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During the Christmas holiday we had the opportunity to go on 2 field trips to the north of France. 1st one was just after Christmas when we visited the Turonian part of the cliffs. Here we found a couple of nice ammonites ( Mammites nodosoides and a realy nice Fagesia catinus ) and a big flint echinoid. (with @Natalie81 and @Euhoplites) The second trip was last weekend, but we had no luck with the weather this time and we had heavy rainfall for most of the day. Also lots of competition that day. Not a lot of fossils to be found that day: a small flint echinoid, a big Mariella sp. but not the best preservation and an Acanthoceras, but this one is still completely in the matrix, I don’t know how this one will turn out. pic's from the 1st day: The echinoids from the construction site: Fagesia catinus all cleaned up the 2nd field trip: a wel hidden Acanthoceras rhotomagense: Rain, rain, rain,.. I almost forgot, Best wishes for 2022 to all the forum members

Here a couple things that I received from my wife- first off, a few beautiful echinoids that were purchased from @Harry Pristis back in September- really love these pieces. A book that I have been wanting for a while. A cool adjustable light that hangs around your neck. It has two different powers and will be great for collecting, taking pictures or Cindy things I drop- lol. And what kid does not want a remote control dinosaur that walks, lights up, roars and even blows out water vapor.

Hello, I bought these fossils as Rotuloidea fimbriata, from the Pliocene of Morocco; yesterday I saw some photos of Heliophora orbicularis, and now I have doubts about what species they are. Any ideas? 1.- 2.- Thanks!

My wife and I returned from a great trip to north Florida about a week and a half ago, but I finally have time to post a trip report now that our Easter visitors (our kids) have left and headed back to their homes. Fair warning, if you are looking for some great tale of finds on the Peace River, this is not the post for you! Probably one of the few posts on the Forum from a trip to Florida that does NOT include the Peace –. This was not solely a fossil trip, but rather a sight-seeing trip with some fossils stops included, I try to include as many stops as possible but it is always a delicate balance. My wife enjoys fossil hunting (but her tastes are somewhat limited, primarily trilobites and sharks teeth), but not as much as I do, and she therefore reaches her limit much quicker than I, so I try to find the best spots I can and space them out and we both have a good time. I had sent away for and received my Florida Fossil Permit a couple months back in anticipation of the trip, and then half way between Texas and Florida I realized I had left it at home – doh!! I wasn’t overly concerned though as the main focus of the trip was invertebrates and sharks teeth, neither of which actually require the permit to collect in Florida. Oh well, it was the thought that counts! I had done a bunch of research heading up to the trip and consulted a few FF members for advice (more on that in a bit) so I had a list of potential sites many of which had reported fossils in the past, but the current state was uncertain. I was trying to get a selection of Eocene through Quaternary sites to collect and was not coming with a canoe or kayak which quickly limits the collecting places in North Florida. Enough babbling, on with the trip report! Our first stop was on our way to Florida Caverns State Park at a river side bluff of the Marianna Limestone (Oligocene aged). This is in fact the type section of the Marianna Limestone, but time has not been kind to this exposure. Between development and vegetation, there was virtually no exposed rock but I did manage to find of few pieces of the formation strewn about and the one large chunk shown below on the left contained the large foram Lepidocyclina along with other fossils. There was also a mostly complete bivalve in a small piece. All of these need cleaned up and I hope the large rock will hold some more goodies that can be exposed once I have the chance to look at it closer. The visit to Florida Caverns State Park was very nice. I was pleasantly surprised as I did not know Florida had a cave like this. I have been in most of the large cave systems in the US, and this one had bats and nice cave formations even though it is not a particularly large cave. The ceiling rock in places is just rich with fossils as you can see in the picture below. There was even a sharks tooth sticking out at one place, but I did not get a good picture of it. Next on the list were several stops to try and find a decent exposure of the Miocene Chipola Formation which is present across the northern part of the Florida panhandle from Walton to Gadsden counties. Unfortunately, development, vegetation and high water in the creeks/rivers prevented me from accessing any of the fossiliferous portions of the rocks at four different stops, including one I had been to a couple of decades ago and collected some beautiful fossils. I’ll show below some Chipola fossils that although they were not collected on this trip, they are some of the 30 species of bivalves and 38 species of gastropods I collected from a location in Calhoun County many years ago but was unable to access this trip. A quick search of TFF will yield many other beautiful Chipola specimens by other members in albums, etc. After another State Park or two we were headed on down the road to our hotel with not much in the way of fossils to show for the day. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a random pile of dirt along the road with suspicious white blobs. A quick stop resulted in several fossils out of what is presumably the Ocala or Suwannee Limestone from a nearby quarry, including one echinoid that needs a good cleaning before I can tell what it is. I’ll have to ID the items I found and see if I can determine which formation these are from. In north Florida, this constitutes a major “outcrop”!

