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Just got back from a weeklong trip to Southern Germany in pursuit of ammonites and other Jurassic marine fossil fauna. Accompanied by my fellow collector, Ralph and his friend, Aza we arrived at the Zurich airport and headed straight to Lake Constance and the home of TFF member Roger (Ludwigia) to observe his incredible collection and receive advice about collecting spots in southern Germany. Fortunately, I'm fluent in Canadian. This is Aza, Roger, and Ralph at Roger's home:

Belemnites, unidentified sp, Cretaceous-Speeton Clay,Speeton,Yorkshire,UK. Small unidentified belemnite, Jurassic Lower Lias, Black Ven Marls, Charmouth, Dorset,UK. All suggestions welcome

Hello all, I'm looking for some Eurypterid pieces, but am also looking for trilobites and cephalopods. I'm not looking for complete pieces, just discards that I can practice prepping on. I'm also interested in getting my hands on a crab concretion. I have tons of Penn Dixie material to trade. Trilobites, corals, brachs, things of that sort. If anyone is interested and lets me know what they're interested in trading I can take some pictures of pieces I'm willing to trade.

Today I returned to Hannacroix Ravine, a site in Southern Albany County, NY. (Helderberg Plateau) I last visited over three years ago. It is a beautiful site along a narrow cliff lined ravine, however it is tough to get to requiring a steep decent from the road and making one's way through thick prickly bushes and downed trees. No wonder why I've avoided this place in favor of road cuts and quarries. The stream itself was barely flowing, more just a series of shallow pools and mud. It was a cool, sunny day (temperatures in the 40s and later low 50s), but perpetually shady in the deep ravine. I was collecting from deep water strata in the Dave Elliot Bed, part of the Mount Marion Formation which is part of the Marcellus Shale which forms the lowest part of the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group. The rock was primarily siltstone, not terribly hard to remove decent sized pieces from the wall which hung precariously overhead. I was forever fearful a bunch of it would collapse and land on me. Some pieces did come down on their own, but none came close to hitting me. Biodiversity is very limited here: some small bivalve shells and goniatites and straight-shelled nautiloids. There appears to be even less diversity than the Dave Elliot deep water site near Kingston. Spent about six hours- the first four were mostly a dud, but in the last two found some nice goniatite and nautiloid specimens. Did even better than I did the last time I was there. The prize was this goniatite, Tornoceras mosopleuron, the best one I've collected from this site and better than any of the ones I've found at the Kingston site.

Last weekend I had again a field trip to my favorite location in the area of Couvin. We went to the quarry with a geology club, around 20 participants came to the meeting point. Everyone got a quick briefing of the geology and paleontology of the quarry and the usual safety instructions before going down in the quarry. Once at the interesting spot we noted a few changes: a pile of gray nodular limestone was freshly excavated. In those boulders a few of us found large well preserved goniatites. I had the chance to find a nice one from around 8cm in diameter. After a careful examination of the boulder I went on top of the quarry to dig out a layer yielding small cephalopods ( orthoceras, manticoceras and bactrites ) I had to dig whit a heavy pickaxe, but I was able to clear a decent part of that layer for me and a couple of the other searchers. The hard work paid off, I found around 20 goniatites and a whole bunch of orthocones, most of them are waiting for a cleanup and prepwork. While leaving the quarry I saw a piece of shell sticking out of a stone, a lucky split of that rock turned out to reveal a large Goniatite with beautiful suture lines. This one will require some extra prepwork, but it looks very promising.

