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I’m hoping someone can identify this for me. I found it in the Tennessee River. (Mississippian/Tuscumbia Limestone) Thanks!

Can anyone tell me what is protruding from this small rock? Is it some type of coral? I found it by the Tennessee River. (Mississippian/Tuscumbia Limestone) Thanks!

Hi, I’m hoping someone can identify the larger fossil bits on this rock. I found it on the bank of the Tennessee River. (Mississippian/Tuscumbia Limestone) Thanks!

Hello, I found this small rock on the Tennessee River. (Mississippian/Tuscumbia Limestone) I’m hoping someone can tell me what all is in it. Thanks!

Hello, I’m hoping someone can tell me whether or not this is a crab pincer? If not, what could it be? I found it in Alabama on the Tennessee River. (Mississippian) Thanks!

Hello Everyone, I found this fabulous rock which is chock full of brachiopods on the bank of the Tennessee River today. When I first broke it open, the brachiopods were all relatively intact. Unfortunately, several split and/or started crumbling off while I was trying to gently clean off some of the river grime. I’m hoping someone can tell me the simplest way to go about cleaning/preserving these brachiopods with the least damage? Thanks!

Don't think I've posted these before. From (as near as I can tell) the Caballero Formation, lower Mississippian. North of Lake Valley, New Mexico. My best guesses are either Cupularostrum or Eumetria. Alas, I'm sometimes lucky if I get the right phylum. Also embarrassed myself with this on this particular trip: I breathlessly identified this as a really spectacular algal mound. Well, no; I had navigated up the wrong canyon, and in this geologically complex area, I wasn't even looking at sedimentary rock. This is spectacularly flow-banded rhyolite. If I can't tell a rhyolite from an algal mound, maybe I should just pack it in now ...

Hi Everyone, In the latter half of last month I took a two week trip to Kentucky and Tennessee. My sister, her husband, two of her adult children, and my parents all live in the Elizabethtown/Louisville area and I was able to spend some quality time with them. Fossil collecting was also part of my agenda. Herb, my primary fossil collecting partner in Kentucky and I had a three day trip down to Tennessee planned. Before I went on that expedition, I was out with my brother-in-law driving around central Kentucky. He dropped me off for 20 minutes at the Upper Mississippian site at Wax where the Glen Dean Formation is exposed in a roadcut. I picked these up:

I collected this brachiopod showing part of the brachidium yesterday - quite rare to see in this area. It's partially silicified and I was thinking of perhaps etching it out a little further. It's also a good geopetal example, with sediment in the bottom (graded if you look closely), the remaining void above being filled with calcite that has helped preserve the brachidium. On checking my photos, I realised that there were some nice clear foraminifera, about 1mm across, which I haven't really noticed much before from this limestone. These photos are just of the rough surface, taken just submerged which reduces the surface bumpiness and allows better contrast (much better than just wetting it). I think I've managed to identify the two(?) types shown here though I'm very happy to be corrected! There are many more in there and I'm going to cut and polish some of it. Great Limestone, Pendleian, upper Mississippian. Weardale, Co. Durham, England. Scale in mm. (The first Endothyranopsis is at the top near the rule, and another is halfway between the 10 and the rock edge. See blowups below.) ?Endothyranopsis sp. The white blob to the left of the obvious specimen may be the same species seen at right angles to it. Palaeotextulariid - I looked at a few genera of these and they're hard to distinguish from each other in a random section. More palaeotextulariids - at least two specimens Another ?Endothyranopsis sp. (actually on the reverse of the rock). General view - it might be zoomable to see various forams and bits - this is how I was looking for them and it seemed to be easier than with my x20 binocular microscope. Some good burrows showing up as well, especially in the bottom half. Finally, a view under water of the brachiopod - shows some quite jazzy calcite around the brachidium. I'm not sure if there's more than one loop here or just crystals growing out from a loop axis. Sparry calcite in the middle.