This has been a very busy week for me and my fossil addiction. I was out to the Peace River on Tuesday, attended the Lee County , Florida Fossil Club meeting Thursday, went to the Friday night dinner preceding the FPS meeting and was fortunate to be part of those FPS members who went on a field trip to a Pliocene-Pleistocene Shell Pit in Charlotte County, Florida. I know at least 4 other FPS and TFF members who also participated in this Outstanding Field trip. 1) I have volunteered to write_up this field trip for the next FPS Newsletter. I will do that and when complete, will post a copy to this thread. 2) I will also, as time permits, post photos of my many finds.. They need to be cleaned first. @calhounensis is a FPS member and participated in the Shell Pit hunt. He was extremely generous in giving me a number of horse teeth he found, suggesting that I would enjoy them more because I seem addicted to fossil horse teeth. 3) I will attempt identification of all these horse teeth and post my success or lack thereof. Right now the Horse teeth are soaking in water. In addition to these horse teeth (Equus and pre_equus) I heard that a Mako, and some Great Whites, some echinoids and Sand Dollars were found but the dominant % of finds are seashells and corals.... they were all over the ground. I invite any and all TFF members in attendance to post comments on the trip, photos of a few or many of their finds, or not. I have had a great week, just in the company of my numerous fossil addicted friends... but I am weary, and will get some sleep before my next post to this thread. Jack