Tim (sTamprockcoin) and I went to Deep Springs Road Quarry just west of Hamilton, NY in Madison Co. This was on Monday. I didn't have very high expectations. It was Tim's first time there, but I've been going there foir the past three years, over a dozen times. I've lost count. It is the eastern most exposure of the Windom Shale (Moscow Formation) Middle Devonian Hamilton Group. I especially like it because of the abundant well preserved fossils and biodiversity. Most of my collection of Middle Devonian fossils from Central New York are from there. I've introduced a number of Forum members to the site and I was confident that Tim would love it, but I had doubts I would find much that was noteworthy. My last time there- the planned Forum meet up on May 15th I didn't do so great. Also, I had just gotten back from a spectacular trip to Buffalo and a very productive outing in Morrisville. I figured I was overdue for a letdown. In addition, the weather report wasn't good- predicting showers and thunderstorms. The possibility of getting completely rained out was a possibility. That plus, I was coming from four and a half hours away, an hour more than my usual trip. I figured I'd be tired and not my best. We met at the Dunkin Donuts in Hamilton and Tim followed me out to the site. To my surprise, the couple who were previously camped at the quarry had vacated. That immediately improved the parking situation, but more importantly, it opened up another section of the quarry the Forum members weren't able to explore the last time. That's where I spent my efforts. Within a few minutes I found a tiny goniatite. DSR has produced the largest number of goniatites in my collection. It rained lightly much of the morning but that didn't effect our collecting. In fact the wetness helped me spot the smooth shell of another, larger goniatite that was lying out in the open. Tornoceras uniangulare

Three Mondays in April and May, 4/25, 5/9, and 5/16/16 this writer explored a small privately owned quarry north of Morrisville, NY., Madison County. Exposed was the Mottsville Member of the Oatkacreek Formation which represents the uppermost part of the Marcellus Shale which is the lowermost part of the Hamilton Group (Middle Devonian). A pic of the site showing an area excavated by this writer:

My apologies in advance for my verbosity. Sunday, October 18, 2015: The 4:15 am alarm went off, and I arose to find a dark, cold day before me. The weather websites had been predicting a balmy 39° high, and a 40% chance of snow showers. I was hoping we would end up in the 60% camp. My target today was the Deep Springs Road Quarry, in Earlville, NY. This was the site of a former Fossil Forum meet up, back in May of this year. The wealth and diversity of fossils at this site is enough to bring anyone back for more time to look for the various fossils that can be found there. After packing the appropriate food, water, and extra layers of clothes, and necessary coffee, ... I headed out on the road at 4:50 am. My plan was to get there between 9:00 and 9:30 am. Being a 4.5 hour drive for me from central Connecticut, I had hoped to be on the road by 4:30 am. My slow start had put me a bit behind schedule. Oh well. I was greeted on the highway be little to no traffic, and with some travelling tunes to get me pumped, I was on schedule in no time, keeping my speed to a respectable 68 MPH. Travelling early in the morning is one of my favorite things, and the solitude and anticipation of the day make for a great combination. The waxing crescent moon, along with a few stars visible from my window as I cruised down the Massachusetts Turnpike, made for an eerie expectancy. Soon enough, I was on my way through New York, passing Albany and heading to my destination. A quick gas fill-up in Schoharie, then a few changes in route, and I was on Rte. 20, heading west. I ended up passing numerous fossiliferous road cuts along the way, seeing the Cherry Valley outcrop, and proceeding along on my journey. It was about this time it started to flurry, with very light snow. OK, I can handle that. No problem. The sun was shining through the mostly cloudy skies, and I was hopeful of some decent, albeit cold collecting. It started getting darker by the time I reached Hamilton, NY. It started snow squalling. Driving through nearly white out conditions, with snow accumulating on the ground, my high spirits were fading. Don't get me wrong, ... I would show up and put in a valiant effort to hunt through these conditions,... but man, ...I was not looking forward to it. The further I went, the harder it snowed. Great. I was within 5 minutes of the site(according to the obnoxious GPS lady) , and I drove right out of the squalls, and into sunlight, and further visibility. YES! I arrived on site at around 9:12 am. Although cold, and with only a slight bit of snow on the ground, I was pleasantly surprised with the condition of the site. Whoo hoo! Show Time! I was the first one there. I had tried to get another meet up together, but with the poor weather predicted, and some family obligations, and other issues cropping up, the only people able to commit to making it were my good friends, JeffreyP, and Pagurus. (Mike) I got out, and with hat, fleece and gloves on, I proceeded to explore the quarry. I was pleased to hear the sound of a car coming about 10-15 minutes later. Jeff had arrived! We said our hellos, and talked a bit about his last visit to the site. He had an area in mind to hunt, and to remove rock from an outcrop. I was willing to help if he needed any assistance, but otherwise left him to it. I am more of a wandering site hunter; I like to move around, go through other's spoil piles, and split leftover shale and rubble. I am eager to cover as much of a site as I can, and make many good finds this way. We were hunting and finding some decent things. I had previously told Jeff that I was going to forego collecting any bivalves and brachiopods, to concentrate on trilobites, gastropods, goniatites, and hopefully some phyllocarids. The preservation of the fossils here, and variety, made a liar out of me. The bivalves and brachiopods weathered out nicely, and were so cool looking, I picked up a bunch anyway. Mike showed up at about this time. It was around 10:00 am. We took some time to say hello, and inquire about the trip from Massachusetts. We were back at it in a short time. It was shortly after that, when a guy dressed in camo, and wielding a bow, came walking up the street. He came up the drive to see what we were doing. I introduced myself, as did he. His name was Brandon, and he showed great interest for a 15 year old, in what we were finding. About 5 minutes later, a pickup truck pulled up, and the land owner popped out. He was unhappy to see Brandon's bow. He made his feelings known, and I explained that Brandon hadn't been hunting here, and he was looking in on our activites. The landowner told Brandon to leave or put the bow away. Brandon asked for a ride to his house, some 2 miles away. I agreed and we headed towards my car. The landowner made clear to us that he was more than happy to have us on his property to hunt fossils, as we break rock down to a usable size for whatever they use the crushed rock for. He just did not want people who had no permission to hunt on the land to be there. The misunderstanding settled, the land owner wished us luck and left. I asked Brandon as he was putting his stuff in my car, if he would like to stay and hunt with us. He had shown a fairly keen interest in what we were doing, so I asked. He looked surprised, and said sure. I got my extra hammer out of my car, and handed it to him. I showed him what I was doing, and answered his many questions about where we were from, what the fossils were, and how old, and many, many other things. Long story short, he ended up spending the entire day with us, bouncing back and forth between the 3 of us , learning about fossils. He didn't leave until his mom had come looking for him, around 4:00 PM. Throughout the day we all made some good finds, despite the fact that we had a few serious snow showers through the day, again, ... with the nearly white out squalls. Mike left a short while later, wanting to get back on the road for his 4 hour trip home. Jeff and I ended up staying until almost 6:00 pm, the sun heading towards the horizon, leaving long shadows on the ground. I said goodbye to Jeff, and wished him luck for the next day, as he was planning on staying the night in the area to do more hunting the next day. I had an uneventful trip home in the dark, and was home by 10:15 pm. Besides the sense of accomplishment from a fun and successful hunt, I ended the day knowing we had turned someone on to the joys of fossil hunting. Teaching in this way was the greatest part of the day for me. My better finds of the day are below. I invite the others to add their experiences to this epic. Enjoy! Thanks for reading. Regards,

