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I am visiting the area for the next couple days. What are the best areas to find shark teeth? I have access to a private beach in the Western run area which is right up the road from Calvert Cliffs. I have limited time so I want to make sure I hit the right spots over the next couple of days. I’m very new at this and don’t really know what I’m doing. Any assistance would be greatly appreciate it. Signed hopeless

Hi gang. Just 72 hours away from my first real endurance run in years. Starting the thread now as is easier for me to share everything in "real time" rather than writing one big post. Will be hitting a new to me site in Indiana first, a brief stop in Virginia, hitting my olde home state of Pennsylvania for a few days, and will button it up with Mazon Creek. The scienceMobile is loaded down with gear and sampling supplies for both my hobbies and my job. More to follow...

Found Grand Traverse MICHIGAN Finding a lot in my yard...dug this huge rock up with multiple fossils. What period?

When I picked up this partial, larger wave battered nautilus at Whitby I didnt have much hope for it. Nautilus are rare from the Yorkshire Coast, this is from the upper lias. I gave it to my friend Malcom who has done a fantastic job removing the incomplete outerwhorls and has left me with a beautifully preserved middle. It even has some of the outerwhorl as a lovely display stand.

Hi! I'm posting a bunch of finds which I keep in my 'unidentified/concretions' pile from Monmouth NJ. Can anyone help identify if these are concretions or something else? Will keep posting finds here if there's interest and if it proves helpful to others. See some ? finds below!

I want to let everyone know that this upcoming weekend is going to be Gemworld 2023. This show is hosted by my local club, The Gem & Mineral Society of Syrause. If anyone happens to be in the area this weekend you should stop on in. I also wanted to show you all an old find from I believe Spring of 2015. Over the years I have found quite a few good size Dipluera dekayi trilobites. The one I will be posting pics of, is the only one left in my family's possession. I gave it to my oldest Son, who in turn gave it to his Sister. I got it from her last night as I am putting together a trilobite display for the show and will be showing this off. Right now with some cephalon and pygidium missing it measures 6 1/4 inches long with missing parts it would be about 6 1/2- 6 3/4 inches. I am really looking forward to the show and hope some of you can make it.

Hi, I inherited this from my uncle a few years back. He had found it in the early 50's To this day no one has been able to identify it. It is 3" long and 1.5 inches wide. The unusual part about it. Is it shakes (like something is inside of it). I am clueless. I hope this Forum can help me.

Are these fossils? And what are they? (Two in total) Found in a creek in Germany. Thank you!

Mammoths and Smilodons stay in the public spotlight, but what about all of the other species?

I don’t want to say more about the specifics of the location quite yet- i’d like to actually make sure this place is a fossil bed, and that this one find wasn’t just a fluke. I also have to talk more with the land owners, ensure they’d be okay with the site becoming publicly known, as well as work out if they are okay with me doing some more extensive searching and digging in the bedrock. But nonetheless, i wanted to share the find itself because i am so so so happy, as this is my first fossil (and potential site) that i’ve ever found by doing my own geological research, and i wanted to share it here. I hope once i speak with the landowners more, as well as find at least one more fossil to confirm its not a fluke, i can get permission to post the location!

Looking for some pointers on fossil hunting in Southern Texas. I’ll be in Nueces co., Kleberg co., Duval co., and Dimmit co. Last time I was down there I didn’t have any luck locating fossils or fossil sites. Any idea where the checkout within 2 hours on any of these areas?

The first images are of a bone i am almost certain is non-fossilized but i could always be wrong! can anyone ID the species? Next images are of what i assume may be petrified wood, any chance it is? Its quite heavy for its small size, and has a wood-like texture. Then i have this black shell-like thing, unsure of it’s species but it is certainly something. Lastly i ID’d this tooth as a cretaceous thresher shark tooth- am i right? thank you for your help!

Found this years ago while doing excavation work. On a mountain between Napa and Sonoma counties in California (large dormant volcano nearby) can anyone help identify?

I recently went camping near Petersburg, WV. And, while in the river, I found this fossil on the bank. I can see shells and some other possible fossil formations, but I don't know much about fossils or rocks and would like any information or help to ID this. If you would like more pictures or angles, let me know. Note: Images taken from Canon DSLR and compressed to ~19mb from ~30mb.

