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Hey guys!!! We took a trip to the Buffalo area for a night and drove to a Silurian age spot that I've never been to before, prior to heading back... So I know I have a trilo-butt near the circled area, but I'm wondering the the circled fossil is trilo as well? Figuring shell but wanted to check. I know the second picture isn't that clear but the larger black area I thought someone may recognize as something? Probably a long shot... lol It just looks a bit different from what I have seen so far. Thanks in advance!

Today we had a fieldtrip organised by our local paleontology club to one of the quarries of Soignies in Belgium. Here they exploit the dense limestone full with crinoid particles. Althought the weather forcast predicted rain, we had a very beautyful and dry day Natalie made her best find after 10 minutes in the quarry, she spotted a huge Helodus sp. tooth in the rubble. the rest of the prospection that day delivered a few trilobite parts, isolated pygidiums and cephalons for us, but a few lucky collectors did fint complete specimens. We had also the oportunity to meet an other TFF member @gigantoraptor

Hey all! I was looking for a bit of advice on the best way for me to clean up this Eldredgeops rana that I found in Paulding, Ohio just yesterday. Had to knock it out of a larger chunk of shale and luckily it came out clean. It is an inch across both ways. The only issue is there is still some shale in between the thorax segments, on the eyes and glabella, and covering what I am hoping to be a squished pygidium (fingers crossed). I have got some dental picks that I have used before but that's all I have as I can't afford any blasters of air scribes. I am just a bit nervous about using the picks on this piece as I do not want to damage it or scratch the fossil itself. Would soaking in vinegar help at all? Regards, Connor

Hello all. I just wanted some advice on this drotops megalomanicus that I am considering adding to my collection. How is the prep work on it? It is 4.25 inches, which I thought was large. Would you go for it if you were me?

Hi! I am new to this forum and really new to this hobby. I have a newbie somehow silly question, so correct me if I am wrong, but a fossil of a trilobite is the exoskeleton that was permineralized, so anything organic on the trilobite was replaced with inorganic materials and thus the whole body was preserved through years, my question would be what about the insides of the fossil, with an exray can we see insides or there are no insides any more?

When I was cleaning up scraps of shale from my prep floor today, I saw parts of trilobites on some of the pieces of shale. The rock was collected recently and a complete Eldredgeops was removed. This shale is Middle Devonian in age and is very hard (almost like limestone). Trilobites in this layer are well preserved and 3D. The trilo parts I found were the cephalon of a small Pseudodechenella, pygidium of a Greenops, and the eye of a Dipleura. I spotted the Dipleura as just a small piece of exoskeleton in the side of the shale. I knew it was a piece of Dipleura shell, and I knew it was just a piece, but I was curious. The fossil was lying on a crack in the shale that I easily split open with a small chisel. When the eye popped out of the matrix I thought it was pretty funny and said to my girlfriend "well i'll be darned".

I am a newbe on this hobby and just got my first low grade trilobite, not something exceptional, my quastion would be is there any possibility with household items to clean it a little as it has some dirt and deposits on it? Can I put it on water? Thank you all in advance!

To celebrate the end of the semester, I decided to finally take the 2 hour trip down to the Paulding Fossil Gardens. The weather sucked as most of you in the Midwest probably noticed, but I managed to get a few hours in between storms. This made everything a bit flooded, but I wasn't too concerned.

