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The Whiteside museum in Seymour Texas recently held their first ever "Permian Fest" event, part of which included 3 days of presentations by many guest lecturers. I was fortunate enough to have a seat literally, in front of Dr. Bakker. Since I was about 4 - 5 feet away from Dr. Bakker for the lecture, so I couldn't pass the opportunity to record it. I wish I could have recorded his presentation the day before, but the auditorium was packed with school kids and I didnt have a clear view of the presenters or the screen.

There is a tiny town in Texas called Seymour. It has two stoplights. It's tiny. But there is a museum there - the Whiteside Museum of Natural History which is primarily dedicated to Permian Era fossils because there are the famous Red Beds very nearby, of which this museum has access to. So they put together the inaugural Permian Fest held last weekend. Not only did they have digs and auctions and fancy fund-raising dinner, but some of the best paleontologists from around the US gave presentations. I got to meet Carl Mehling, Jimmy Waldron and the infamous Dr Robert Bakker as well as some other amazing people! There were book signings, a bake sale (got a blueberry pie!), paleontological origami and of course...vendors! I had my little set up (8 tables worth!!) of tshirts, artwork, fossil art and more. It was quite the weekend. But of course, I did a little fossil hunting on the way up and back! Permian Fest: Me and Dr. Robert Bakker (my mom worked at the Peabody Museum at Yale when I was in utero and she worked with Dr .Bakkers first wife - so I "sort of" met him a long time ago....hahahah) a few of the displays from the Whiteside: My favorite! The Diplocaulus! My second favorite - Edaphosaurus and of course, a Dimetrodon So I found myself a couple of Permian roadcuts to check out - none are vertebrate sites, all were marine invertebrates, but I had not collected any marine Permian stuff, so I was happy to add it to my collection. An interesting bryozoan cluster corals and crinoids I'm assuming this is Lophophylidium coral. I am not at all familiar with Permian stuff and am assuming that much of this is the same as the Texas Pennsylvanian fauna A few other nice things: Brachiopod Crinoid I'm always happy when I find some Echinoid stuff . another brachiopod One of the roadcuts had amazing hash plates....full of bryozoans and such. But my final stop yielded my best fossil find....not Permian, but back to my familiar Cretaceous stomping grounds! My biggest and best preserved Leptosalenia mexicana from the Walnut Formation.

Hello! This is a long shot and will probably read more like a Craigslist "missed connections" ad, but I figured it was worth a shot! My husband and I were on a road cut looking for fossils today (Feb 27) between Randlett and Waurika, Oklahoma. A group stopped and asked if we were fossiling and we all ended up having a great chat. Y'all had come from the Whiteside Museum of Natural History Permian Fest and were headed further south into Texas. I believe y'all were associated with the American Museum of Natural History... we didn't exchange names (why?? haha) but y'all pointed us to a fossil hunting site and put it into my husbands map. We never found it! So if by some miracle one of you see this, we would love to try and find the place again. Thank you for the directions (even though we clearly didn't follow them) and for looking at some of our finds and sharing some of yours!

Hi all, I'm fairly confident that this is what it was describes as, but I just wanted to make sure. It was found in a fossil site in Oklahoma that was formed during a large drought.

Age: Permian formation: hermit shale of the mogollon rim location: Sedona, AZ Hey all, Was bouncing back and forth from fossil hunting trips and fossil ID but since I’m quite inexperienced with this area and age group I decided to post here. Took a trip out to Phoenix with my family and drove to Sedona for the day. I did some reading on the geology of the mogollon rim and targeted the red shale beds of the hermit formation exposed all over Sedona and nearby Oak Creek (big thanks to @Arizona Chris for his wonderfully informative site on the geologic history of the mogollon rim and also to @DPS Ammonite for his destination suggestions for my trip). I searched a couple locations, both on the main road into Sedona and found some interesting things. In the first site: Possible footprint? Not at all sure. Really unfamiliar with the fauna of this age but it looks like it could’ve been a weathered footprint due to the coloration and the position on the smooth flat surface of the shale. Apologies for the lack of scaling and perspective, I did not bring many tools with me on this trip. Also saw lots of these pretty pockets of crystals in the shales. Further down the road, I spent more time searching and came up with this: Looks to me like a lot of woody debris drag marks and a really nice preservation of mud cracks. Looking forward to hearing others’ insight on this and if I missed anything on these rocks. Not the most prolific/incredible finds, but for an off-the-cuff fossil hunt put together in my hotel room, I’m pleased with the results. I’ve never found mud cracks before. Plus, the Sedona scenery is a real treat in itself. Didn’t take any of these pieces home since I’ll be flying back soon but I have some alternate photos if needed, apologies again for the lack of scaling. Thanks y’all!

