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Hello again, Last year I found this chunck of dinosaur leg bone in the Boulonnais, North of France. Jurassic sediments. See this topic: I just polished a small piece and I am very happy with the result. I made a comparison with a picture from the internet of a duck-billed dinosaur on the left and my piece on the right. You can see the growth lines! source: http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/08/06/duckbilled-dinosaur-defended-itself-by-outgrowing-predators/

I recently bought this trilobite fossil at a christmas market in Zurich. Could anyone name it fully, order and maybe time period? I'm just a curious amateur btw.

Hello from Malta, island state of the European Union. Great place for beach combing, plenty of collapsed cliffs along the coast just waiting for a researcher.

Hello everyone! My name is Maximilien Dereme (but just stay with Max, keep it short) I live in The Hague, Netherlands. My biggest passion since I was 3 was paleontology, and I'm still on my way to paleontologist! I am also very interested in mineralogy, conchology and herpetology. My coolest fossil is an Afrovenator claw; but the one I'm most proud of is the fossil lobster I found at Lyme Regis, UK. (Some of you have already seen it in the Fossil ID thread) My favorite fossil location is probably Lyme Regis, even though I also love the Zandmotor (NL) and the Maasvlakte 2 (NL). I joined this forum around a week ago, so I already know a little bit how it works, even though there are tons of things where I have no clue what they are used for... Anyways, I just posted this to introduce myself to this forum, because I forgot to do it before... Warm regards! Max

Here is an article from Paleontology News about the new theropod, Dracoraptor http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160120202414.htm A new carnivorous dinosaur species named Dracoraptor hanigani uncovered in the south of Wales is possibly the oldest known Jurassic dinosaur from the UK, according to a study published January 20, 2016 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Martill from the University of Portsmouth, England, and colleagues from National Museum Wales and University of Manchester. The authors of this study that analyzed the dinosaur skull and bones, discovered in 2014 on a beach near Penarth, Wales, conclude it is a new species that they have named Dracoraptor hanigani. The name Dracoraptor means 'dragon robber.' Draco, meaning dragon, is the national symbol of Wales. The species name honors Nick and Rob Hanigan, who discovered the fossil. From their analysis, the researchers believe this dinosaur was meat-eating, from the theropod group. They also suggested that it may have been a juvenile animal, as most of its bones were not yet fully formed or fused. Compared to its distant relative the T. rex, it appears to be a small, agile animal, probably only about 70 cm tall and about 200 cm long, with a long tail, likely to help it balance. It lived at the beginning of the Jurassic Period (201 million years ago), at the time when south Wales was a coastal region like it is today. However, at the time, the climate was much warmer, and dinosaurs were just starting to diversify. The new specimen represents the most complete theropod from Wales, and may possibly represent one of the oldest known Jurassic dinosaurs in the UK or even in the world. Co-author Mr. Vidovic adds, "The Triassic-Jurassic extinction event is often credited for the later success of dinosaurs through the Jurassic and Cretaceous, but previously we knew very little about dinosaurs at the start of this diversification and rise to dominance. Now we have Dracoraptor, a relatively complete two meter long juvenile theropod from the very earliest days of the Jurassic in Wales."

Hey all! I am in the midst of planning for a really spontaneous trip(27 May to 15 June) to UK and Europe that me and a few friends decided to go for this summer to celebrate the end of college. I am pretty much the only one crazy about fossils in the group, but they are all happy to accompany me to learn a little about paleo-stuff too. I will be meeting a couple of them who are currently in London(as students studying there) and we plan rent a car and travel to the southern coastal cities/towns of England for about 3 nights. Would really like to visit the Jurassic coast there and maybe even hunt for fossils for the first time in my life! I understand the coast is huge so please do let me know if there are any particular points of interest/areas that I must go to. On a side note, we are not sure which are the best cities there to stopover for the night(s) - thinking of going up to Plymouth with a stop in Bournemouth along the way. After the road trip we will spend a few days free and easy in London, will of course visit the NHM but are there any other paleo-related museums or fossil shops worth visiting there? We will spend a total of 9 nights in England then fly over to Amsterdam for 3 nights. After which we will take a train to Bruges and Brussels for 2 nights each, and lastly end in Paris for 3 nights. It is a really ambitious plan for us and I apologise if this is a lot to take in. We know our dates and what transportation and accommodations to book, but the tricky part is to find out the best places to visit in those countries in order to fully experience their heritage and cultures (and also fossil activities to do!). Oh, and of course local cuisine and drink (like beer in Belgium)! It will be a first time trip for all of us, so I would really appreciate any recommended stops or tips for the journey. Doesn't have to be too much about fossils, so if you also know a good restaurant or hidden gem in those countries I will be grateful if you let me know!

Please help ID these items I found years ago on the site of the so called Vienna Basin, near Bratislava, Slovakia. Thanks in advance!

Hello! I am a young enthusiast, recently a volunteer for the Paleontology Research Program of the Natural Sciences Section of Vasile Parvan Museum, Barlad, Moldavia, Romania. I work under the supervision of Ph. D. c Laurentiu Ursachi, Museum Vasile Parvan, Barlad, Natural Sciences Section. The Museum Collections owns skeletal elements of Miocene and Cuaternar fossil mamals. At the moment we try to identify some teeth that may be a Chalicotherium and I have found some interesting bibliography on the forums. TY Fruitbat if you read this! We also started a voluntary program and I am in charge of this. If anyone wishes to give us some help in research we would be happy to establish contact. Please bare with me, because I am a newbie! Simon Salca jr.