In my advancing years I have been contemplating how to dispose of my fossil collection. For many years my wife and I have collected primarily Texas fossils and purchased other fossils that caught our interest. While our children, in their youth, avidly helped us collect fossils their interest did not extend into adulthood. Likewise, our grandchildren have little interest in fossils. Fortunately, I found that my alma mater, Sam Houston State University, located in Huntsville, Texas, has recently started a museum, the Sam Houston State University Natural History Collections. I contacted Dr. William Godwin, Curator for the museum. He told me that their paleontology collections were woefully inadequate and they would be happy to accept my collection and maintain and curate it. As a result of my discussions with Dr. Godwin I have transferred my entire collection collection to them. All my specimen were labeled as to age, formation, location found, and genus/species. I must say that as I prepared the fossils for transfer, reviewing labels, cleaning specimen, making new labels as necessary, ect, I recalled many happy memories of the family collecting trips and findings. I was amazed at some of the specific memories of fossil finds I could recall from as long ago as 50 years. Well, so much for nostalgia. If others here on the Forum are contemplating dispersing their collections I can recommend the Sam Houston State Natural History Collections. I think they would welcome any and all collections. JKFOAM

Hi all! I am new to fossil hunting/collecting and came across these two on an island shore off the northwest coast of Michigan. It would be fun to know more about them. Thank you for any help in identifying the fossils. Chuck

Mostly the title! I live in northern New Jersey- i’m aware that NJ used to be heavily submerged, and is host to many locations where you can find marine fossils such as ammonites, trilobites, and other small marine invertebrates- however, i have no clue as to how i can effectively search for and find fossils. I’ve gone to some dried river beds, dug in the banks, layered rock, and panned- but i realize that i dont quite know what i’m looking for. How do i determine if there is a fossil within a rock? How do i find good hunting locations? What are some of the key giveaways that a rock may contain a fossil or series of fossils? And how can i identify sedimentary rocks properly, so i know i’m looking at the right types?

Hi, does anyone know what these are, I found them on the shoreline in the sand

A few weeks ago I, along with the Vancouver Paleontological Society hosted a large table display at the annual BC Rock and Gem Show in Chilliwack! Every year I am invited to educate the public at this three day event. British Columbia's lower mainland lacks museums that have local fossils on display which is very unfortunate due to the high diversity of important and spectacular fossil sites in the area! I make sure to cover as much as I can at these shows and events, especially on the Burgess Shale (since it is so incredible and most people don't even know the site is in our Provence). This year was special as I was a part of the research and naming of Hainosaurus boubker, a new species of mosasaur most of you are now familiar with! I had the chance to share it at the show and really thank all the amazing people that have helped bring it to life! Our study was funded by the Association of Applied Paleontological Sciences’ Charles H. Sternberg Scholarship for vertebrate fossil research and without their support, our study would not have been possible! Huge thank you to the members of the AAPS! Photo 1: Multiple table booth with parts of my personal collection which I have geared over the years to be presentable to the public for education! Photo 2: Dan Bowden, Brennan Martens and John Fam of the VanPS along with a life sized Hainosaurus boubker banner! Photo 3: I am setting up a Burgess Shale themed section of table containing specimens from Utah and China! Photo 4: John Fam, Dan Bowden and Brennan Martens with John Fam's two display cases filled with fossils (ammonites, decapods, bivalves) from Vancouver Island Photo 5: My two display cases with Burgess Shale themed plushies and a special Hainosaurus boubker feature highlighting the many artists and collaborators involved with the project!