Howdy folks, I found this fossil in the West TX Permian Basin near the town on Mertzon in Irion County, USA. It looks to be in a limey fine sandstone (possibly a very poor quality chert) and I found it in a dry riverbed. The little spikes easily seen in the profile picture of it are also present in the larger more amorphous mass but are harder to see. It is definitely a Permian aged invertebrate marine fossil, but I don't know from there. Any help would be appreciated.

Hey again everyone! I have a LOT of overdue trip reports, experiences, and finds I’d love to share. Ive been busy traveling around Texas exploring and having the best outdoor fun before I buckle down and start my academic journey. I want to start off saying Happy Holidays and Happy New Years to everyone here! I will never forget anyone who has been kind to helped me, especially this year, and I wish everyone only the best. I literally mean it! Some of you remembered me from years ago and scrambled to help me like a guardian angel- I’ll make you guys proud someday. These adventures are me trying and improving- handling life the BEST I can and spending time outdoors. This year for me has been… insane. Some of you already know this, if not long story short, only months ago I found out I was diagnosed with a serious and legitimate trauma-related amnesia where I lost most of my memory from a set of years which unfortunately included most paleontology related things I knew and did & any trace of my blossoming paleontology career when I was 17/18 years old when I even had a science job. During the pandemic I started remembering random terms & latin names, instinctively and luckily found my way back here but at that time only for collecting. It wasn’t until late summer this year I remembered who I actually was, what I wanted to DO and WHY I moved to Texas. The shock was… very intense. I have made phenomenal progress processing & accepting… having to relearn so much and move forward. The progress I’ve made in only months takes a lot of patients years to reach to my point of mental healing and I’m proud. I really believe if I keep at it I’ll catch up to my peers academically AND become closer to the person I used to be, become who I should have been by now. I’m even ready to relearn how to drive again so I can go on more adventures with other future paleontologists! This post is me trying my hardest and even seeing new things. My roommate is helping me study both for paleo-memory related things & for my placement test. Late in November I decided to join DPS! What better way to re-learn and meet people than to join a club. We went out on a private trip to the OK border and I instantly found a giant Eopachydiscus and a few other ammonites including multiple Mortoniceras & a baby Oxytropidoceras. Im actually working on a personal research paper for the giant ammonite- for FUN! I want to be able to publish this ammonite’s story someday- there appears to possibly be deep predatory teeth marks on one side of the “shell” and I want to know more about my prehistoric friend. That day was extremely important because I met Roger F. for the first time- the gentleman who co-wrote my TX Cretaceous shark book! He’s one of my favorite people now to talk to since we both love prehistoric sharks. I was SO flattered I was mentioned heavily in the December paleo newsletter for my recent finds- it’s reassurance that others see I already made significant progress! MORE PICTURES! In-situ too! Next adventure, I wanted to take a weekend off to explore the Red Beds of northwest Texas in early December! I went to the Seymour Whiteside museum and to try to find my own Permian freshwater shark Orthacanthus teeth! I came out here to also see an artist friend but I also accidentally met one of my female paleontologist heros, legendary Holly Simon, and she presented me with an Otodus meg. shark tooth- wished me luck on my paleontology career. I wasn’t prepared! While Mesozoic marine vertebrates are my career-goal focus I thought it would be fun to get my nails ruined in that red Permian soil and learn about other animals- especially Xenocanthids! The Diplocaulus on display were adorable. Ya’ll should definitely visit the Whiteside Museum of Natural history! MORE PICS Excited to get my own hands dirty and 3 hotel muffins later- we drove waaay out across Archer & Navarro formations to find a good public exposure. Some great nature shots! I found a giant centipede exo which I took home! I found an excellent exposure which we actually used a Permian lithography map of a formations in Utah (same age!) to help locate a layer where the teeth could be! (Successful btw!) I saw what I needed and scooped up some of this gravely stuff the rain washed out in a baggie for later. I surfaced picked a tiny microfossil fish tooth (?) and later when I got home- MY PRIZE! Tiny little Orthacanthus microfossil! When we were actually there we tried looking through the gunk and wet sieving it in the creek with no luck of a larger tooth. We were also very close to Wellington Formation in OK and another day took a trip out there. That drive was wild because we drove through a park for a picnic area that had like 15 wild turkeys appear out of nowhere running around and they were even falling out of the trees over us! It happened so fast… I couldn’t react to take a photo but I have an IG vid of it. We drove around EVERYWHERE in search of a famous pond- now super closed to the public btw. I eventually found out where it was and we got as close as we could in the “creek” off the roadside without actually potentially trespassing. I lucked and found the TINIEST gravely spot in the “creek”of what I was looking for, crossing my fingers, scooped a baggie for home. SUCCEESS AGAIN! Two more teeth and wow different color than my Texas one! I still have most of the bag to sift through! We drove alll that way. For micro freshwater shark teeth. xD MORE PICS TO BE CONTINUED- Reached photo MB limit

