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This weekend was the MAPS (Mid America Paleontological Society) Show, held at the Orr Building on the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The actual show started on Friday and ended today. Prior to the start of the show, there was a hotel show that started on Wednesday at the Fairfield Inn. I arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday. As usual, both venues were fun and it was nice to see friends that I knew from shows in the past. There were a number of forum members in attendance including @stats, @crinus, @ParkerPaleo and @fiddlehead. Like most shows, there were exhibits, a kids corner, fossil ID’s and lectures. The keynote talk was by Dr. Jed Day (Illinois State University) and his talk was titled “North American Records of Devonian Extinction Events”, and it outlined the key features of the Fras, Kellwasser and Hangenburg events. Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I took. There were also a number of fossils for sale from the Dr. Bruce Stinchcomb collection, below are a few. Continued on next post.

A seemingly simple question with an answer I can't seem to find. How were the colors for the Geologic Time Scale decided? Recently I created a quick Geologic Time Scale to scale, shown below, and got curious as to how those colors were decided. Who decided yellow and orange would represent the Cenozoic or purple to represent the Triassic. Were they all decided at the same time by the same person or were they chosen over time? Did a single paper attempt to standardize all geologic maps by creating the color code we know today? And for how long have these colors been decided? There are probably many different color systems but the one I'm most interested in, is the one the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) has here.

So I found an older publication that mentions some bluffs and landings on some North Carolina rivers but for the life of me I can't find a map of them or mile posts except for the Cape Fear. It doesn't mention coordinates and mentions these bluffs on the Neuse and Black River in passing. Anyone know of a certain website or page that can tell me where the bluffs are?

Here is a quick write up on the 2022 MAPS (Mid America Paleontological Society) Fossil Show. The hotel show started on Wednesday, the day I arrived and the actual show at the Orr Building on the Fairgrounds property started this morning (Friday) and continues until Sunday afternoon. This is the second year that the show has been held in Springfield and the venue (Hotel and Orr Building) are so much nicer that years past in Iowa City. The show is not that as big as in years past, and maybe with the new venue it will once again be the size it was when it was held in the Main building at Western Illinois University- Macomb. I know it is billed as the largest “all fossil show”, but in my opinion, I feel that they should open it up to gems / minerals. I think the added clientele will add a shot in the arm to the show, and the dealers will see an increase in sales from the added foot traffic, that will lead to an increase in impulse / curiosity buying- but that is just my opinion. Now on with the pictures. I did take pictures of a lot of fossils, but I will only post the pictures that do not show prices. Besides myself, other FF members that were in attendance were @stats , @fiddlehead, @Roby , @RCFossils , @ParkerPaleo and @crinus. I know there were other members there and if I missed you, I apologize. Here is Tim (ParkerPaleo) And here is Rich (Stats) 2nd from the left and Jack (Fiddlehead) far right. A White River Saber Cat - I took a number of more pics at the hotel show and the main venue, but to edit the pics to hide the prices is just too long of a process. The show had a small area for kids to search for fossils, there were a couple of presentations that took place during the show, there was a live auction and after the show closed, the was a talk at the hotel location, which is only 8 minutes away. After the show, there was another lecture that was held at the hotel (Northfield Inn an Conference Center). I will again head there in the morning to see if any other vendors show up. If you have not been to this show, I would recommend it and maybe the increased presence will be the jump start that I think it needs. On the next post, I will have pics of some of the fossils / books that I purchased at the hotel show and main show.

I’ve just bought this book with some birthday vouchers I was given early in the year. The book is Strata, William Smiths Geological Maps. The book is absolutely gorgeous. A real coffee table book giving the history of William Smiths career, his production of the first geological maps and of course his fossil collecting that went with it. Here is a link to the book on Amazon. https://www.amazon.co.uk/STRATA-William-Smiths-Geological-Maps/dp/0500252475/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1AYFHUQ9YTN8H&keywords=strata+book&qid=1664115356&sprefix=strata+book%2Caps%2C73&sr=8-1 I’ve also added a few pictures below to give you an idea of the quality and size of the book. Well worth the money, especially if you’re interested in the history of geology.