As promised (quite a while ago, I'm sorry!) Here are photos and prep notes Start - scope is a low power model, x10 and x30. I do most of my work on x30. The needles I scrape with are in pin vises, available at most hobby stores and online. I find sewing machine needles are thicker and stronger, and work well. I do sharpen them with my wet stone when they get dull! (Be careful, it is very easy to have adjusted to using a dull needle for the past hour, sharpen it up nicely, and then press to hard, damaging the fossil!) The tuna can is for rock dust and pieces, they go to the compost pile. I heat the fossils on low heat for 5 minutes. I try to get them just hot enough that I can still touch them. I think this drives out the water, but I know from experience that it makes the fossils harder and stronger. At least in Wheeler shale. I do this at the start, every time I wash the fossils, and if I take a break longer than a week. The next step is to flip the fossil over and use my utility knife to scrap/grind off any high spots on the back. It is important that the fossil not rock back and forth while I am working on it. 1 - This is looking like a Brachyaspidion microps, Swazey Springs is thick with them! Despite the nice shield of matrix that covered the trilobite the spine at the top rear of the Cephalon has been lost. Oh well. The rest of the fossil looks to be in nice shape. I am leaving the matrix on the axial rings for last as it protects the small spines that sometimes are there. It will be the last part I clean for that reason. Note the "good" and "bad" pictures. It is always best to work with the needle pointing away from the fossil. Sometimes this is not possible, but I try to do as much work "away" as I can. I try to clean the whole fossil a little each pass, rather then trying to clean one area completely. If you are wondering what the half circle is on prep 1, I mark all my finds in the field with a circle around the fossil and an "x" on the back. It makes them much easier to find if I drop one or forget exactly where I set it down! 2 - While clearly an Agnostid trilobite I am not yet ready to id it in any way. I did not realize it till I started working but the shell has exfoliated on the parts that are exposed. Normally I would work a few areas hard to id the fossil, and toss it (OK, mostly likely it would go into a box I donate to a local school), but as I started on this little project I will finish it. 3 - It was just too weathered! I broke this one in half after about 5 minutes of work. I tried to glue it back together, but that did not work. All told I put about 30 minutes into each of the fossils that survived. I see from the picture I need to do a little more work on the Brachy!

It was that time of the month again, when I just had to scratch that fossil hunting itch. After the relative disappointment the other week in Floyd County, I decided to go ahead and pay another visit to my all-time favourite site in Chatsworth. When we got there this morning, it was obvious that the Conasauga river had greatly receded since the last time we saw it. In fact, it was the lowest it's been for more than a year (back in Feb. 2018). River on my last visit (Feb. this year): The river today: And a view from river bank: With how low the river was, I had a greater range of movement than I've had for more than a year's worth of visits to the place as a result. This also meant I had a lot more places to find Trilobites! And the Aphelaspis specimens I found were definitely worth the trip! To be continued

I purchased this trilobite fossil a while back. It was sold as Yinites sp. from the Early Cambrian Hongjingshao formation in China. I tried to both verify the genus and close in a species, but have been unable to do so. All the references to Yinites that I could find were old (circa 1940’s), and therefore I wasn’t able to find any actual literature online. Does anyone have any ideas?

I will post some photos here. These are not my best trilobites and I am limited for space, so I will probably have to let these go at some point. One reason I haven't got around to researching them yet. Still it would be good to have definitive ID. I have my own ideas but would be good to see what you guys think.

Many years ago I found this trilobite on Marble Mountain in California. It is roughly 1 cm across at it's narrowest and 2cm acrossat it's widest.. It is probably cambrian age without much detail preserved. I am unsure of what layer it came from exactly, as it was found loose as is. Any general ideas would be appreciated.

This partial cephalon was found in rip rap near a quarry that exposes the Silurian Racine Dolomite in Kankakee County, Illinois. I have seen similar examples listed on the auction site, but without IDs. Looking at older publications leads me to think it is Dalmanites, but I'm not positive, and definitely unsure what the species designation would be. Thanks for any help!