Last sunday October 24th I decided to visit the old Andil clay quarry at Liesberg in Switzerland, just over two hours driving from where I live, to see what fossils I might find there. Now a nature reserve where collecting is tolerated as long as the natural parts are not disturbed, the deposits at this quarry, mined for cement production between 1934 and 1980, date to the Upper Callovian and Lower to Middle Oxfordian (source). It is thus stratigraphically - though not petrologically - comparable to the geology of Vaches Noires in Normandy, with which I'm much more familiar, albeit with the interesting variation that the bedding planes at this site have been uplifted and verticalised. The latter makes for an unusual experience working the mudstone layers in the middle of the quarry, and means that the oldest layers are to be found along the quarry's south wall (to the left if facing the quarry's back wall), whereas the youngest layers - most notably the Liesberg-layer, which geological limestone composition and embedded fauna of shells, sea urchins and crinoids is strikingly comparable to the Middle Oxfordian Coral Raq at Vaches Noires - are to be found on the north wall (to your right). A situational satellite map from Google Maps A commercial example of a beautiful Kosmoceras annulatum ammonite found in the quarry's Callovian layers Seen from the parking spot at the quarry entrance near the top of the mountain The buildings of the old quarry when you walk down from the parking spot to the quarry along a road with restricted access Entrance to the quarry with an informational sign explaining the geological significance of the locality, as well as tells you not to get your hopes up, as most fossils you're likely to find will be steinkern-fossils Spill heaps along the north wall, with the back wall in the distance, and a sign explaining the importance of the locality as a nature reserve The path to the back wall of the quarry can be extremely muddy, and searching for fossils along the quarry's steep slopes is an activity undertaken at your own risk Due to circumstances I arrived quite late in the day and only had a number of hours to search. However, I quickly concluded that the south wall (Callovian layers) and even the mudstone in the middle of the quarry (Lower Oxfordian) were not particularly fossiliferous, with a couple of hours of work only resulting in a corroded pyritised ammonite and a tiny fossil that may either be a crustacean or part of a sea urchin spine (if you know, please let me know). I did not find any fossils on the south wall, although the information sign at the entrance to the quarry had already forewarned that most of the fossils encountered would be steinkern fossils. I later picked up from a discussion between a solitary fossil hunter and another group of collectors, however, that this solitary hunter had found an ammonite towards the top of the Callovian slope two weeks earlier and had returned to collect it, only to find it gone. He hadn't found any new specimens, however. Interestingly, while the quarry was quite calm with only one or two other collectors for most of my time there, by the time I got ready to leave (around 17:30), the place all of a sudden became abuzz with groups of other fossil hunters. Vertical bedding planes at the quarry and the two finds I made in the Renggeri clays: a heavily corroded pyritised ammonite and an unidentified fossil that may be either a bit of crinoid, or may be crustacean? Following my lack of results (did I give up too early?) in the older layers of the quarry, one of my fellow fossil hunters suggested I check the quarry's northern slopes/spoil heaps, as there were plenty of smaller fossils to be found there. And, indeed, as soon as I stepped on these slopes I was able to pick up spine after sea urchin spine, stems and branches or crinoids, serpulids and even the occasional shell. The slopes were steep and it was hard to find a foothold, but at least I didn't have to return home empty handed. Looking back through the quarry from the spill heaps along the north wall Can you spot the fossils amongst the limestone blocks from (presumably) the Liesberg-layer? Looking at the south wall from the spill heaps Beautiful lighting when returning back to the car towards the end of the day Here are some of my finds of that day. Paracidaris florigemma echinoid/sea urchin spines; much more common and of better quality than I've found at Vaches Noires Millecrinus horridus crinoid/sea lily stem (left) and arm (right) segments Millecrinus horridus holdfast/root system (a special find for me) that I entered into Find of the Month contest Serpulid worm tubes (left) and evidence for parasitism on crinoids (right) Echinoids/sea urchins: a partial in matrix on the left and crushed and silicified specimens on the right Shells, from left to right: fragment of trigoniidae indet. (?Myophorella sp.), Galliennithyris galliennei brachiopod and a piece of an unidentified clam Section of horn coral

I recently took a trip to my hometown, San Antonio, Texas, to visit family whom I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. Ever since I caught the fossil bug last year in Maryland, I've been itching to make it back to Texas to explore. This trip's purpose was to catch up with family, but to do so, naturally, I had to catch them up on my new hobby! Two places were easy to add to my itinerary -- both my Mom and Dad have seasonal creeks in their neighborhoods, which I was able to walk. The creeks in my Mom's neighborhood expose Albian rocks from the Edwards Group. This creek system is pretty extensive, though in my experience, unfortunately, it wasn't very fossiliferous. The best fossil I found was the small Ilymatogyra arietina below, which suggests that there's a Del Rio Formation (Cenomanian) exposure somewhere in this area as well. The other fossils in the creek were infrequently found and of lower quality. I didn't have much luck in my Dad's neighborhood either. The rocks here are from the Austin Chalk, which is Coniacian-Campanian. I found only small bits of shell and some heavily eroded shell conglomerates. I had much better luck visiting a Glen Rose Formation (Albian) site with my mother and sister that required more travel, though wasn't too far away. Here we were able to collect fossil echinoids, including some nice Leptosalenia texana, bivalves, gastropods, algal balls, and foraminifera. We enjoyed it so much that we went back a second time. This site had quite a few modern invertebrates too! At some point, I will plan to take a bigger Texas fossil tour, but I needed to stick closer to San Antonio this time around. With that constraint, I can't thank @Uncle Siphuncle enough for your amazing TFF guide to San Antonio fossils -- I learned so much from your post about the rocks where I used to live!

Hi, I was hoping that someone would be able to tell me if the smaller echinoid is a juvenile Corystus dysasteroides or possibly another species. Both specimens were collected from the Jan Juc marl, late oligocene (Janjukian), Victoria, Australia. Thanks.