Hello everyone, I've recently been organizing my collection into some new shelving and came up with an idea of something I thought could be interesting. These shelves will be displaying the part of my collection starting from the lower Ordovician and up to the Late Devonian, the part I focus most on. And here, I organized my fossils by period/ epoch (depending on how many I have), the idea was to put a 3d printed map of roughly what the continents were during each range of time. The question is, I am not sure where I could find maps for reference to make my 3d models, I am looking for ones that are as detailed as possible, representing each of the epochs I have here, preferably in something like a mollweide projection, although I am open to using others, I just think that may look the best. I used to know a site that would let you select a certain period or epoch and it would show you the map of that time, but the name escapees me at the moment, If anyone knows a similar resource or just some good detailed maps, I would really appreciate your help in finding it. Thank you for your time. Misha

Been a while. Did a few searches and didn't see this already posted. The Paleobiology Database is relatively new, but it is proving to be indispensable as a go-to site for everything fossil. It is an international database and far more useful than MINDAT. This site is likely a bit advanced for the average user, (can be a bit difficult to navigate), but for the pros and semi-pros, it is a goldmine. An account is required. Non professionals can create a guest account. Professionals and Avocational folks can upgrade for free by connecting to your institution and using your ORCID The excellent interactive map mode makes it easy to find research papers by site.

Today, my wife and I attended the first day of the 2021 MAPS Show at the Orr Building at the Illinois State Fair Grounds. The last two days, we stayed at the Northfield Inn and attended the hotel portion of the show. You can check out my thread on that part and see all of the echinoids that I picked up. Today was a much better day for me and I picked up some great pieces at unbelievable prices on some items. I will first show a few pics of the venue and some of the fossils, etc., and I will end with the stuff that I picked up. This venue is so much better that the place that they use to hold it in Iowa City, Iowa. The Orr building was warm and had outstanding lighting. They had some displays for attendees to look at. There was a small concession stand for people to get food. There were live talks that people could attend to learn about fossils, etc. There was a small kids corner where kids could get fossils. General views- CONTINUED ON NEXT POST

I am at the Hotel Show portion of the 2021 MAPS Fossil Show. There are a number of vendors in the hotel rooms and there are a lot of fossils to be bought, hopefully tomorrow I will see more of them before the show starts on Friday at the Orr Building on the State Fairgrounds property. Today was an echinoid type of day for me. My wife and I arrived at about 5:30 pm and I only spent a little time checking things out before we went to dinner. Here are few pieces that I picked up today, some do not have an id, but some of them came together and the price was right. If you know an id or see something that I may have wrong, please let me know.

Hello, I have found a fossil site referenced not too far from my home. The paper even gives the map coordinates. Trouble is, pasting the coordinates I have into Google Maps brings up zero results. So, I realised google maps replaces the degrees sign with a period. But inputting it in that way brings up a location around 80 miles south of where it is meant to be. If anyone can help me know where I am going wrong, or have a look at the coordinates and pop a pic of its location on a map, I would really appreciate it. Here are the coordinates given: 24°57’32.82’’N, 121°22’50.75’’E Site is meant to be in Shulin. If anyone can help, that would be awesome. Edit: There are also these coordinates of a site very close--unfossilferous, but it was studied. So if this one is of help, it is only about 30 meters awya from the one with fossils: 24°57’37.27’’N, 121°23’00.75’’E Nothing is showing up on Google maps, so I wonder if the coordinates are a different format?

Here are a couple of good websites that show the public and private lands to help you collect fossils legally. Please add any of your suggestions. https://caltopo.com/map.html# https://blm-egis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6f0da4c7931440a8a80bfe20eddd7550 Here is one that does not show ownership; it shows the satellite plus the elevation contours. https://www.mountainproject.com/map/106959022/oak-flats

So i have downloaded some geological maps one that got alot of good feedback is rockd but can i trust any of them? If Not is there any good map that u can just click that shows the bedrocks age and type and if it has fossils?

The last thing that I needed was anymore fossils, but every once in a while I will by things for me or for other Fossil Forum members that I think would enjoy a certain piece(s). I did buy several things for one member and a couple for another member, but I will not post those, I am going to post a couple things that I got for myself, and these were very cheap and stuff that I really liked, her are a few examples. First up is a beautiful Mazon Creek Pecopteris piece. It is rare for me to buy anything from Mazon Creek since I collect it and have a lot, but this was a very pretty piece, at least to me, and at $25.00 I took it. The next items I picked up at the Hotel Show and they were from an older collector who sent several beer flats of fossils with a friend to sell since he was moving and could not take the stuff with him. When I opened this beer flat, I saw 2 Miocene Ecphora shells along with other items (all identified as coming from the Yorktown and Pungo River Formation, Aurora, NC) and since it was priced at $5.00, I could not pass it up. Besides the Ecphora, look at what other items were contained in the flat. More in next post.

