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Hello for all. It has been a while to leave a post here! I am currently in Burlington, VT as a UVM student. Before the end of the summer recess (August 18), I traveled to northern Vermont consulting some articles about Cambrian and Ordovician formation located in Highgate Falls and South Hero. In this post, I will just talk about one trip to Highgate. I left my dorm around 11 a.m., and I get the Higate Falls near 1 p.m. After straying about 3 hours, I finally realized that the outcrops described as fossiliferous in the article are located in the private land. Thanks to my student ID card, the landowners welcomed me I could not hunt fossil around the Ordovician formation (Highgate Formation; Upper Ordovician) because the cliff was really steep and seemed very dangerous. It is on the left side of the picture (Red line). So, I just focused on the right side (Yellow line) that is Gorge Formation (Upper Cambrian, Upper Sunwaptan Stage, 492-491 MYA). Below is a photo of the Gorge Formation I found some trilobites and brachiopods (not on this post), but I have no clue about their scientific name even though I checked my article... I would appreciate if you correct the wrong scientific name 1. Lotagnotus americanus Billings, 1860 2. Geragnostus ( Micragnostus ) bisectus (Matthew, 1892) (Shaw, A. B. (1951). The Paleontology of Northwestern Vermont. 1. New Late Cambrian Trilobites. Journal of Paleontology, Vol.25, No.1, pp.97-114.) 3. Librigena.

Well I was going to add on to my post from 2 days ago, but I just decided to do a new one since it is a second visit to Murray County, Georgia to collect Cambrian trilobites from the Conasauga Formation. Today was another great days in the 80’s and it is nice to collect underneath the bridge, since you are in shade the whole time. Since my brother had to work today, I collected by myself, as I usually do. If members have not seen the area from previous posts, I will add some below that I took today. Here is a view from on top, prior heading to the collecting site. The next view is looking up at steep climb to get back to the top. Here is the collecting area. And a view of the Conasauga River, it is very low. Here are a few of my finds from today, I like to take more pics, but since I do it in the field, and cutting pieces down to size, it takes away time from collecting. Aphelaspis brachyphasis Here is a a great piece with 7 trilobites. Some of the really little ones ones are preserved very nicely. I also collected matrix to take home so I can work on it in the winter.

https://www.natureasia.com/en/research/highlight/12700 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-31499-y

Found fossils in Little Belt Moutain, in Montana. Sandstone, from Park Formation, listed as Franconian, Cambrian. Each fossil fragment is about 5mm. Other fossils present. Need to find the Identification for the dark brown shell-like fossils. I believe they may be parts of trilobite cephalons.

There is a Vetulicola (partial) somewhere on this piece, I have been looking at it for awhile but I can't really spot where it is on here, anyone more familiar with Chengjiang fossils able to spot it or id for sure as vetulicola?

Planning a fossil hunting trip to the Gold Point, Nevada. Anyone have specific fossil locations? Dan

Recently picked up some un-prepared trilobites while in morocco there is some Cambrian trilobites pictured here which have not had the full prep done yet so I understand some might not be fully identifiable. Thanks Matt

When I hunt trilobites in the Eau Claire Formation, Cambrian, I encounter this type of rock frequently. Could it be trilobite trace fossils or just dried mud??? The squiggles are raised over the background rock. Mike

