeth tend to be pretty worn down, so it makes it hard to identify a lot of the specimens I pick up. These are some miscellaneous things I found; the bottom left is a ray tooth, which I don't find quite as often there. The other two on the bottom are probably Enchodus teeth, the middle one is either a heavily worn tooth of sorts or bone fragment, and I have no idea what the top specimens are, though they looked interesting enough to hold on to. On to some of the more exciting shark teeth I found! these are pretty worn down Otodus teeth, but I always enjoy picking them up even in rough condition. This was a fairly large but worn Isurus (Mako) tooth of some variety, about 3.05 cm (1.2 inches) long. It's got a thick root but is somewhat flat, with the edges of the blade flattening out to almost a shelf of sorts where the serrations would be in other teeth. This is my first Hemipristis serra (Snaggletooth) tooth from the site that wasn't a small chunk, and it's one of the largest I've found anywhere! It's missing the root unfortunately, but is still about 2.41 cm (.95 inches) long without it. If it had the root I'd imagine it would have been at least 3 cm (1.18 inches) long. And speaking of large teeth, this is the largest Galeocerdo cuvier (Tiger Shark) I've found there, at about 2.79 cm (1.1 inches) crown width and about the same slant. It was a suprise to find to say the least, I nearly dumped it back into the creek because I didn't notice it at first! It doesn't beat my largest Holden Beach specimen (3.2 cm or 1.26 inch slant), but it's a big tooth with nice color. And for the most interesting tooth, some sort of Lamnidae shark that is missing a root, but appears to be possibly pathological! It's about 3.75 cm (1.475 inches) long as is, but it'd probably be at least 4.445 cm (1.75 inches) long if it had a root. Lacking the root makes it hard to say what it might have been, but it's definitely one of the largest teeth I've found in the creek thus far, and one of the most interesting. And lastly, this is the find that kind of caught me off guard the most: It appears to be, just based off of appearances, a specimen of Skolithos linearis. Not the most exciting trace fossil visually, but it's really interesting to me! These trace fossils were a surprise bonus to my fossil hunts in Surry County, Virginia, and I wasn't really expecting to see something of the sort here. The ones found on eroded cobbles in Virginia along the James River are said to be from the Cambrian Chilhowee Group (563-516 ma), but I'm not really sure what the age of these here would be. From the best I can tell online, they seem to have occurred throughout multiple periods of time in multiple places due to different organisms, but these look strikingly similar to the ones I saw in Virginia, albeit with the cobbles more eroded. I took a picture of the larger one next to a Virginian specimen to compare, and I highlighted the burrows with a red circle on the GMR specimen, as they are very hard to see in pictures. The longer circles are of "side section" specimens, and the smaller ones are from the ends of some running through the center of the rock from one edge to the other. The smaller cobble's specimen is a bit more obvious to see, so I didn't circle it. I haven't been able to locate any information on these fossils occurring in the area anywhere online on a superficial level, so if anyone has any insight into it, please let me know! I'd love to know if these are indeed what I am thinking they are, and what age they could possibly be if so. I might make a post on the ID forum some other time if I can borrow a camera that can take better pictures of the specimen. Anyway, that's all for me! I've got a family trip to Holden coming up shortly, and I may have some interesting opportunities to collect some different NC fossils coming up this spring; I don't have a lot of info on it, but it seems promising. I've also got a return trip to Virginia planned before the end of spring, and I can hardly wait for it!

Found these nice fossils not on a planned hunting trip, but while working in the garden. We were filling up some flower pods whith gravel, in which i found them : 6 belemnites, 2 pieces of mineralized wood, 1 partial oyster shell, and 2 pieces of baltic jade. The highlights are definetly the pieces of wood because theyre quite rare up here and i have never found one before. Also one of them is beautifully preserved.

Hello, i have this weird stone in my collection and it looks a bit like a belemnite or baculite steinkern to me. Theres a perfect circular hole running down the middle which seems to be the siphon. Or a flint layer formed around a belemnite which now had erodet away. What is it ? Maybe one of you knows. It was found on a beach of the baltic sea.

