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From lake shore glacial deposits adjacent to the Hurricane Mt. formation. Terms like altered and dynamic are used to describe the formation, but the sponge Diagoniella was used to date the deposits. Could this be an example ?

Hello! It's been a loooong time guys! I'd like to introduce some Korean trilobites to you and share some of my experience in fossil hunting in Korea(South). I went to Gurang-ri[GuRang-ri], Mungyeong[MunGyeong], Northern Gyeongsang-do[GyeongSang-do] on June, 23th, 2017 for hunting trilobites. (By the way at this time, I went there by in my brother's car, finally! I practiced a bit after I had gotten the driver's license. Maybe I'll go to Jiggunsan formation on December in brother's car, again! *:D*) Anyway, I found the location and some information from a dissertation, which was posted by a high school teacher(it was written in Korean. Maybe if you can speak Korean, then I can share it :)) The teacher found 2 kinds of specimens from different formations. One is Gurang-ri[GuRangRi] formation and the other one is Hanae-ri[HaNeRi] formation. One is "Kootenia amanoi Kobayashi, 1961" and the other one is "Redlichia nobilis Walcott, 1905". Actually, I was going to go to Jiggunsan formation 'cause that site's fossil output is better than Gurangri formation. You know, I had hit the rocks for about 2 and a half in the strong sun(at that time, the temperature was around 95°F(35°C)) and I found just 7 specimens. On the other hand, I found about 60 specimens in 2 and half hours in Jiggunsan formation. I grabbed the steering wheel with excirtement The quote from Robert Stevenson crossed my mind at that time: "To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive". Before going to the fossil site, it was really excited. But I thought that I would trembke with excitement if when I could meet some trilobites so much so that when I encountered faint galaxies or stars through the telescope. (Highway rest stop. The big words(충주휴게소) on signboard means Chungju[ChungJu] rest stop.) When I got to this rest stop, I reminded that I forgot to take mosquito repellrant. So I bought a new one and had blunch from near here. After arriving at the fossil site, I couldn't find the actual formation. With perplexed feeling, I just knocked this seems similar sedimentary rocks which depicted as red-purple colored layers. *Gurang-ri[GuRang-ri] formation And I found something strange structure. I thought that it was some strange metamorphic structure or bivalve fossil. However, after took a closer look, I felt something is strange and finally I realized that it was trilobites' head shield! The images are Redlichia nobilis Walcott, 1905 I took these pictures when I was in my country. So, I couldn't change the coin to other countries' coin or ruler. Its size is almost 1" or 25 Canadian cents. Redlichia's cranidium. Thorax part. Another cranidium preserved as cast(positive). This one is mold part of the above image. One part of thorax. Not that good preserved but still can see some glabella. Cranidium and librigena(free cheek) Librigena(free cheek) and strange fossil cast part. Mold part. Librigena(free cheek). Strange fossil. I don't know what it is. Thank you for reading this long post! Next time, I'll update fossil hunting at Humber river, Toronto, Ontario. And Brechin quarry and Bowmanville quarry. Thankfully, Joe from Michigan will take me to there! I REALLY appreciate it!

Trilobites are common in Northern Africa and prolific in Morocco but are scarce and very hard to find in the Middle East. Despite their rarity, extensive fieldtrips in Jordan to promissing localities proved worthwhile, we literally managed to find the first articulated trilobites in the Middle East in early mid Cambrian outcrops. Following is a link to the video I made documenting fieldtrips to the beautiful locality and some of the finds, enjoy.

Hi everybody!!! How's life my friends ??? It's been a long time Recently I went with my father to look for trilobites in Cambrian sediments. Sadly we didn't found any complete trilo, but we've found other specimens. I Hope you like It