I found a new place to fossil hunt and it has many more fossils then the normal places I go. Lots and lots of coral, brachiopods, cephalopods, and crystallization. It honestly looks like a coral reef of some kind. I live in middle Tennessee and it's mostly Mississippian and ordovician in my area but there are some areas of Silurian-Devonian. I found this fossil first and thought it was some sort of larger cephalopod, but there were some strange things about it and I started to change my mind. It is a torpedo shaped fossil with crystallization. I will start with the pattern pictures first to show you what I mean and then I will post a picture of the whole thing with a size reference. There are spots distributed around it but they seem to be symmetrical on both "sides," some are clearer than others. There are scalloped edges on the "bottom" of it. There is also an upside down shaped V at the "front-bottom" of it that I think looks kind of like a fish jaw. I do realize that if this is a fish it is very rare for this time period, especially in this sort of shape. If you do believe it is a deteriorated cephalopod, if you could just explain the V shape and the spots, that would help me see it as well. Thanks

So far the dimensions of what's showing is 15.2mmx6mmx1.5mm & it's starting to curve back into the rock. With no sign of the end yet. I'm taking my time & investigating the piece after every couple scrapes. Whatever it is, it's not as hard as the surrounding material. I'm going to wait till I get a response before I do anymore. Just in case any of you think I should turn it over to a professional so I don't screw up whatever it is.

Hello everyone I have this strange little Brachiopod which i know nothing about. Its about just over 3/8th In. I don't know were its from, i got it from someone Can anyone tell me a possible ID and if it looks from a particular area. Is it Mississippian? Thank you

I have been working with Mississippian age nautiloids in Kentucky for the past 40 years. Years ago I found two very complete specimens in the Nancy Member of the Borden Formation in a creek east of Morehead, Kentucky. The one was a small but very complete Orthoconic nautiloid of the genus Michelinoceras sp. which is commonly found in that area. The other was found very close to the other and at the time I thought it was another Michelinoceras sp. Recently I was looking at it and saw the shape was much different. Michelinoceras is very conical and the shape is very round to slightly oval with the Siphuncle in the center. The unknown specimen is also orthoconic and shows the living chamber and upper shell is just lightly oval similar to Michelinoceras sp. but the end of the shell thins on the sides to the shape of a Baculite shape. The specimen is highly replaced with calcite and the siphuncle is hard too determine. What may be the siphuncle is located at the upper part of what I think is the venter. If I am correct it would be a Bactritida type of nautiloid that were common in the Devonian. I have researched the treatise as well as many papers on Mississippian age cephalopods I can find. I am hoping someone may have ran across a similar specimen. The first and second picture is of the Michelinoceras sp. specimen. Approx. 4 inches long and typical Michelinoceras specimens. The rest of the picture are of the unknown specimen, the red circle is the area where I believe the siphuncle is located.

Here is a post prep picture of Platycrinites found on a early July fossil hunt in SE Iowa (see previous trip report). These crinoids have a columnar stem with a twisted pattern, making them very interesting. My daughter can't look at it without thinking tapeworm. I have to somewhat agree but still see the beauty in this crinoid!!

Found these yesterday. Getting them out of the rock was a job. I was wore out afterward. https://imgur.com/a/wWGIEst I believe they are Phanocrinus.

Buried in Stone: Shores of area lakes, rivers ideal for digging up fossils By Brian D. King, Tahlequah Daily, Oklahoma Yours, Paul H.