This is a retcon of an earlier post I had. Cambrian fossils aren't something one thinks of when they think of Maryland fossil hunting, and perhaps for good reason. The Cambrian rocks of the state are poorly exposed, those few areas where they do outcrop usually being gobbled up in urban sprawl. Compared to sites elsewhere like in Utah or York, Pennsylvania, the Maryland Cambrian is also rather barren. You could probably count on both hands the number of macrospecies in the entire early and middle Cambrian section of the state. But this rarity only makes collecting in it that much more interesting! Luckily for me I'm pretty close by most of these formations, so I have a decent knowledge of the area and outcrops, but even then it took a decent amount of time researching and scouting to find a site. The most recent formation I visited was the Araby Formation. Up until the mid 20th century the Araby was considered part of the Antietam Sandstone further west in the Blue Ridge, but after some more studies done on the formation it was found that it's lithological character was distinct enough to warrant it being a separate unit. Whereas the Antietam is a white quartz sandstone (much like the Oriskany I posted about yesterday) deposited in a beach-like environment, the Araby was deposited in deeper water (compared to the Antietam) and is more a mixture of siltstones, shales, phyllites, and slates. Together with the Antietam the Araby has some of the oldest fossils in the state dating back to the early Cambrian period some 540 million years ago. This makes it the oldest formation in the Frederick Valley. For those that don't know the Frederick Valley is a predominantly limestone syncline in west central Maryland (I consider it western Maryland, but most people probably wouldn't). At it's core is the early Ordovician Grove Limestone (which has practically no fossils), and on it's flanks are the late Cambrian Frederick Limestone (fossiliferous in parts, but those parts are very rare) and finally the Araby Formation. The Araby takes up positions along the far flanks of the valley, and it's eastern boundary with the metamorphic rocks of the Westminster Terrane marks the Martic Fault (no Washingtonians you don't need to worry about a San Andrea, from what I've read the Martic has been inactive for a long, long time). Due to it's sediment type and that of the surrounding rocks, the Araby is also a minor ridge forming unit, holding up the series of hills that flank Frederick Valley's eastern edge. These hills are nicely visible from the grounds of Monocacy National Battlefield, which is also of interest for marking the site of the northernmost Confederate victory (July 9, 1864 for those who're curious) in the Civil War. This ridge forming aspect means that, although very thin and covering a very small area, the Araby Formation has multiple exposures throughout the Frederick Valley. Some of the better ones are visible along I-70 just east of it's crossing over Monocacy River (an MGS team found some trilobites there) and MD-355 as you drive through the woods before hitting Araby Church Road (I believe the namesake for the formation is actually the Araby Church). In terms of fossils the Araby is almost exclusively dominated by the trace fossil Skolithos linearis, an annelid worm burrow. Other fossils found in it, however, include echinoderms and Olenellus sp. trilobites. As another aside the Cash Smith Shale, once held as an independent formation, also has trilobites and I believe inarticulate brachiopods reported from it, however it is no longer considered an independent formation but rather a member of the Araby Formation. Almost all of my fossils were the worm burrows, still cool but for everyone's sake I won't constantly repeat what they are this time around. Image 1: The largest burrow I've found. I originally thought it was a genal spine from a trilobite due to it's size. Image 2: Cross section of a burrow, outlined by the iron oxide stain. Image 3: Another burrow, this one roughly outlined by the iron oxide. Image 4: The large tubular structure covered in iron oxide (you might be noticing a pattern here with the oxides and burrows. I can't say definitively if they're connected in some way, but oftentimes you'll find the one with the other).

Can anyone help identify this soft body? I found it in the Utah - Wheeler Shale formation while searching for Trilobites. I am always keeping my eyes peeled for any soft bodies such as worms, algae, etc. and came upon this after splitting a rock. It is roughly 16 mm long with a body that can be best described as an olive with 2 stalks sticking out the top end. There does not appear to be any missing parts, although this may be a partial body. Evidence of this is the organic/mineral "halo" which can be seen around the body. Also, there appears to be an alimentary canal progressing through the middle. Any comments or ideas are welcome.

Naked chancelloriid from the lower Cambrian of China Strange sponge-like fossil creature from Chengjiang deposits of Yunnan Province, China University of Leicester, June 19, 2018 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180619230853.htm https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2018/june/strange-nude-fossil-creature-from-half-a-billion-years-ago The paper is; Cong, P.Y., Harvey, T.H., Williams, M., Siveter, D.J., Siveter, D.J., Gabbott, S.E., Li, Y.J., Wei, F. and Hou, X.G., 2018. Naked chancelloriids from the lower Cambrian of China show evidence for sponge-type growth. Proc. R. Soc. B, 285(1881), p.20180296. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0296 http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/285/1881/20180296 I could not an online PDF File of the above paper. I could only find; Bengtson, S. and Collins, D., 2015. Chancelloriids of the Cambrian Burgess Shale. Palaeontologia Electronica, 18(1), pp. 1-67. https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1031:chancelloriids&catid=146:2015&Itemid=567 and Hughes, N.C., Peng, S., Bhargava, O.N., Ahluwalia, A.D., Walia, S., Myrow, P.M. and Parcha, S.K., 2005. Cambrian biostratigraphy of the Tal Group, Lesser Himalaya, India, and early Tsanglangpuan (late early Cambrian) trilobites from the Nigali Dhar syncline. Geological Magazine, 142(1), pp. 57-80. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1aba/719f7a72ffbd6006df6f596c749ac20b975b.pdf http://earthsciences.ucr.edu/docs/Hughesetal2005Tal.pdf http://trilobyte.ucr.edu/hughespubs.html Yours, Paul H.