Today I stopped at the Main Show venue for the MAPS (Mid America Paleontological Society) Show that is being held this weekend at the Sharpless Auction Facility in Iowa City, Iowa. Here are some pics of the show, as with yesterday's pics, I have the fossils in a larger format so you can see them better, it will take multiple posts to load them all. Show Overview- (These are in a smaller format)

Below will be multiple posts of pictures from the MAPS ( mid America paleontological society) Hotel Show that is currently being held at the Clarion Hotel in Iowa City, Iowa. The actual show will begin tomorrow at the Sharpless Auction location also in Iowa City. If you have a chance and you are heading West in I-80 from Chicago you always have to stop at the Worlds Largest Truck stop located in Iowa. If you do not think it is the largest, stop by and your mind will be changed. Here is the sign that greets you in the hotel lobby and a room location map of vendors.

Hey everyone. Maybe someone could clear this is up for me. A. "When I look on a geologic map and see MzM (which means Mesozoic marine sedimentary rock.) Does that mean anything from Triassic to Cretaceous? If so how can I be sure when I find a fossil which date it is from? (other than the obvious of course which is to identify the species and find what date its from) B. I also see metasedimentary which is Precambrian and Silurian etc. Those rocks are "Meta" sedimentary which means they were sediments good for fossils but have been subjugated to high temperatures and pressures which Should destroy fossils. Do you think there are fossils in that metasedimentary rock or should I stick to just sedimentary. C. I found these fossils from the what I thought was the Eocene period on a hill (intermediate of hill and mountain) of a few clams and turritella inside a sedimentary rock. People who live in the nearby area talk about how millions of years ago the spot I collected at used to be a shallow prehistoric ocean. On the map it says tertiary (old word for Paleogene), which means 66 - 2.5 million years ago . When I use the website "(http://dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth#240)" It shows that the spot I collected from was and remained land until 90 million years ago when became a shallow ocean. which would be cretaceous. The fossils I collected were all marine and were far from the real ocean. How is it that I found marine fossils in Paleogene sediment which was not shallow ocean since 90 million years ago. I would imagine a river or stream but these fossils look very "Ocean like" (I do know that's not a valid way to determine a fossils origin) Anyways if anyone could help me out, that'd be great.

I found these maps quite usefull. You may as well. These are the highest resolution maps I have found, and free no less. https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/

Just wanted to alert y'all to this new super useful resource: A free online library of high-resolution bedrock geology maps of all US states and Canadian provinces and territories: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1gsDsvte4cGSn1uBXTwAAoi2EXsVO2OWc Also if you're looking for a one-stop shop for global bedrock geology mapping, I might recommend this incredible resource: https://macrostrat.org/map It's a global, variable-opacity bedrock geologic map with built-in topo, streetmap, and optional satellite imagery layers. Wonderful resources for getting out in the field and doing reconnaissance and making your own discoveries and understanding what you see.

So Thursday afternoon i drove 3 1/2 to the Clarion Hotel in Iowa City, Iowa so I could be up bright and early for the start of the show. Like Tucson and other show locations, there is a Hotel Show that takes place inside the Clarion on Thursday thru Saturday nights. I have to admit that I had more fun at the Hotel Show versus the couple hours that I spent at the actual show today. I would guess that there were maybe 30 rooms that were open and that contained mostly fossils, but some minerals. Not all of the vendors at the hotel participate in the actual show. With that said, I was really disappointed in the amount of vendors that showed up today for the show, but I did hear that there was some show taking place on the East Coast, and many of the vendors went there. I will start with a few pictures from the Hotel Show. Here are Pics from the actual Show:

I've been wondering if anyone on the forum has a favorite App or Apps they've found useful in searching for fossils? I haven't been able to locate any apps that focus on mapping your location in relation to underlying bedrock data, and it got me curious. Thanks! Have a good weekend!