Tammy and I made our first post-pandemic roadtrip and we went to Chicago to see family. Decided to drive as I was not yet comfortable with airports and airplanes. I had hoped to visit a site in southern Illinois where blastoids used to be plentiful and easy to find. Sadly, that site was mistreated and is no longer available. Members here on the forum suggested several alternatives which should produce the blastoids that I longed to hunt for. We found that the large (and well known) roadcut just north of Sulphur, Indiana was along the route (kind of) on our return trip and so it was added to the itinerary. We drove down from a last lunch in Chicago's Chinatown and crossed Indiana to check into a hotel in a small town just west of Louisville, Kentucky. The plan was to drive west to visit this Chesterian (Late Mississippian) site and see what we could find. We got up early, refueled, and had a quick breakfast since we planned on returning to the hotel and cleaning-up before the 11am checkout time. The morning proved to be much more overcast than the preceding evening. Things weren't looking promising as we were getting out to the site. You can see in the photos that the sky did not show promise of cooperating with us and the pelting rain along the highway was less than encouraging. The rain had slowed to a light drizzle and we arrived at the roadcut which provided nice wide shoulders to pull off the road a safe distance. Tammy decided she'd let me do the scouting and see if it was worth leaving the dry warmth of the car and so she stayed behind with her tablet to entertain her while I made good use of my raincoat. It took a while to find a good access point to climb up the first and lowest wall of this stepped roadcut. I walked most of the way down the road only to see the wall get taller and less accessible. I crossed over the road and walked back the way I had come till I found an opening. The rock face would have been easier to scale had it not all become quite slick from the rain. Once up on the first terrace level I walked along till I spotted a means of climbing up another level. I was headed up to the loose talus slope between the second and third levels. Along the way I spotted what I believe might be the Eastern Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina)--the shell patterns seem to be quite variable on this species but I'm sure @Tidgy's Dad could confirm or refute. When I finally started seeing crinoid stem segments and a number of small rugose corals I knew I had found the level I was looking for. It didn't take too long to spot the first blastoid looking like a pentagonally symmetrical marble. Most of the little Pentremites sp. blastoids were in the pea to garbanzo size range. Many of them were loose but a few were still attached to a chunk of the matrix. I spotted a little piece of the matrix that looked to be peppered with a bunch of semi-articulated plates from what I'm guessing is a crinoid calyx. This needs further inspection with the aid of some magnification. I took some in situ shots of my finds as I figured I'd probably write a post on this site. I selected a number of the nicer finds and upon review of the images I noticed that had missed things that I could clearly see in the images. I was so focused on developing the blastoid search image (rounded items with the pentagonally V-notched edge on the top) that I forgot that the Archimedes screw shaped bryozoans were also here. You can clearly see an Archimedes screw bryozoan actually touching the blastoid I picked up--talk about tunnel vision. https://www.uky.edu/KGS/fossils/fossil-month-09-2018-Archimedes.php The clouds were starting to break up and a little increase in light levels was welcome to aid the search. I could just barely see the car where Tammy was through the dense trees that cover this roadcut. I had tried to call her to let her know I hadn't fallen on my noggin yet but our cell phone reception was pretty poor here. Made a mental note to bring along some inexpensive walkie-talkie radios if we ever find ourselves split up and trying to communicate where cell phone coverage is poor. The rain had made the clay on the talus slope very soft and slippery. I spent a lot of time with multiple points of contact to the ground--holding on with both hands usually to avoid possibly losing my footing. Having my head held close to the ground in order to see the small blastoids obviously works better if you scan the area slowly. I knew I had limited time here and was searching somewhat quickly but I'm surprised that I missed this second blastoid just a hand-width away from the one on top that I did collect. It's also quite obvious (now) that I missed this other Archimedes that is nearly touching the blastoid underneath. At least I was getting pretty good at spotting even the tiniest of the blastoid specimens. I found a larger blastoid that had been flattened a bit and I spotted the first brachiopod. It was odd to see the brachiopods being so relatively rare as they were always so common at the few Devonian sites I'd hunted. I finally remembered that there were Archimedes at this site but only after I spotted this one. There is no telling how many more I missed. My time was running out and I was looking for one last find of the day before quitting and then trying to find a path back down (you never remember the path up as it looks different from above). Going down is usually more dangerous than up and so I spent extra effort looking for descents that wouldn't land me in the ER. Happily, the last find of the day was one of the largest of the blastoids. That seemed to put a cap on this 45 minute excursion into the Mississippian (my first fossil hunt from this geologic age). From up on top you can see the interchange with route 64 heading back to Lexington which is the route we took to arrive later that day in Asheville, North Carolina to visit friends we haven't see in 2 years. It was a fun little excursion and signs that a longer hunt would be even more productive. The fossil-bearing layer is about 2/3 the way up to the top of the slope. I spotted some better access points on the way back down and if I ever get back to this locality I hope to explore with with many more hours of time to dedicate to the hunt. Cheers. -Ken