Okay so I have some questions on what you can and can't do with your typical trilobite in shale fossils. To help direct the discussion, I am interested in setting a small trilobite in silver as a gift. I make silver jewelry both using PMC (Precious Metal Clay) and traditional cutting and soldering. So, first question: Can you use high percentage (70% or higher) rubbing alcohol to clean all the dust and debris before sealing a trilobite? If not, what should I use? (I know you shouldn't use water) Question 2: What sealants can/should you use on a trilobite? I am looking for something that will be both waterproof and help prevent chipping. Question 3: Does anyone have any experience exposing them to high heat? It is common in jewelry making for heat to be involved, from both direct flame and indirect radiant heat. Is there any kind of precautions I should take and if so, what? What type of heat did you expose them to and what was the result? Different minerals act differently so remember we are talking about soft-medium shale. Question 4: Do you have any other advice or precautions you can give me regarding the use of fossil trilobites in/from shale matrix regarding their use in mixed media projects? The information I gather on this will help dictate my methods and help me create a plan for my project. There are many different ways I can do this and want to get a better idea of my options. Thanks. Picture is not of the exact trilobite to be used. It's just a reference for the kind of material/fossil I will be using.

So I just started playing with fossil prep and wanted to share what I have learned so far. I have a bunch of air tools coming in but couldn't wait to start so I started using my hand tools. I work with silver so I have quite a few. The wooden handled set is from online auction and cost under $9. The silver soldering pick I can't remember. I have 4 small Symphysops that were sent to me unprepped, 3 of which are in a softer shale. The matrix of the other one is more crystalline and too hard for hand tools. I did my homework like any good fossil lover regarding hand prep (or any prep for that matter) but found out very quickly that it's a hands on learning experience. The way the matrix rock responds to tools and the hardness of it vs. the fossil are something you can only know in person. As I am brand new to all fossils I was terrified to take tool to rock for the first time. I chose my least complete specimen to get a feel for it so that if I ruined anything I wouldn't be too heart broken. For any person brand new the excitement and terror comes in equal measure! After staring at the rocks and test poking with different tools for at least an hour, I finally felt ready. (Okay not READY, but I was never going to be ready!) First I established a perimeter about .5-1cm away from the fossil. I used a strait pick to dig a small border down into the matrix to establish the area I was looking to remove. I will be removing the trilobite from the matrix completely for a project so I decided to dig down around it and will eventually go under it to free it completely. I found that using a plaque scaling tool works very well for scraping away sections to create a "plane" around the fossil. For the edges I first tried a strait pick but quickly figured out that if I gently moved down and away from the fossil with a semi-blunt spade shaped tool it would uncover the edges better without hurting the trilobite. I do this a bit then switch over to a modified round pick that I curved to smooth around the perimeter of exposed fossil material to clear away ridges and dust to see how much I have exposed so I don't go to far or too deep with the spade. So far I have exposed the top and about half of the sides of the trilobite and have caused no damage. As I said the matrix is pretty soft so no heavy pressure is needed. Every minute or so I stop to blow the dust off and brush the fossil with a velvet cloth to get a look at where I am at. I was given the advice to stop every 15 minutes or so to rest my eyes and move around and have found this to be invaluable advice. After staring up close at the fossil for 20min my vision gets super blurry and takes a couple of minutes to return to normal. I find that when I come back I notice details I didn't before and it helps me chose my next move. Every time I stop I stand up, stretch my back and neck, touch my toes, flex my hands and wrists, and then go limp for a minute before returning to the fossil. I have to say I am loving the "focused relaxation" (fellow member's term) of working on a small specimen by hand and can see myself continuing to do it regularly even after I get my tools. It does wonders for my PTSD and am shocked to say it is even more effective than meditation or CBT. I will update as I go and learn and if I get into trouble. I hope this can serve as a starting place for other new people and would love to get tips and advice in the comments for me and future readers.

So, I found this guy on the auction site, really only this one representative photo. These are often fake or frakenfossils, but I didn't see anything that screamed fake to me in this one photo. Just wanted to put it out to the room for other people's input. It doesn't matter as I basically stole it for 9$, so even if it's fake, I don't much care. Just curious what everyone thinks. (I don't have more photos, I just bought it this morning, this is just the provided photo. I'll be able to tell if it's fake when it arrives this weekend for sure, but the suspense is just too much, lol.) Also, it's about 5" long, not that that matters.