On Monday I visited a site north of Morrisville, Madison County, NY. It is a roadcut exposure of the Marcellus Shale, the lowest part of the Hamilton Group. The bottom part is an exposure of the Bridgewater Member and the top is the Oatkacreek Formation. It was my third time there and each visit has presented a different experience: In the spring of 2013 my companion and I explored the talus slopes that cover most of the exposure and found a number of specimens of the top-shaped gastropod, Bembexia subcomarginata along with brachiopods and bivalves. I returned in the spring of 2014, this time exploring the shale outcrops above the talus slope and picked a number of Bembexia right from the shale wall. On Monday I climbed the steep talus slope again and dug into the shale exposure at the top and discovered a thin bed that was rich in well preserved examples of the tiny corkscrew-shaped gastropod, Paleozygopleura. Also found a number of Bembexia, plus bivalves and brachiopods including Grammysia bisculata and Spinocyrtia granulosa, and one pretty large bivalve with both valves preserved that I first thought was a concretion, and the smooth-shelled nautiloid, Michelinoceras.. This is a photo of the road cut with my vehicle in the foreground for scale.

I spotted this flat orthocone on a platform of limestone at a park beside the Lake Ontario. The limestone on which the fossil is set on was hauled in from Manitoba (from what I heard) and is used in many created and developed parks here in Toronto. I also heard that this limestone is Ordovician, which is kinda true judging from the fossils that I've observed on the rocks (ex. Isotelus fragements, some Ordovician strophomenids, some Favosites corals, only straight-shelled orthocones). Could it be an actinocerid and could these limestones be the ones that originate from the Tyndall limestone?