I recently found a lot of what I believe are belemnites on a beach in Purbeck (top row in photo). Along with them there were a number of knobbly cylinders. Some were straight cylinders with a rough texture (2nd from top, centre), others were formed of lots of almost distinct nodules. Does anyone know what they could be? Thanks! (I'm afraid I don't have a ruler here, but have put a pencil in for rough scale reference)

During a recent (Sept.16) fossil hunting adventure I was searching for the source of the concretions containing fossil ammonites to get a better understanding of the stratigraphy I was standing in. So I went to the top of the slope/cuesta to check out the current highest layer. It was tons of saltine cracker sized bits of shale/sandstone and slabs of the same protruding out of of the lip of the ledge. No fossils were visually evident so I pulled the nearest slab out and flipped it over. The slab was smooth on the top and when flipped had a loose coating of either white calcite or shaly bits like smashed potato chips/crisps on it. Brushing the chips off revealed what you see in the images. The period is Cretaceous and possibly Triassic. The fossil concretions had the appearance of a massive mortality...like the Ordovician extinction event. Any ideas, suggestions or correct ID of what I found and absentmindedly left behind at the end of my adventure? A closeup from the left corner of the above. My first thoughts were this is some kind of marine forest of sponges, corals, plants, with other fossils mixed in. Or trace fossils like burrowing animal trails or maybe crinoids. I'm stumped having never seen this and a big dose of rookie-itis. What say you? BTW- pay no attention to the rock on the card..it was just a paperweight to keep the wind from blowing the card away.

This ongoing journey begins as many do, with an accident. While trimming down matrix from my collection to reduce weight, in this instance a piece of the Aust bone bed, I accidentally sliced right through an ichthyosaur vertebra that I didn’t realise was there hidden in the rock. After the initial annoyance wore off, I realized that the internal texture of the bone was pretty nicely preserved and that gave me an idea, maybe I could make a histological section of the offcut piece of the vertebra. I have always wanted to learn how to make thin sections and this gave me the catalyst, so I emailed my the lab technician in my department (I study Paleobiology for my PhD) and next thing I know I was scheduled for training on how to use the departments thin sectioning and polishing lab. I hunted through my collection for a few fossil pieces that I could use as practice and decided on two Yorkshire belemnite fragments, as I have more complete examples and I thought that the rings of the belemnite would make an excellent subject. I am going to wait until I have more practice with the technique, and also have an opportunity to CT scan the block for posterity before I go grinding away what remains of the vertebra. The first test pieces: The process for making thin sections is relatively simple though it requires at least two days for the resin to cure. First you cut a wafer off of the specimen using a specialist saw which produces a very smooth cut surface. The resulting wafer from the smaller belemnite tip: Then you can bond the cut surface of the wafer to a frosted glass microscope slide using epoxy resin. These are then placed in a clamp to cure Two days later, I was introduced the thin section machine, which contains both a cutting wheel and a grinding disk with the arm attached to a micrometer. The glass slides are mounted in a vacuum chuck on the arm and then passed through the blade which cuts off excess material leaving only about 500-600 microns of sample material bonded to the slide. Next the arm is maneuvered to the grinding wheel and with successive passes ~20 microns at a time are ground off the sample until the remaining layer is only about 100 microns thick. At this point the sample is translucent and polarized light gives an idea of the crystal structure of the belemnite! Unfortunately, due to some issues with the resin mix these first two attempts didn’t turn out great but for the purposes of learning I was shown how to polish them anyway, first using a 9 micron diamond suspension which after repeat use reduces the sample to approximately 60 microns and removes the scratches from the grinding disk, then with a 3 micron suspension which does the majority of the actual polishing. Polishing slides: And here’s what the initial results look like under the microscope, I’m looking forward to trying the technique again and improving, as well as figuring out how to attach my camera to the microscope to take better pictures. The growth-rings in the belemnite are very apparent and in the one where I cut through the phragmocone end you can clearly see the siphuncle! Beautiful belemnite growth-rings from the larger specimen: The siphuncle on the edge of the phragmocone: The rings preserved in the smaller specimen: The rings at higher magnification: I’m excited to get to improve my technique and I have a few ideas for other pieces to test with. I will update this soon with more as I keep working at it. Please feel free to ask any questions you have and I’ll try to answer them. Thanks for reading, Benton