One of the rock clubs I belong to decided to go on a geode hunt near Keokuk, Iowa. Our private hunting area was not accessible due to flash flooding that previous evening, so we went to another dig site. A good 20 inches of goopy muck unfortunately overlayed the rock that contained the geodes. So I was hot and exhausted by the time bedrock was found. For fear of heat exhaustion, I quit at about 3/4ths of a bucket full. I will take these to the children's fossil pit for the kids to "find". Here is what the collecting site looked like., a split slab showing some geodes surrounded by MUD! With geodes in hand, or at least in the back of my truck, off I went to collect some Burlington Limestone that contained fish teeth. Permission was granted from a quarry known to expose the layer needed. Once the correct "pile" was located, I quickly put about 50 pounds of matrix containing the teeth in with the geodes. This matrix will painstakingly be broken down this winter in order to extract the teeth. Here is some of the material collected showing how rich the rock is in fish pieces. All of the black specks are fish remnants. While loading the truck, mother nature was beginning to expose a mayfly hatch. No mayflies were present when I arrived, but a short time later, the hatch began. I had multiple routes available to take home and decided on one that took me through some Pennsylvanian strata. This would be new territory and hopefully interesting material for me to explore. An old mining operation near Oskaloosa, Iowa was converted into the Russell Wildlife Refuge. There are 5 mine pits on the property exposing the mississippian Pella Formation. I chose this site because it contains blastoids. Unfortunately, the blastoids evaded me. But plenty of new fossils were found!!!!!!!! Brachiopods were the predominant fossil found, but some bivalves, crinoids, gastropods, and bryozoans showed up. Brachiopod ID was difficult due to the lack of much information. I tried my best and am open to changing the identity of anything labeled or adding a name to the unknowns. The rugosa coral has a beautiful appearance and is know for the protrusions on its surface. Most fossils found needed very little cleaning and are presented as shown like these corals. All fossils found are on the small side, That is why this burrow surprised me. I wonder what "large" animal existed in this environment. I have always had an affinity for epibionts. And they were plentiful here! As mentioned earlier, this site is known for blastoids. But the other unique feature is the presence of crinoid stems with bryozoan epibionts. This was a fun spot to hunt and recommend it for a great variety of Pennsylvanian fossils!!! Mike

As a late Father's Day gift and early Birthday present (I turn 39 tomorrow ) I spent 4 hours Saturday morning in the Glen Dean Limestone. A Carboniferous (Mississippian) formation. As usual, I was channeling my inner mountain goat and scrambling around a Central Kentucky roadcut. As I pulled up to the road cut my heart sank. Grass had grown on the exposure. If memory serves, the last time I was here was in the middle of September of last year and the exposure was bare. Most finds are small so I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find much. Luckily my fear and apprehension was unfounded. As a side note... I wasn't intending to use a screw driver for scale, but you will see the tip of one in multiple pictures. I was using it as a way to mark where the fossil was while digging my phone out of my pocket, but since it is there I will tell you that it is 5mm wide to give a little perspective. With the finds being on the small side, and surface collecting the norm, these were my weapons of choice. A collecting bag of some sort is preferred here over my usual plastic container. It's been my experience that the bag conforms to the slope better and tends to roll up on itself should it start to tumble down the hill side preventing its contents from spilling out. Below is a typical section of ground here. It is littered with bryozoan and crinoid stem fragments. I knew the day was going to be good when my first find was this very long example of Archimedes sp. I'd estimate it to be about 7 inches (nearly 18cm) long. In an exposure that is notorious for broken and flattened fossils, this was a real treat. Unfortunately it was in a rock that was too thick and wide to chisel it out of. I'm fairly certain my chisel and hammer would have worn out long before the rock did. Horn coral are always nice to find. Especially these, which are some of my favorite. Zaphretites spinulosum. Another favorite find from this exposure is crinoid cups. There are multiple species of crinoid here. Crinoid calyx cups are on the uncommon to rare side of finds, but I made out like a champ with crinoids on this trip. Stick around to see some of my rarer finds of the day. Echinoderms are probably my favorite type of fossil to find, and so crinoid cups are great, but my absolute favorite thing to find here is blastoids. Pentremites is the genus to be found. There are several species known from the Glen Dean. That is it for the field pictures. Next up are a few pictures of finds taken after I got home. Horn coral (Zaphretites spinulosum) Calyx cups from various species of crinoid. Blastoids! All are species of Pentremites. The ones on the left are massive for the formation, and rare. Although they are preserved in the typical fashion, crushed and deflated. The middle are more common and are typical size and preservation. The ones on the right are typical size, but are inflated. Pardon the fingers, but it was the best way I could find to get a clear picture of this particular blastoid. I wanted to show the preservation detail. Lovely. Extra long crinoid stems that I grabbed. An line up of brachiopods found here. The last three on the right are typical of the preservation. Just like anything else here they are deflated and crushed. The middle two are new to me species and were found at the transition layer from shale to limestone. The three on the left are preserved in a rare fashion being that they are inflated. Close ups to follow. Again, pardon the man hands. And finally these next few pictures are of the rarest of my finds from this formation to date. These are small gastropods. I still need to research an ID, but @Jeffrey P told me about these when we hunted the location last year and mentioned them as being very rare for the exposure. We only found a couple of broken fragments between the two of us after hunting for 6 hours or so. I found 5 complete ones this time around. Next up is a crinoid cup that has plates attached. I also found a grouping of crinoid arms. These do not go together and were found far apart. Not quite a complete calyx, but maybe next time. That concludes my report. It was a good turn around to a slow fossil year for me. I added many new and rare (for this exposure) things to the collection. I couldn't have asked for a better Father's Day/early Birthday present! Thanks for looking. Edit: I almost forgot the rarest of the rare! I have never read about trilobites being described from this formation and have never seen any other than this tiny pygidium. A small (4mm), but extremely rare (and possibly undescribed) find.