Well it's been a while since I've last been on (over two months), and I know how much you all have been missing me , so I decided to finally get around to photographing some of the finds I've made over the summer. I've talked a bit earlier this year about collecting in the Frederick Limestone and other upper Cambrian-lower Ordovician units, but these finds are from rocks far, far older than those, nearly 100 million years older! These fossils are among some of the oldest in Maryland, and in the Mid-Atlantic region, which was part of the reason I collected them in the first place (because, let's be honest, most aren't that appealing). If you find these things interesting, the Araby was originally mapped as the Antietam Sandstone until about 1940ish when it became a separate geologic formation due to the strong difference in rock-type most common in either (the Antietam is mostly a quartz-sandstone, the Araby mostly a sandy and muddy shale and siltstone). When the time for the split came, the new name Araby was given to the formation that occupied a band roughly stretching from the Potomac River to the south north in a rough question mark shape to Pennsylvania as the type locality was situated near Araby Church (an interesting bit. A geologic formation from the Cambrian explosion named after a church!). Nowadays the church is gone as far as I know, but the area still bears the name with the apply named Araby Church Road. Going back further, in July of 1864, the Araby Formation would play a major role in the Battle of Monocacy. As Confederate forces under Jubal Early's command were marching east along the B&O RR, they were stopped in the vicinity of Frederick by scattered forces under the command of Union General Lew Wallace. During the day long battle (fought July 9), Wallace's outnumbered force of 5,000 men used the hills and small ridges to their east as a last line to stem the Confederate tide, strength roughly 15,000. This ridge, of course, was made up of the resistant Araby Formation, whose clastics didn't erode through time as quickly as the carbonates of the Frederick Limestone. Unfortunately for Wallace and the Union, the Confederates were able to outflank their positions, and forced them to retreat east past Urbana. Although it was a Confederate victory (the northernmost of the war), the battle delayed Early's advance for a crucial 24 hours, allowing reinforcements from the Union 6th Corps near Petersburg to arrive in Washington DC in time to stop the Confederate attacks on July 11-12 at Fort Stevens. Interesting to see how geology plays a role in how battles (and history!) are fought. I collected twice this summer, once in the early part and another time in September, from a roadcut near Frederick. This cut exposes the early Cambrian Araby Formation, which is nearly 550-530 million years old. The Araby is a nearshore clastic unit, likely deposited in a surf/beach zone on the elevated Piedmont block (a fancy term for a higher lying seabed). As such, it roughly correlates to the Antietam Sandstone further west, as well as, more roughly, the Kinzers Formation in Pennsylvania in the upper sections. Geologically speaking, the Araby is divided into coarser, almost buff siltstone and sandstone units and black, slaty-shale and siltstone (this includes the former Cash Smith Shale, which was found out to be in the middle of the Araby upon later work) ones. The darker, shale layers likely were deposited during times of deeper water, as there exists a degree of faunal differences between the two to suggest such (Olenellus thompsoni has been recorded from the black layers, but I never found any). Later, during the Taconic and Acadian Orogenies, the Araby Formation was slightly metamorphosed as were most other Piedmont and Blue Ridge units, though some parts escaped mostly untouched. These, of course, have the best fossils. Boring rock stuff out of the way, the Araby and the Antietam were formed at a special time in Earth's history called the Cambrian Explosion, which was a period when life underwent a rapid series of diversifications. Luckily we didn't miss out much here! Many beds of the Araby are filled with burrows and other traces of ancient wormlike creatures, as well as rarer edioasteroids, trilobites, and other creatures. Unfortunately little work has been done on the Cambrian units of Maryland, and less still on the Araby, so I haven't found any list of actual names for any species. As such, I'll use names from the Antietam Sandstone, as the two are time, stratigraphically, and lithologically equivalent. By far the most common fossils were the worm burrows, Skolithos linearis. These are rounded, somewhat tube shaped objects in their usual form, though they can sometimes occur as cross sections as you'll soon see. On top of this, they're also sometimes preserved in iron minerals, as is common with many other fossils. From what I've gathered, these "tubes" are interpreted to be the resting places of worms, likely annelids. Now, I'm not claiming to know 100% what some of these are so if any of you may have a better ID please let me know. First up are the Skolithos linearis. The first image is of a fairly typical "tube" shaped structure. The second image shows a cross section cut-away of a "tube", partially mineralized in what is likely iron (iii) oxide. The third image is of a large, albeit poorly preserved, complex of "tubes". The general way to tell where they are is by looking for the dark contours of them, and tracing them that way.

This was sent to me in a sort of starter pack of fossils from the United States about 40 years ago. It doesn't look like any algae or stromatolites I have seen from this site. Any ideas anyone? More pics to follow.

I picked this up for a few quid in a Spanish market from a Moroccan dealer, who usually sells good stuff, but I'm fairly certain it's a fake, it was too cheap, the colour's not quite right and i would say some of it has been carved and painted. It has a couple of bits of real Cambrian trilobite on the back and seems to have a bit of a Flexicalymene or the like glued on top to provide authenticity. What do you guys think?