Hi there everyone! Ive got a tricky one today. I came across this listing for a “Trimerorhachis fossil” and I was wondering If y’all would be able to help me properly identify the specimen and possibly identify from what part of the body it comes from. The seller specifies that it was found in the Ryan Formation near Waurika, Oklahoma and claims that the bones belong to a member of the family Trimerorhachidae. Permian fossils are personally some of my favorites, but I’m not completely able to distinguish what this fossil could be. My only guess is that it could be part of the frontal/nostril area of the skull seeing as there’s a cavity at the front and that the eye sockets of the skull point upwards and not forward, but I’m not entirely sure. I’d greatly appreciate any guesses as to what exactly this specimen may be!

Hello, I have a whole bunch of unidentified crinoids I'd like some help identifying. From my guess on the species and the fact that there were all together (as well as the other specimens that came with it), my guess is that these are Pennsylvanian or Permian-aged crinoids from Texas or Kansas. I'm hoping narrowing down the ID would better pinpoint the provenance for them. Here goes. The calyxes all range from 1-2 cm wide. I did attempt to ID them, using resources including this by the forum's @Missourian: #1-#4 I think are all of the same species or at least genus. I'm inclined to say either Delocrinus or Graffhamicrinus, which are similar-looking genuses. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. This one is a bit unusual in that it seems to have some arm bits preserved, which look like thick spikes. It's a bit crushed but I think based on the calyx pattern it could still be a Delocrinus or Graffhamicrinus. 6. This one has a basal plate pattern like Delocrinus or Graffhamicrinus, but has unusual spines coming off of the radial plates. The following 3 specimens (#7-9) look similar to the above calyxes, but I noticed they somehow seem more globular and rounded. They may be the same genus/species and just variants, or a different genus/species. For instance, if the above are Delocrinus, perhaps these are Graffhamicrinus? 7. 8. 9. The following four (#10-13) are clearly different from the above. Each has a clear infrabasal circlet and stem attachment, plus the calyx expands towards the top, which gives it a more cone-like appearance. These may be Bathronocrinus according to this: http://inyo2.coffeecup.com/kansasfossils/crinoids2.html 10. 11. 12. This one has some proximal arm bits still attached. 13. This next one has very bulbous/swollen calyx plates, which are especially noticeable from the side view. Perhaps a Galateacrinus according to Missourian's diagram? 14. 15. The plate structure is harder to tell on this one, but it has slightly swollen basal plates that form dimples/notches where they meet the radial plates. This is clear on the side profile. I honestly have no idea what this one could be. 16. This one has no plating texture, and I'm thinking it looks like the basal plate of the floating crinoid known as Paragassiocrinus, which is known from Texas. If so, and it is specific to Texas, perhaps I can attribute all these specimens to the Pennsylvanian of Texas as well. 17. An odd specimen, might be a set of basal plates. 18. This seems to be a stem and basal plates. 19. These seem like spines from the anal tube or "umbrella" of a crinoid such as Plaxocrinus (https://www.google.com/search?q=plaxocrinus&sxsrf=ALiCzsbwpZnGPNxgLHUJ4758h1D4GTNkKQ:1669188769957&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjM5sjd5MP7AhWmKkQIHb3vAIkQ_AUoAXoECAEQAw&biw=1257&bih=764&dpr=2#imgrc=atyg4qzOxLWjRM). 20. I'm unsure if this is from a crinoid, but it might be part of a spine. 21. This one I placed separately because the color of the calyx and matrix are different from all the rest, and so it may be from a different locality. Species-wise it looks similar to the first 9 specimens I posted, so it may be a Delocrinus or Graffhamicrinus.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-04132-y enjoy....