When I break open brachiopod packstones from South Haven (MI), I usually find three types of tiny to small fragile brachiopod shells more often than any others. These are from the Mississippian Coldwater Shale formation. I’ve been having a private discussion with a fellow forum member, and we’ve come to the conclusion that these are likely all from the same brachiopod. The largest shell in the first photo always bows inward. The shell in the second photo always bows outward. We suspect those are opposite sides of the same half because of the V on the one side and the indent on the other. The shell in last photo is more flat than the other two. And, after reviewing my rather extensive collection of these specimens today, I can verify that the shell from the first photo can be found with similar growth rings akin to the ones in the last photo. The problem is, the farthest we seek to be able to take the ID is a chonetide. It looks similar to a European species called Tornquistia. Does anyone here have any other ideas?

Fossil found in Sierra County New Mexico in a wash located in the Monticello Canyon. Geological determination for this area is documented as Cretaceous - Mississippian. We have found horn coral and some type of sea sediment rock in the wash. Would like to have an opinion on this fossil embedded in rock.

After cracking open this packstone, I happened upon this odd little fossil. I did a bit more excavating to uncover the extra lobe. So far, the speculation is leaning heavily toward some sort of Actinocrinites plate. There are a few people pondering echinoderms. What are the general thoughts here on this piece? From South Haven, Michigan. Mississippian Coldwater Shale.

So many different ideas have been tossed out for this piece now. I thought perhaps some folks who aren’t in the Facebook group I regularly post in might have some clue to be able to narrow this down. The tan-colored half seems to be two layers of diagonal lines stacked on top of one another in a crisscross pattern, creating the holes in between. This is another Mississippian Coldwater Shale packstone from South Haven, MI.

Hi, I am in search of Plate 8 from the following paper. Yes, the paper is published online at Biodiversity Heritage Library, but both Plate 8 and its accompanying "Explanation" (i.e., captions) page are unfortunately missing from the online edition. Please post a scan if you have easy access to Plate 8 from this paper, thanks. Driscoll, E. G. 1965. Dimyarian Pelecypods of the Mississippian Marshall Sandstone of Michigan. Palaeontographica Americana, No. 35.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what makes this sort of pattern? The opposite side was just a plain, smooth clay deposit. Found this Coldwater Shale piece in South Haven, Michigan, along the shores of Lake Michigan. I did have someone suggest Fenestate bryozoan. When I tried looking it up though, I found a ton of variants.