Summertime is here in Texas and that means if you want to go fossil hunting and not get heatstroke....you better go early in the morning! My Grandmother would say "Spring has sprung, Fall has fell, Summer is here and it's hot as usual". I am fortunate that the Glen Rose Formation is close to where I live, so that is my best hunting in Summer! I hit up four different spots recently (one with the Paleontological Society as our monthly field trip) and found some nice new things and some nice not-new things! A few "new" finds: My Favorite : Associated Starfish Ossicles! It may not be a full leg, but it was awesome to find a whole mess of them that were "together". Biggest one is 1/4 inch. Floating (Cormatulid) Crinoid. Apparently a slightly different species than I had collected previously. 3/8 inch Another Floating Crinoid : Solanocrintes sp. 1/2 inch And a TINY one of another different species of Solanocrintes 1/8 inch A couple of cool new crab claws (Unknown Genus and species). Found these at two different locations: 1/8 inch A few more new to me crab claws (again, Genus and species unknown) Size 1/8 inch Found a Fish tooth; Lepisosteiforme (Gar) And lastly, a "different" Leptosalenia - it may just be a variation on the regular texana, but it might be a cf. texana. (as per Smith and Radar) It really looks different than any other I've found. 3/4 inch A "regular" Leptosalenia texana for comparison. Also 3/4 inch and from same location: Some more not "new" finds, but nice ones nonetheless. A bit water worn but still detailed Echinoid Spine Balanocidaris sp. A couple of odd fragments of plates from an Echinoid Echinothurid. Size 1/4 inch A couple of Tiny Echinoid Loriolia rosanas. The big one is 3/8 inch A cool Trigonia wendleri A nice big Neithia occidentalis the BIGGEST Gastrpod Nerinia I'v found so far: A nice little unknown Gastropod with some good detail: and finally, A ZOMBIE CRAB CLAW!! hahhaha! These are usually fairly well preserved, so to find one in this state of decomposition was actually kind of cool:

It's been quite a while since I found any echinoids that I haven't found before - that's the problem with being a "sophomore" hunter...I've found all the basic stuff (but am always happy to find a better quality one, of course) but finding something that is not in my collection is getting harder and harder! I am going to have to start ranging further afield to find them.....sounds like time for some road trips! So I was quite happy this month when I made a couple of trips to Austin and managed to find TWO new to me echies! Both are a bit water worn, being tumbled in a creek for who knows how long, but that's okay. Both were found in Georgetown/Buda Formations. I initially thought this was a Leptosalenia mexicana because of it's size and shape, but then realized that this creek does not go through ANY Fredericksburg formations and was therefore more likely a Leptosalenia volana! YAY!!! First new Echie in quite a while! Size 3/8 inch 1 cm. Then in another creek in South Austin, I found this critter just waiting to be picked up! A little Hemiaster calvini ! Size 2 inches 5 cm. I took a day trip up to Hillsboro and went to a spot on Lake Whitney I had hunted a number of years back, I wasn't even sure it was still there, but it was, albeit very grown over! But found a few nice things - a couple of big Macrasters that were very "crunchy" but also a couple of nice smaller heart urchins. Although they are both small, I think they are Macraster texanus. Size 1 1/2 inch Size 2 inches And lastly, found another Holaster simplex. Not in great shape, but some of the test has good detail. Size 2 inches. And although this one isn't NEW, it is a new species! I was cataloguing my echinoids and turned this one over to get a good picture and lo and behold....it's a Coenholectypus ovatus rather than a C. planatus which I assumed it was! So yay!! Another new species! Plus, I found another better Goniophorus scotti. Not new, but better is better! Size 3/16 inch 5 cm So I am now at 34 different genus/species! Only a few more to go.....hahhahaha!! Okay, I might be JUST over half way there....maybe.