I have read a number of posts that are asking others WHERE CAN I FIND FOSSILS? Very few collectors who have spent months, if not years to find that one special spot should be expected to give out the location publicly. But... can I offer some advice of experience? My library, if I may call it that, consists of maybe 40,000 volumes... maybe more. You must research the current and old literature to locate old fossil locations and use the newer publications for modern terminology of the fossils you do find. My hunting down private libraries exceeded my expectations that I even began to sell off material that I would not be using. You can start with the first or the tenth reference on your own. Narrow down as to WHAT you have an interest. Lets throw out Cretaceous Reptiles of Western Kansas. First. The University of Kansas and the Kansas Geological Survey have papers with locations down to the acre and what is to be found. Maps can be purchased from the US Geological Survey in the scale that suits you... but with GPS you can get close to 19th century original exposures. Second. A local University stocks many of the regional geology and paleontology references. Find the pages that you are interested, take notes or just "xerox" the pages you need. Third. Ask questions on the Fossil Forum. Many members are more than eager to help someone who is looking for information in earnest. If you know enough already to be dangerous... even I am anxious to help... but lets not ask for... "I want to find Lower Cambrian trilobites, so where are you getting those nice multiple complete specimens in eastern Nevada?" Put out a little effort and information on the Forum... and see what might be offered as help. Fourth. New locations are discovered every year! Learn to read a geological map and then with some insight and luck... try to predict where some exposures could possibly be located that are NOT shown on the most up to date maps. Works for me... it will work for you too. Fifth. If you really want to find something... you just need to start looking in the books and papers of that area's geology. Specialize. Become an expert in several areas. Cooperate with knowledgeable collectors that share your similar interests. Sixth. Do not give up. When things seem the most dismal and nothing is to be found anywhere... you actually stumble across the most concentrated exposure of fossils known. (North of Oldenburg, Indiana I found in 1970 some of the best preserved Isotelus and Flexicalymene trilboites in a creek bed. Isotelus at 12 inches and splitting them in the creek bed. I told a person in Indianapolis about them when I was leaving Fort Benjamin Harrison. Twentyfive years later I decided to stop back at the site... and someone had taken a small dozer and cleaned the site out. So... be careful who you give your locations out to.)

For those of us who live in or plan on visiting the "wild west" (USA), the interactive map on www.geocommunicator.gov may be a useful tool in your explorations. The site allows for the overlaying of BLM use (yellow squares of wilderness bliss ) boundaries onto road, topo and aerial maps! How cool is that? Upon opening the site, select "interactive maps". The map's upper tool bar lends the opportunity to zoom in and out, pan, label and identify areas by Lat./Long or UTM. You can even convert your map to a PDF and print! (though I will admit 'tis not as detailed as I would like) To the right of the screen, you will see folders that can be selected (checked). Under "base maps" you can choose your map of choice...road, topo or aerial. (these can also be selected by choosing the appropriate toggle at the bottom of the screen) Selecting the folder "Surface Management Agency" will overlay the BLM use for the map. (the opacity of the yellow can be adjusted at the bottom of the screen) Selecting the folder "BLM Administrative Areas" will identify the BLM field office that oversees the land. I am positive there is still much to fiddle with on this site, but nonetheless, it has been a great tool for prospecting. I hope you find useful as well. Happy hunting, -P.

The MAPS fossil show was this past weekend, April 5-7, and as usual we were there. The show itself is a lot of fun, and if you haven't made it you should! It's always the first weekend in April, so next year it will be April 4-6th. The turnout seemed to be pretty decent for being at a new location. In the past it has been held in Macomb, IL and this year it was in Iowa City, IA. We didn't make a whole lot of money selling at the show, but we didn't do too bad. We don't do the show to make a lot of money(but that's always nice) and aren't commercial dealers, so everything we make goes back into our hobby. Tools, gas, and prep costs add up over the collecting season. Along with having a table at MAPS, we also get some goodies. Every year at MAPS we give a box of fossils to be prepped and then get them back the following year. Here are some of the goodies we got prepped this year. I haven't gotten photographs of everything yet, so I'll start with the echinoderms. All of these Echinoderms were prepared by Scott Vergiels. First we'll start with the fossil I was most excited to get back... an Oklahomacystis. While fairly common in the Ordovician aged Bromide formation of Oklahoma, this specimen was collected in the Platteville formation of Southwest Wisconsin. Oklahomacystis sp. Platteville Fm., Grand Detour mbr. Middle Ordovician Southwest Wisconsin Next up is an unusual crinoid: Carabocrinus radiatus Galena Fm., Prosser mbr. Ordovician aged (Shermanian) Southeast Minnesota More in next post...