Been some good invertebrate articles out there lately..... https://phys.org/news/2017-09-mysterious-ancient-creature-animal.html

I found this article interesting. They said trilobite like but not sure that they are ancestral https://www.livescience.com/60434-bizarre-cambrian-creature-gets-detailed-reconstruction.html

Last weekend, we took our final trip up to the Ash Fork (Arizona) area for the year to explore the outcrops of the bright angel shale. this time however, our goal was to collect trace fossils and coralomorphs ( more on that later). While a small group worked for shales in the lower part of the formation, some of the more adventurous of us climbed the hill capped by the Muav limestone. We spent a few hours searching for Cambrian trace fossils - and we're not disappointed! meanwhile, down in the Shale pit they found many Coralomorph specimens, and of course hordes of trilobites. The Stevens Way locality near Ashfork consists of three facies, a lower green shale member with body fossils of trilobites and other marine fauna, and two upper members within walking distance which has a base of a yellow crumbly shale loaded with only trace fossils of low diversity capped by the third member, the Muav Limestone which here was non fossiliferous. When we scouted the middle member extensively, and found some well preserved trace fossils - Some being quite enigmatic! While the nearby Tapeats Sandstone consists of primarily the Skolithos and Cruziana ichnofacies, this deeper water shale seems to be a mix of Cruziana and Glossifungites ichnofacies components. Here is a photo pictorial of some of the more interesting trace fossils we have found at the second yellow shale facies Trilobite Tracks, Resting places Cruziana - Grazing traces as the trilobites plowed through the upper layers of sediment. Rusophycus - resting trace. Simple Tubular Feeding Traces Paleophycus sp. (Worm like sub surface miner) Bilobed Traces Left side - Isopodichnus (Shrimp/Arthropod) Aulichnites (Gastropods grazing) Cyano bacterial mat hard ground (AKA: Elephant skin) When an algal or bacterial mat grows on the surface of mud, it wrinkles the surface to form this type of pattern. Locomotion Traces These two slabs are very unusual, we believe them to be a mollusk of some type pulling its way along the surface hard ground. Protovirgularia sp. Well, thats if for now. Many of the specimens are still being cleaned up, as they were attached to thick green glauconitic mud. And about those Coralomorphs? Ah, thats the next write up....

Half-a-billion-year-old fossils shed light animal evolution on earth, University of Manchester, September 11, 2017 http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/half-a-billion-year-old-fossils-shed-new-light-on-animal-evolution/ https://phys.org/news/2017-09-half-a-billion-year-old-fossils-animal-evolution-earth.html https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170911122628.htm Tha paper is: Parry, L. A., P. C. Boggiani, D. J. Condon, and others, 2017, Ichnological evidence for meiofaunal bilaterians from the terminal Ediacaran and earliest Cambrian of Brazil Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0301-9 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319109419_Ichnological_evidence_for_meiofaunal_bilaterians_from_the_terminal_Ediacaran_and_earliest_Cambrian_of_Brazil https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0301-9 Lidya G. Tarhan, 2017, Meiofauna mute the Cambrian Explosion News and Views, Nature Ecology & Evolution https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0324-2 Yours, Paul H.

Found near Silver City, NM amongst a conglomeration of rock types. Is it Manganese perhaps? Odd structures in it...

I have been researching a fossil "Anomalocaris sp" from the Wheeler Shale. Its from a collector who thought it was his "worst" Anomalocaris fossil and he was clearing his collection to make room for more. I collect Anomalocaridids so bought it from him for less than a $100. I thought the feeding appendage was a little strange as it was so straight, the spines were strange and small, and I couldn't see the podomeres (segments). I love the papers from Dr Allison Daley of Oxford who is an expert on Anomalocaridids and in a paper "New Anomalocaridid appendages from the Burgess Shale, Canada", (A.C. Daley & G.E. Budd, Palaeontology vol53, part 4, pp 721-738, 2009) I read about a very rare and enigmatic Anomalocaridid, the Caryosyntrips serratus. Only 11 or so specimens of this critter have been found and all at Burgess. I realized I was looking at my "anomalous" Wheeler Shale Anomalocaris. But how can this be? The Caryosyntrips has never been found outside of Burgess. Wheeler is also substantially younger. I was sufficiently convinced that I sent an email to Dr Allison Daley and she responded quite fast. She's very excited about this fossil! She also believes it to be a Caryosyntrips serratus and couldn't believe I have one from Wheeler Shale! The greatly increases the temporal and geographic range of this genus and is very important to study. She is writing a new paper on the Anomalocaridids of the US and this is a massive new discovery which will feature in her paper. Of course, I am sending her the fossil to study. After that she recommends I donate it to the Museum of my choice, and suggested the Smithsonian as they already have a large Wheeler Shale collection. Being an Aussie, I'd love it to end up at an Aussie museum, but this Caryosyntrips was "born in the USA" so I believe that's where it belongs. So the Smithsonian it is. Great lesson to everyone on researching your fossils! Sometimes a seemingly impossible fossil can actually be a new discovery. And communicate with the experts, this fossil could have ended up in a private collection as a "low quality Anomalocaris sp." Finally, I could sell this for a huge price to a private collector, but its much better off being studied and residing in a Museum. That's where it belongs. On Monday I will send the fossil off to Oxford for Dr Daley to study. Can't wait to read her new paper!