Although the Peace River stayed diggable through the end of June this year, I made my last trip on the 20th and was looking forward to the clear spring fed waters of the Santa Fe the following week. Heavy rains in North Florida and Georgia spoiled that plan by sending the Santa Fe to flood stage. I hadn't been to the Yankeetown spoil islands in several months and I always enjoy spending a few hours there. I intended to do a quick surface scan for the smaller less common echinoids, but was primarily looking for limestone cobbles that contained the large sand dollar Periarchus floridanus. This large thin echinoid doesn't survive erosion from the limestone like many of the smaller ones found here. It must remain protected within the limestone cobbles which, in a perfect world, would display just the edge of the undamaged sand dollar. Prepping is a relatively simple process since the echinoid test is slightly harder than the soft Ocala limestone. I was lucky to find 4 possible specimens and 3 turned out very decently. Here is a picture of the first cobble that I found right at the water line followed by the after prep picture. After Tropical Storm Elsa passes I'll make a return trip to these islands to repeat the search since high tides this week and the storm surge will mix things up a bit. It's always a nice getaway when high water levels make rive hunting difficult.

I am, admittedly, not much of a creek hunter. I prefer a road cut any day to slogging around in knee deep water and mud to find the fossils. But sometimes you gotta get out of your comfort zone! And it was WELL WORTH IT!!! My friend was kind enough to share one of his local spots - we've had some good rains in Texas recently and he thought it might be producing some more heteromorph ammonites. He has collected some amazing big and well preserved Mariellas there and I have been DYING to find a good one. All that I have found in my local creeks have been so water worn as to be practically unrecognizable. So dodging some local rainstorms I pulled on my water boots and slogged my way upstream with him and his bounding doggo- I swear there is nothing much more joyful than a dog who loves water....in the water. It took me a while to start seeing the ammonites. It is always fascinating to me how you have to learn to "see" the fossil. What I would pass by, he would point out....you missed one there! I finally started to see them and found a couple of very nice ones. I was hoping to find a full three whorls together, but only found two whorls. There were fragment all over the place, but finding intact ones is much more difficult. I was super thrilled to come back with two very nice specimens and for one of them, I found a whorl fragment that matches it PRETTY well, so I just pretend I found a three whorl Mariella. My "three" whorl: 7 inches Another big one, not as well preserved, but with no "added" whorl. hahahha 7 inches Another nice fragment. 4 inches AND, I was lucky to have found a Hemiaster calvini echinoid too! He said it's only the second echinoid he's seen from this location. It's pretty water worn but has some interesting color and detail. 1 3/4 inch Also this lovely oyster Lopha. It has both valves which is always a plus: 4 inches We found a couple of crumbly nautiloids that didn't survive the extraction, so I was kind of disappointed, but then.....as we were leaving, I look down and see the edge of this guy sticking out of the bank. I called out "hey, come look!" and my friend was amazed that he had JUST walked right past it!!! We dug it out and I got to carry a nice big nautilus the rest of the way up the creek! And believe me, two big mariellas, an assortment of other fossils and a big nautiloid are quite a load when you have to scramble up a creek bank. Fortunately, I did have a little help. So a great day in the creek, even though I did get startled by a gar, I am a little more comfortable going creek hunting! Oh, and the sky was beautiful too. A lovely day in Central Texas.

Went back to my little gold mine today and was again amazed by the variety of things found. Previously I thought I was in Eagle Ford, but it is in Woodbine, with ravine that cuts down to Grayson as was explained to me in first post from this local. Everything was dried out except bottom of ravine, from the looks of things I think a natural spring is involved. So found some more Mariella ammonites, one with part of a scallop maybe?, and a Hemiaster, another Texigryphaea with some shell, I believe a little bacculite, an Echnodus tooth?, unknown clams, a Trigonia, and crawling on hands and knees on top sandy area found these tiny Echinoids which are so small having a hard time making ID, can't believe they even made it home intact.