Hi All! Some of you know me already, and I've been occasionally browsing the forum for years. I saw a couple of recent-ish threads that I wanted to comment on, so thought I should sign up at last... For those who don't know me, I'm a semi-independent researcher with honorary positions in Nanjing and Cardiff, while living for most of the year in the middle of nowhere (the wonderful little town of Llandrindod, central Wales). My main interests are the early evolution of sponges, worms, and early Palaeozoic ecology, but I basically like really old dead stuff, and the weirder the better. I've worked on a wide range of Lagerstatten, including the Hetang, Burgess Shale, Sirius Passet, Afon Gam, Fezouata, Llanfallteg, Llandegley Rocks, Llanfawr, and Anji biotas, so I tend to get around a bit when time and energy permit. I'm an old-fashioned palaeontologist, though, and am adamantly against the view that we now know the fossil record well enough to start concentrating on number-crunching. Everything I see on fieldwork suggests that, at least in the Ordovician, we don't yet understand even the basic diversity. That might possibly be correlated to studying a group that preserves largely as enigmatic blobs that everyone else ignores, but hey - it's a niche! The moral is, though, that amateur palaeontologists are increasingly vital in keeping the new finds pouring in. There's a vast amount out there left to discover. I'm not necessarily going to be able to keep up with everything on here, so please feel free to nudge me towards particular threads if you'd like my input! Looking forward to getting stuck in! Joe Botting

https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/MAGAZINE-tiny-babies-of-prehistoric-giant-shrimp-were-ferocious-killers-too-1.6150981

I have been working through the trilobite specimens I dug recently at the Oak Springs Trilobite Site in eastern Nevada. I came across this feature in the shale that I can't identify. When I split the piece of shale I found this oval-shaped feature on both halves. It could be geologic or possibly some sort of fossil. It has the same reddish color as some of the trilobites I found, but it's clearly not a trilobite. When I turned one slab over I found the shape extended through the thickness of the slab (about 7 mm or 1/4 in thick) but was no longer a simple oval on the other side, it was much wider. It did not extend through the thickness of the other half of the slab. Anyone have any idea what this is? This is from the Combined Metals Member of the Pioche Shale. The Combined Metals Member was named by the mining community. Apparently this ore was fairly rich in silver, lead, and zinc sulfides and was mined heavily in the early part of the 20th century. Here is the shape from the inside of the split slab (looks the same on both halves). Scale in mm: And here is what it looks like on the other side of the slab:

A few weeks ago I was on my very first fossil hunts. With some beginners luck I managed to find a few trilobites and orthoceras but I also found a very peculiar fossil that I am very curious to learn more about. The place where I found it is called the Aland Islands and is located in the Baltic sea between Sweden and Finland. Ive read that the fossils in this area comes from either the Ordovician or Cambrian ages but I am clueless on which age the stone comes from that containes this fossil. It appears to be complete only missing one "eye" on the half that is exposed. On the negative I can clearly see the "eye" imprinted. The shell/skin is extremely fragile and crumbles if touched and most of the shell/skin is stuck in the negative. When I turn it upside down I can see that the fossil is symetrical with half still in stone and other half exposed. It is approx 7 cm long, 4 cm wide and 2,5 cm high. Anybody got any ideas what this might be? Ive searched thousands of pictures in this forum and on the internet but nothing even comes close.

https://phys.org/news/2018-05-major-fossil-emergence-early-animal.html

Hi, i've bought that trilobite last week-end in an exposition of fossils and minerals. I've forgotten to ask what trilo it was and the seller forgot to tell me. I know it's a Redlichiida, Ellipsocephalidae, Hamatolenus from the Cambrian of Morocco. If one of you had an idea about its genus, it will be welcome. P.S. appparently, it was in the ptychopariida order and would now be in the redlichiida order, or am i wrong ?

I apologize that this is just one photo taken by my phone, but that is all I have to use at the moment. This fossil (about 6 cm long) is from the middle Cambrian Spence Shale of Oneida Narrows, Idaho. I am leaning towards a sponge? Does anyone have any idea what this is? Thanks for the help!

Hello, all. After my last wonderfully successful Id effort on here, i thought I'd try again. This specimen was boshed free of some matrix that was sent to me by the unrivalled Ralph @Nimravisin a batch of matrix from the Conasauga Formation, Upper Cambrian, Georgia, USA and home to a multitude of the trilobite Aphelaspis brachyphasis as well as rarer agnostids and other even rarer trilos. I was looking at this paper https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250083071_Exceptional_fossil_preservation_in_the_Conasauga_Formation_Cambrian_Northwestern_Georgia_USA and thought my specimen below looks rather like the example D in Figure 3 (sorry, I don't know how to just post that image. It's a chlorophyte, so is mine ? They appear to be sort of tiny strings of sausages, the longest string being about 2 mm long, so each individual 'cell' is very tiny indeed. Thank you for any comments, ideas or suggestions. Adam.