It's been a while since i posted a proper trip report, so i thought i'd show you guys the spoils from my recent trip to the Lyme Regis area in early April 2023 (collecting from the 3rd to the 9th). I spent the week intensely scouring over the foreshore for any vertebrate fossils that i could, as marine reptiles are my main interest at this particular fossil site. But i found many great invertebrate fossils as well! Especially ammonites and belemnites. These fossils are all Early Jurassic in age, about 200 to 190 million years old, and come from the Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone formations. Most of my collecting time was on the beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, but i also visited Monmouth Beach west of Lyme Regis, which spectacularly showcases literally thousands of ammonites embedded within the shore platforms. This trip was my 6th to Lyme Regis overall, so i was hoping to find some vertebrate specimens that i hadn't yet found on previous trips. And things proved very successful! Despite the large amount of people on the beach over the Easter break. Firstly, some shots of the beautiful coastline. It really is an amazing place to collect. This is the beach immediately east of Lyme Regis, looking out at Church Cliffs, the Spittles, and Black Ven. This is midway between Lyme Regis and Charmouth, looking east towards Charmouth. A closer view looking towards Charmouth. This is the famous "ammonite pavement" at Monmouth Beach, west of Lyme Regis, where thousands of ammonites can be observed in the shore platform. This Mary Anning statue has recently been erected near the beach access point east of Lyme Regis (within the last year i believe). People were leaving both flowers and fossils here which is lovely. Now to the fossil finds! Including some "as found" pics of fossils lying on the beach, before i picked them up. Starting with a nice section of marine reptile rib. I suspect this is plesiosaur rather than ichthyosaur. The end of some kind of marine reptile limb or phalange. Possibly the end of a plesiosaur phalanx. This is the bottom half of an ichthyosaur humerus. I've drawn the approximate shape of the part that is missing. A small piece of ichthyosaur rib. This is a new one for me. A fragment of hybodontid shark dorsal spine. Although it is just a piece, these are relatively rare on this coast. Perhaps the quintessential marine reptile bone from this coastline, an ichthyosaur vertebra! As found on the beach and then in my hand. Finding these never gets old. This is the top of an ichthyosaur femur. The natural cross section of the bone shaft preserves amazing detail of its growth rings! A small fragment of ichthyosaur jaw, with several rounded cross sections of worn teeth. Something else i had yet to find from this area: marine reptile coprolites! One is quite beach worn, while the other is rather 'fresh'. No pun intended. As-found pictures of marine reptile bone chunks sitting on the beach. Here's a final summary of all the vertebrate finds from the trip. For a weeks worth of searching i'm very happy with this lot! And of course, the invertebrates! I particularly loved some of the larger ammonites, although carrying them off the beach would require a team of people! And these definitely wouldn't fit in my suitcase returning to Australia... A lovely belemnite. This one is a nautilus! Finally, something i wasn't expecting to find. This is a small crustacean from the Upper Greensand (Cretaceous rather than Jurassic). Overall it was a fantastic trip! And i'm looking forward to returning whenever i can. Thanks for checking out this report

Hello again. I saw this on the internet today, I was wondering if it is real. I've seen similar fossils, but this one looks a little "put together". Let me know what you think!

Went back to Greens Mill Run with some more time for the second time this week. Found way more sharks teeth this time including some pretty exciting crow shark teeth. Need some help identifying this tooth or bone of some sort that is unbeknownst to me.

I was able to stop by Greens Mill Run in Greenville, NC once again. Only for about an hour, was able to pick up some more fossils including larger belemnites than I found previously. Less shark teeth though, but still mostly consisted of goblin shark teeth.

Hi, I 3D-printed another model, this time it's a life reconstruction of Passaloteuthis, a belemnite from the Jurassic. Several exceptionally preserved specimens have been found in southern Germany, on which I based this model. It is printed on an Anycubic Photon Mono X in white resin and painted using acrylics. The eye lenses are printed seperately from tranasparent resin and painted from the back before assembly. This will be my last 3D-print for the next time, unfortunately. Cheers, Thorsten

Hi guys what species do you think these are? They are oxfordian from the Oxford clay at Peterborough 1. 2.

Hello, im new in fossiles collecting, absolute new beginner. I wonder if my fossiles are genuine or fake, i was so proud of my collection but after i learned that there are many fake Moroccan trilobites on sale, i had suspicions. There are some holes in trilobite and some stuff on it, could be glued which is fine because its age matters to me most, it could be glued no problem. I put them under a plastic sheet but if you wish i can take them out to take better pictures.

L.S., I recently purchased an old collection of plant fossils. The boxes also contained an odd couple of non-plants, which I would like to offer up for trade. Ideally, I would like to get some plant fossils in return. Photos below, with scale in centimetres at bottom. Disclaimer: The information below is "as received". I cannot guarantee provenance/identifications are 100% correct since these pieces come from an old collection, plus marine beasties are not really my cup of tea... Kind regards, Tim Specimen A: Large plate with several ammonites (Harpoceras sp.?) on a large plate from the Toarcian (Liassic, Jurassic) of Dudelange in Luxembourg Specimen B: Polished section with several belemnites (Dactyloteuthis sp.?) from the Jurassic of the area around Bayreuth in Bavaria, Germany (note: could use a re-polish to bring out the texture better).

Hi Forum, last week me and my little brother (9 years old) went to the Omhden (DE) quarry for our very first fossil catch! I'm new to the 'dig&find' activity and to the fossil identification i found some good ammonites, apticus, belemnites and some shells. I have a doubt about this specimen. I can't tell if it is a bad preserved terminal part of a little belemnite or a tooth. The vertical fractures that i can't find in other belemnites create me confusion... to increase my doubt, i found a beautiful Micropassaloteuthis Fistulata at the Holzmaden museum that looks pretty similar, but again without stripes. Total length 8mm Thanks a lot Paolo