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! :)

Texas has had SO MUCH RAIN in the last month! Mushrooms are growing where there are normally NOT mushrooms growing- but that means it has been a bonanza for fossil hunting, needless to say! If you don't mind the mud..... We have had some epic storms, too. 2+ inch hail, crazy lightning, a few tornado scares and amazing clouds. Hail from my house...my poor car. (That's a quarter for scale - 25mm) But EVERYTHING is green and the wildflowers are gorgeous this year! Havn't found anything NEW, but did a couple of nicer examples, which always makes me happy. I have found lots of Coenholectypus planatus but something is always just a little bit wrong with them - a chip in the test or a little crushed plate or too much matrix to clean easily. So I was rather excited to find this little critter. Its color is lovely and it's in great shape albeit a little water worn. Glen Rose Formation: And I was VERY happy to find a better representation of a Goniophorus scotti from the Waco Research Pit (Del Rio Formation). My first and only other one was nice and big, but was rather squished. This one is TINY and in great shape: 5 mm Hit up a new spot (Glen Rose Formation also) and found a fantastic array of Leptosalenia texanas. It was a rainy day and it was fun finding them like easter eggs amongst the rocks. Plus a nice big Heteraster texanus. Also .75 in A few more little ones from the Glen Rose Formation. Not as good as previous finds, but still nice nonetheless. The Balanocidarid spines are always a treat to find, being rather rare: And a Polydiadema travisenses: (.75 in) Found another new spot in the Walnut Formation (also SUPER muddy) that after an hour of finding huge chunks of Oxytropidoceras ammonites (I made my own.....an ammonite kit, as @erose would say) I was finally awarded a nice Tetragramma texanum: My "Ammonite" At least THREE of the pieces really do go together..... 12 inches And I found enough other pieces to "make" a second one for my mom. hahahaha!

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!

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!

Today I stopped at home to grab something for work and I found a box waiting for me. It was a box that contained the winnings of the recent auction that John @Sacha put up to benefit the forum. I absolutely love everything that was included in this package. John has gotten me into a love of echinoids and Florida coral. I even have gone through my collection of Fossils and picked out all of the other echinoids that I have acquired over the years, and now I’m going to place them all into one area. The fossils that I received from John will always remain in my collection, and I was so pleased with them, that I had to take some pictures of the coral and send them down to my wife in Georgia so she can enjoy them. I cannot wait for some fossil shows to start in my area so I can keep an eye of for echinoids for different locations. John thanks again and thanks for supporting the Forum. Now, without further ado, here are pictures of the items that I received today.

Both my brother and I celebrated graduations this year - my brother graduated from college and I graduated from law school. In celebration of our graduations, we decided to take a 13-day road trip to see some of the United States after I had taken the bar exam but before I began work. Our journey ultimately took us through Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Dayton and Pittsburgh, before returning home. Our days were jam-packed, with us often not arriving at a hotel until 9/10pm, but along the way we did find some time to make a few quick stops to collect some fossils in Georgia and Texas. My brother is not a collector, but I was really excited to try to find some examples of the infamous Georgia trilobites, Texas echinoids and Texas ammonites. I want to thank @BobWill, @smt126, @facehugger, and @JamieLynn for answering my innumerable questions about Texas fossils. We ultimately did not have enough time to check out all of the places you suggested, but I will certainly store the knowledge for my next trip - hopefully in cooler weather. Our first stop was at Tibbs Bridge in Chatsworth, GA. Having heard the rumors about the potential illegality of the site I was a little worried when we arrived. We could not initially find parking and when we pulled off, we picked the wrong spot. The homeowner we parked near came out yelling at us about collecting beneath the bridge and threatening to call the police. Having driven all the way from New Jersey I was not yet ready to give up on the trip. We decided to pick another spot to park and given that my brother doesn't collect, he waited in the car in case something happened. We could not stay at the site for longer than 90 minutes, so I tried to find as much as I could. As a funny aside, I was soon joined by another group of collectors from Georgia, one of whom had recently spent time in my hometown in New Jersey. Small world! I was hoping to find some better preserved trilobites, but I had to ultimately settle with some nice impressions and a couple of smaller fragments of exoskeleton. I did find one large trilobite that still had all of its exoskeleton, but it was fractured and I could not put it back together even at home. I was able to keep the impression of the trilobite though. All of what I found were Aphelaspis brachyphasis. And the large trilobite whose exoskeleton was simply too damaged to repair

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.