Hello everyone! Its been a while since I've been on TFF, mostly just due to being busy with non fossil related work and not getting out in the field much. I've gone on a few hunts but haven't really come across anything too spectacular recently. Hopefully though thats all about to change! For the past year or so my girlfriend and I have been planning a trip around the world, starting this upcoming July 6th. We're going to be backpacking, camping, fishing, immersing ourselves in new cultures, and doing as much fossil hunting as we possibly can. We'll mostly be relying on our tent, friends, family, couchsurfers, and hostels for places to stay. We've done a ton a research about what we're gonna do, and are getting really excited! We'll be landing in the UK from the east coast of the US, then heading over to Belgium for a couple weeks. Hopefully we'll come across a few shark teeth. Then its back to the UK from late July to October, heading up through Scotland, then into Ireland, then back into southern England. We then head over to Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, then a ferry over to Italy, then Greece, and then on to many more countries afterwards. I've had a love for paleontology since my early childhood, and have read up quite a bit on European fossil localities, but I really only still have a vague picture of what looking for fossils is like in Europe, Africa, and Asia. I'm posting this on the Fossil Forum in the hopes that I can get some general advice, maybe hear a story or two, and maybe even meet up and do some hunting with a forum member or two. Our schedule is very flexible, and both my girlfriend and I would love to hang out and share stories with other fossil hunters from around the world. I'll also be bringing a huge bag of southern California shark teeth to trade and give out along the way As we travel and look for fossils we'll make sure to take lots of photos and post the most interesting finds we come across here in this post. Thanks, Joseph and Katherine

[uPDATE 05 Okt. 2013 ] Update #1 : Click here to go to the new images posting Update #2 : Click here to go to the new images posting Hi! So. This is my second post, and I hope I read up well enough in the regulations & suggestions section to make it a good one. The title is a bit of a gig - although I've been steadily collecting fossils around here (Bierzo, Leon, Spain), it's nothing much spectacular probably. Besides that I'm the biggest possible amateur you can imagine I'm also extremely picky (tip missing - ditch it!. Cracked? Ditch it! Boring color? Ditch it! Low contrast? Ditch it!) and not to mention quite clumsy. Do not attempt to chop off interesting fossils from bigger shards of fragile stone when you are me. Really. The last few years (I've started collecting roughly in 2004) I have started to hunt for new species, and have confined myself to 'beautiful' specimen (rare rock types, rare colors/shape etc) if it's a common type. So all in all I have two boxes and maybe a total of 80 stones, of which the majority is pebble-sized (I seem to like small ones for some reason..- they have amulet-like properties to me!). I will post about 25 of them here in several updates. I guess my photography and design backgrounds mean I start to look at fossils more and more visually. To compensate for this I have been steadily reading up on carboniferous era fossils and in general, the landscape/climate back then. This and my great interest in evolution have helped to better understand what I am digging up / finding. The below fossils (I will post further updates this week) are a number of samples that I find interesting (and often puzzling). With each I give my opinion on what it might be, but I figure that I'm going to be wrong the majority of times in my guesses (everything I find seems to be part of one or two species...root, trunk, leaf, branches, other leaves, more leaves! argh!). Help is much appreciated ! All fossils are exclusively from a 2x2km zone behind my house, on a little mountain not far from Bembibre, el Bierzo, Leon. Some are from the bottom of the mountain, some from the top. The height difference is +- 300 meters. Rock-types have been varying from dark, coal-like to yellow-white calcium rich materials. I know little of geology and have made as few notes to finding circumstances as is humanely possible. Sorry [edit : Added geographical local map of my fossil locations ] 1) My absolute favorite - because I hope it's of non-plant origin. I've been on a quest to find something fauna-ish for almost a decade! Note the fine texture, which I have read might be bone related? *crosses fingers* [edit] Likely Adelophthalmus asturica 2) Trunk or root of some sort. Different from my other trunk specimen which are clearly lepidodendrons. I guess this could be a more poorly conserved specimen that has lost it's distinct texture? Diameter is roughly 6.5-7.5cm. 3) I have only found shards of this fossil-type in almost a decade. This is a unique specimen to me, and I have no clue what it might be. [edit] probably Asterophylliites equisetiformis 4) More trunk (Diameter : 6cm) What I have read this should be a cast of the central canal of a Calamite stem? (how does it form?) [edit] probably Calamites cistii, internal cast of stem 05) I'm at a total loss on this one. I think I've seen similar imprints on black, coal-like stone with a glassy-oily look? [edit] perhaps a lycophyte stem (compare Syringodendron) 6) I've started to like these high-contrast, cute little fossils more and more. Is this Sphenopteris? Is there further distinction? [edit] probably Sphenophyllum, possibly Rhacopteris (Unlikely : Palmatopteris) 7) The bonus image. I am 99.9% sure this is *not* a fossil. But I am curious how it formed, what it might be ? Anyone? Right. I hope people can enlighten me a little. I am going to make a website with all species I can manage to find around here, because I want to build as complete a database of the ' forest' type that existed here once as possible. I would love to learn more about what plant species or sub-species I am looking at, but also would be very thrilled to learn what *part* of a plant it comes from and/or how the fossilization influenced if worth noting? Thank you very much. Trying to learn

Hello, This fossil was found in Europe, northern Poland to be exact. Does anybody know what is it? Thanks, Diana