It's been a couple of weeks but it's taken me this long to take all the photos of my fossil finds from my trip to Oklahoma with the Paleontological Society of Austin! Our yearly trek to find Silurian, Devonian and Ordovician finds (not much of that in Texas!) was a great success again, thanks to our OK friends! Since it's just over a 6 hour drive for me, I went up early on Friday to hit a couple of "non field trip" spots before our "real" field trip on Saturday and Sunday. I had heard about a Permian site that I was excited to check out. It's a weird barren moonscape in the middle of a field. It was a bit warm.....and the sun radiating up from the baked clay was....intense. Fortunately a cold front was on the way so I kept reminding myself that the 90's of this Friday would recede into memory. But yeah...it was hot. There were bone bits everywhere....everywhere! But they were pretty crunched up. I didn't find much more than a few not-well preserved vertebrae, some okay bone bits, a few nice little amphib teeth and a couple of quite nice unbroken orthocanthus teeth. Tiny tiny ones, because all the big ones break easily. While I didn't find a lot of quality stuff initially, I did haul out about 60lbs of matrix so I can look through at my leisure at home! I learned a valuable lesson though...take two smaller buckets rather than one large bucket. It's a LOT easier to haul out two 30 lbs instead of one big haul a quarter mile over rough terrain! A little amphibian tooth: EDIT:...I thought these were Amphib teeth, but apparently....they are Orthocanthus Shark coprolites! hahahhha They are 1/4 inch each What is most amazing about these fossils is the color of the preservation. Astounding reds, yellows and purples. The little Orthocanthus shark teeth that were mostly complete. The Permian "moonscape": I decided to hit one other site before I headed to Ada where we were all meeting. It was the Ordivician site that I found a lovely Oklahomacystis echinoderm last year. The cold front had moved in and the temperature dropped almost 20 degrees and was just LOVELY hunting! I didn't find any more Oklahomacystis and wasn't finding much except a few nice brachiopods, but then I saw a crinoid calyx piece upside down (all I saw was the edges but I recognized it as crinoid) picked it up and got a nice surprise!! Too bad it's not the whole thing and just one segment, but I'll take what I get! It's a beauty...the geometric patterning is amazing. It is a Pleurocystites echinoderm. It's 1 1/4 inch wide. Early on Saturday, the whole group goes to Yellow Bluff which is a huge area above a creek and up a hillside. It's a great site with a plethora of fauna. It is completely possible to spend an ENTIRE day there! But first we had to drive through the pasture and the cows! They were nice cows. Yellow Bluff - It is primarily Silurian with a cap of Devonian at the very top of the hill. It is Henryshouse formation (which I keep wanting to call Harryhousen.... hahahha - that's for any of you old school animation lovers out there) And not only were the fossils abundant, so were the Missouri Primroses! A few nice finds in the field- A Gastropod Platyceras, Crinoid cup - I think this might be Ollulocrinus? A pink Brachiopod! Here's that pink brach again: I found a couple of Trilos, nothing quite good (last year I found the best one!!) but I did find one large one which still has lots of matrix on it, an interesting half a one, split vertically, not horizontally and then some others not very well preserved. This is an odd bit of crinoid : not sure what it is: So aside from the above pics of the in situ pieces, my only other really good find was this brachiopod Dictyonella. It was originally thought to have a bryozoan growing on it, but turns out it is actually the pattern of the brachiopod! There was also this cool bryozoan which I thought was a horn coral when I picked it up, only realizing it was bryzoan as I photographed it! It's 1 1/2 inches in size! But I did bring home a bucket of matrix and am having fun going through it, so will post some of those at a later time. Oh, and there were scorpions out and about enjoying the cool weather too. Hopefully no scorps in my bucket of matrix..... if so, now they are Texas Scorps. So Sunday was Black Cat Mountain Day. If you are not familiar with the trilobites from Black Cat Mountain...you are in for a google treat. Of course, finding the rare trilobites is.....rare. But there are plenty of other amazing things to find at Bob's quarry! The Quarry is Devonian with Haragan and Bois D'Arc Formations. But the trilobites are of course, the favorite. While I love the rollers the best (not sure why, I just do) I actually found better "open" ones this time than rollers! All of these are about an inch long. Paciphacops sp. Kainops sp. and not sure what this one is...probably Kainops and a surprising find of a (sadly not complete, but more complete than the typical) Huntoniatonia huntonensis Usually you just find the pygidiums...they are ALL OVER THE PLACE and they get HUGE. The biggest pygidium I found was 2" x 2"...just the trilobutt! It would have been a monster trilo. But the brachiopods are almost as amazing as the trilos. My favorite is this Howollella (I think) covered in Beekite: This is a big silicified Anastrophia (1 inch) An interesting Meristella with some crystals Orthostrophia and a neat coral which I think is Syringaxon perhaps? And one of my favorites to find - straight shelled cephalopods. This by far the most intact one I found. They are usually only three or four chambers but can get to be almost an inch in diameter. This one is 5 inches long And finally , my other favorite find from Black Cat Mountain.....a beautiful bryozoan ring:

Today I drove about 25 minutes to the Kane County Fairgrounds to visit the Chicagoland Gem and Mineral Association Show, this is the 46 year for this show. The show is on Saturday (10a-6p) and Sunday (10a-5p) and it is a really nice show to attend and there is always a long line to the opening and the people keep coming throughout the day. There were 32 different vendors from 13 different states. The vendors had fossils, gem stones, minerals, geodes, etc., something for everyone. Continued on next post.

Hi, I am new to fossil hunting. I found this today on uk beach where the rocks are from the triassic/jurassic period. It is quite large and is corrugated, similar to corrugated iorn. does any body know what it is? Many thanks