Today was supposed to be a day of grinding away at my piles of homework that have been accumulating over the course of last week (hey, I was on vacation what can I say)...and I was almost successful, save until 3 pm rolled around. Getting a little stir crazy, and in desperate need of the fossil hunting fix that I missed out on over the course of my week long vacation + the week of snow we had prior, I set out to take a "small walk" to an area of a creek I hadn't scouted before. My intention was just to do a little bit of reconnaissance - I saw on a geologic map that this particular portion of the creek may expose some of the productive Eagle Ford formation, implying that I *might* have a chance of finding an ever locally elusive Cretaceous shark tooth. A 10 minute drive found me at the park which serves as an access point. It was clear that nobody frequents the area once down at the creek. The creek was virgin, at least here. Furthermore, the ram horn oysters which made their appearance along the gravel banks suggested that I was in the correct exposure. 20-30 minutes in, I find my first Echinoid...ever! It was fairly weathered by the creek, and a little small, but I'm not a man to complain - this is celebration worthy by my terms. Here is that first find, rinsed off. The burst of energy moved me forward through the thicket. At this point, I was on an "island", where the creek had wrapped itself around a little piece of land that had become quite overgrown. Within another 20 minutes, I made my next discovery - another (highly weathered) echinoid with a blobby, uneven pattern on it not too different from a sand dollar. It's difficult to make out details with a camera, but I tried nonetheless. The top arm is the only easily visible portion of the pattern. An hour or so passes, and evening is descending. My final find came in dim lighting, shining proudly out of it's bank where it was half buried. Oddly enough, the best preserved portion is the portion that was sticking out of the ground. Break dancing moves rapidly followed. And so, my evening came to a close. Another highlight was where my heart outright exploded out of my chest glancing at what I thought to be a marine reptile tooth. A second or so of looking, though, deemed that it's probably just a small, slightly weathered rudist - a cool find none the less! Finish that off with a uniquely red ram horn oyster (remnants of original color? Or just fossilized in an interesting mineral environment?) and my day came to a satisfying close. Now to get back to my calculus homework that I've been so diligently procrastinating :''D

I said that I would send some images of the material I found on my fall pilgrimage. But about 2 weeks later I was laid low with both COVID19 and influenza A. I just got out of the hospital yesterday after 21 days (with 8 in the ICU). But I've got a couple of questions about some material I found, including a sweet Nautiloid from the Finis shale. Stay tuned I'll be back.

Icy? Well, compared to some areas in the US or Moscow, it had only a few degrees below zero (Celsius) last Sunday. The nights had about -10°C, the days about -2°C. This period lastet from last Friday to Monday. No snow at all and very, very dry air. The last two days we had about 0°C during the night and +10°C maximum during the day. Still very dry. So without any snow and clear, but "cold" weather, I checked out a few Miocene sites around St. Josef in western Styria, Austria. I have made a detailed report about the area more then a year ago here: Rocks and fossils were mostly firmly frozen to the ground, and in some places more than 10 cm long fibrous ice was growing from the ground, pushing up leaves, soil and in some places fossils. Sites looked mostly the same as during my last visit, except Höllerkogel-10. Here at Höllerkogel-10, the farmer had removed a little bit of material from the bank of the forestry road. The sites contains mainly Granulolabium snails, but also a variety of other molluscs (see topic above). A little bit surprising last Sunday were an echinoid mold and a leaf impression, both ready to be picked (see pics, fossils as found frozen to the ground ). Echinoids are known from this site, but I have not seen myself such a "big" leaf in this formation until know. First I thought that this leaf is a recent leaf, sticking to the rock. But it isn´t, its a fossil. The echinoids occur as molds in the upper part of the outcrop; the lower part contains quite well preserved shell fossils (gastropods and bivalves). Nearly everything was frozen to the ground, of course, and large blocks of fossiliferous sediment were frozen hard like concrete. Maybe I will visit the site again in the near future to pick through some of the fresh debris. The large blocks have probably disintegrated then. That´s all, thanks for looking! Franz Bernhard