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There are several fossils (or what I assume to be fossils) behind my home, on wall of rock along the shoreline. Not sure if they're anything or nothing. My daughter and I have been looking at them for years. These are just a few random photos. New Foundland, Bay of Islands, Canada. Apologies if I didn't go about this in the correct manner, and feel free to tell me so. Rj

We recently found these brachiopods and I was wondering if anyone is able to provide any more information about who they are. They were collected on the Western cost of Newfoundland and they are early to middle ordovician in age. If you have any other questions regarding the fossils let me know and I will do my best to answer. Anything would help, thanks!

Fossil discovery in Upper Island Cove, Newfoundland, features specimens that are 'completely new to science' SaltWire Network, Newfoundland, June 9, 2023 An open access paper is: Narbonne, G.M., Laflamme, M., Greentree, C. and Trusler, P., 2009. Reconstructing a lost world: Ediacaran rangeomorphs from Spaniard's Bay, Newfoundland. Journal of Paleontology, 83(4), pp.503-523. Yours, Paul H.

I have been working on my undergraduate thesis for a little town called Cow Head in Newfoundland, Canada. This area is a part of the Cow Head group, specifically the Stearing Island beds, making it Lower Ordovician. I'm asking about the little circular guy in the top right. If anyone has any idea what it may be (if it even is a fossil) that would be great, any help would be greatly appreciated! I would love to credit you in our paper if you'd like! I attached images of the thin section in both plane polarized and cross polarized light. Thank you!

Hi all, I haven’t been here in a while, but I still wanted to share some fantastic finds from this summer. As soon as I returned from Newfoundland, I hit the ground running, and now I finally have a chance to relax with a hectic semester coming to a close. For some background, my undergraduate thesis looks at the structures and stratigraphy of a small peninsula off the western coast of Newfoundland called Cow Head. On our long trek up there, we stopped at Green Point, a global geologic benchmark for the boundary between the Cambrian and Ordovician. The geologic features here were unmatched. After our time in Green Point, we drove to Cow Head and quickly began conducting our research. Part of the fieldwork on the stratigraphy side included fossil hunting. Cow Head was full of different fossils, including graptolites, brachiopods, gastropods, and even trilobites. Unfortunately, like the trilobites in Pennsylvania, these too have eluded me. I did, however, find a copious amount of graptolites and even two gastropods! The graptolites included species such as Monograptus, Didymograptus, Phyllograptus, and the Dictyonema. There was none more important than the Tetragraptus Approximatus. This little guy is Floian in age, found within the Ordovician Period, and you can only see this fossil in Ordovician rocks. This made finding it crucial because the Cambrian/Ordovician boundary has been questionable on the peninsula for quite some time. If we saw Tetragraptus, we knew precisely what age of rock we were working in and could even possibly pinpoint the contact with further interpretation of other data collected. (Tetragraptus is the guy that looks like " >< " it is a little small, so you'll have to bare with me) Other fossils found were not nearly as important but just as exciting to discover. A common fossil that we saw often was the Monograptus; fun fact, Monograptus was one of the last stages of graptoloid evolution before their inevitable extinction. Monograptus is known for its single, uniserial stipes with intricate thecae. Another graptolite we saw was the Dictyonema, which can be seen in the image below on the lower portion of the rock. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find an outstanding samples of the Dictyonema. Maybe that will be a mini goal when I return this summer. Moving on from the graptolites to the gastropods, there is something exciting about these fossils. At the time of deposition, Cow Head was on the shelf edge of the Iapetus Ocean, which is why we see the laminated shale and limestone beds. Since it was on the shelf edge, there were a lot of clastic flows that produced the conglomerates that we see today. The complicated thing about these gastropods is that they were found within a conglomerate, just like where the trilobites have been seen. That implies that the gastropods and trilobites are not in their original locality of deposition and that they began to fossilize before being deposited in a clastic flow. The left gastropod is a little harder to see than the right one, but they are still impeccable finds on the peninsula nonetheless. We will collect them this upcoming summer and bring them back for further analysis. (Yes, they are still up there. It was a hefty rock in the thick of the peninsula.) I managed to find a nice sample with a bunch of Phyllograptus. The only issue was it was a large sample, and it couldn’t fit in our bags (it was an hour into fieldwork, so we didn’t want to carry it all day), so we broke it up and will be gluing it back together soon. This is what happens when you’re doing a geologic project with three other geologist, and you’re the only one who cares about fossils! The last possible fossil I would like to mention is this (image below, referring to a dark object in the middle of the rock). I am stumped to identify it, I have done reading and haven’t been able to figure it out, and I don’t even know what we did with it! I will have to check my lab as soon as possible because I forgot this guy existed. I would love to get the dimensions to anyone who may have an idea… if it is even a fossil. Any insight is greatly appreciated! The figure below is a diagram showcasing all the graptolites that can be seen in the area. It is difficult to capture a good enough image, so diagrams are very helpful for untrained eyes. Those were all the fossils I managed to find during my time on Cow Head. There is still a long way to go with my thesis work, so if anyone is interested in how it’s going, please reach out! I would love to discuss it with anyone interested! I will be returning to Cow Head and exploring more of Newfoundland this upcoming summer, there are some remarkable fossils to be seen, and I am super excited to share them with you! Thank you for taking the time to read this hefty post, I hope you enjoyed it! I have one more planned for my time out in North Dakota and that’ll be the end of my novels as posts. Happy Fossil Hunting, Dawson

Below is a wonderful lecture about the Ediacaran Avalon biota. The Ediacaran Avalon biota: New insights from old fossils Alex G. Liu, University of Cambridge, September 16, 2021 This lecture is a part of Virtual Seminars in Precambrian Geology List of Publications Yorus, Paul H.

500 million-year-old fossil is the granddaddy of all cephalopods By Laura Geggel, Live Science, March 29, 2021 Cephalopods: Older Than was thought? Press Release No. 24/2021, Heidelberg University, March 23, 2021 The open access paper is: Hildenbrand, A., Austermann, G., Fuchs, D., Bengtson, P. and Stinnesbeck, W., 2021. A potential cephalopod from the early Cambrian of eastern Newfoundland, Canada. Communications Biology, 4(1), pp.1-11. open access Yours, Paul H.

Hello all, I am a new member here and haven’t searched for fossils for 50 years, when I was 14 years old living in upstate New York. Currently on a trip to Newfoundland with my wife while visiting a friend in Harcourt, NL just 15 miles East of Clarenville I started digging and opening shale rocks in his backyard. I found a few smaller items that were non identifiable fossils but when I opened this one I knew immediately from my teenage years it was a trilobite but after googling I soon discovered there are many many varieties and periods which led me to this forum. I’m thinking this will be an easy one for many of you and save me Many hours of questions. Hope my images come through ok as ok as we are still on the road and I’m doing this with my phone and iPad. Thanks in advance for your help. Rick location found: Harcourt, NL approximately 500 feet from Smith’s Sound Its 2” in length if I don’t get the image with tape Measure loaded aqua blue shale

CBC News: Trilobite fossil gifted back to Manuels River, decades after its discovery: LINK