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can anyone help me identify this trilobite? it will soon be mine but it was mislabelled as Morocconites malladoides which it’s certainly isn’t. have been told it might be a Reedops cephalotes

I've recently been looking over the geologic formations in Illinois and I found one that's a bit interesting - it's a Cambrian period outcrop but it seems to be a bit small, only found in parts of Ogle and Lee County, Illinois. http://ebeltz.net/firstfam/1stfam.html https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1202269 https://ilstratwiki.web.illinois.edu/index.php/Cambrian_System I haven't heard of a lot of fossils coming from this area so I'm wondering if anyone's been fossil hunting in that region of Illinois before and how common are Cambrian Fossils from Illinois's Ogle and Lee Counties?

Here is a thread to share some of your rarest partials that if whole would've been incredible specimens, but you know how it is sometimes... Yet they still amazing to own a piece of. I will start off by sharing a piece of the tail of a Probolichas Kristiae, an incredibly unique looking rare lichid trilobite from Oklahoma that would've of been incredible if whole of course yet this piece still has amazing detail and I am more that happy to own

I was hoping someone could identify these two trilobites. I’ve had them as long as I can remember but I never got them ID’d and I’m terrible with trilobites. I have no information on the time period or the location. If higher quality photos are needed I can take them.

It's been a long while since I've posted on here. I haven't been able to collect much lately, but I recently went out to some new haunts and came back with some pretty intriguing stuff I'll hopefully get to follow up on later. I'll start off with an interesting discovery I've had recently. The outcrop exposes rocks stretching from the upper(?) Brallier Formation to the middle(?) Foreknobs Formation. Although I tried searching in the past for brittle star trace fossils, I was mostly unsuccessful in this regard, and over time my interest in it shifted to the much more fossiliferous beds of the Foreknobs (formerly Chemung) Formation. A couple of years ago I posted about finding a fish bone in a boulder next to the outcrop, as well as pointing out I found some potential teeth. Going over my posts, that finding intrigued me so I dug deeper into the presence (or lack thereof) of fish remains in the upper Devonian strata of the region. What I came up with was an 1887 report of the Genesee Shale from New York, an upper Devonian formation roughly analogous to the Scherr (and possibly the lower Foreknobs by the sound of it, it's all rather ambiguous) in Maryland. The authors noted multiple occurrences of fish bones and isolated teeth in sandstone and "fine pebble conglomerate"...similar in description to the rocks of my own outcrop. Coupled with the knowledge of possible fish remains I found previously I decided it'd be worth it to give the outcrop a more thorough look over, this time concentrating instead on the conglomerate facies and ignoring the shale. What I discovered has so far been fairly interesting. As I stated previously the outcrop exposes parts of the Brallier and Foreknobs Formations, including several dozen feet of shale and siltstone in the Foreknobs grading into upper siltstone and sandstone beds closer to the axis of the syncline. Towards the top of the exposed section of the Foreknobs is a bed several inches thick of hard, pebbly conglomerate. After some searching the silty shale above and below the bed is mostly unfossiliferous, although local profusions in brachiopods, crinoids, and other creatures are present. The conglomerate, however, is densely fossiliferous to the point that it forms a veritable coquina in parts running for several feet along the exposure. Because the conglomerate is so hard (made up of quartzose pebbles and sand), and the underlying and overlying beds made of much softer shale and silty rock, the conglomerate is poorly exposed outside of the exposure wall, forming something of a canopy between it and the less resistant layers. It is covered in part by a dense layer of talus from the overlying beds, likewise obscuring part of the exposure. Luckily, however, a few boulders have eroded out from the cut and are free on the ground to examine, and a few loose pieces weathered from the boulders are present around those. In these rocks I have found one chunk of blueish-white fish bone(?), and several possible tooth fragments. I recently examined the outcrop wall looking for more bone/teeth still present in the outcrop, and discovered part of a fish tooth(?) exposed slightly above one of the boulders, and similar looking black enamel(?) specks that could be fish derivatives. They are distinguished from the quartz pebbles by their shiny black appearance, whereas the quartz is mostly lighter gray and translucent. Is this a possible bone bed in the Foreknobs Formation? More scouting is of course needed, but there's a strong possibility in my opinion that, at the minimum, this conglomerate layer is a decent source of fragmentary Devonian fish remains. Note the blueish tint to the fossil. This possible bone fragment was found in a boulder of quartzose, pebbly conglomerate in the middle-upper Foreknobs Formation (Famennian). Note the associated fauna of crinoid and brachiopod fragments. Crinoid stem fragments in particular are extremely common, comprising a large part of the conglomerate "pebbles." This boulder is derived from a layer above a Cyrtospirifer disjunctus bearing shale, indicating it's Chemung age.

Hi all Just a quick question , I have been very interested in the material from Mazon Creek since I won a great auction lot from Ralph that included a few fine specimens . While looking today online I spotted a trilobite pygidium that was labelled Mazon Creek it looks like the right type of siderite concretions but it could be from some where else . So what do we think? I don’t think they was native to Mazon creek but maybe transported there by floods ?

A few weeks ago I went on a fossil hunting trip to Albany County. I was hunting in the New Scotland formation which is lower Devonian in age. It was very quick and easy to collect in and the dry dredging technique was quite useful. The rock was a very thin shaly limestone which could break easily but many of the fossils had been silicified, making it easy to pop them out of the rock. I found many different species of brachiopods, some gastropods, lots of corals and large bryozoa and a few trilobites

My 1st post so I'm a newbie. I'm interested in looking for fossils and micro meteorites in the Flinders Ranges ( SA ), would like to tag along with anyone who has experience Plus have been researching fossil trilobites on online that I'm thinking about buying for the wife.

Hello all! Today I met up with my good friends @Dean Ruocco and @KompsFossilsNMinerals to collect a couple of Hamilton Group sites in Central NY. The first site we went to was the famous Deep Springs Road site, and then we hit a second location for a little while afterwards. All around it was a good day of collecting, with everyone having success in the trilobite department.

Hi all, yesterday I met up with @Nautiloid and @Dean Ruocco in Madison County to collect some bugs at DSR and another site nearby. After exchanging some gifts we got to work collecting, you can see some of @Nautiloid’s finds on his post here… Dean and I got to work creating benches in a promising area whilst @Nautiloid checked out an area at the site I had mentioned to him prior to the trip. Straight off the bat we were all finding some decent bugs, here were the only Greenops I found yesterday. I always like to collect some of the weirder associated fauna found at DSR, such as these Hyoliths. This one has both a Hyolith and a cephalopod I didn’t find too much Dipleura wise, only a decent head and some single segments, the latter of which I left at the site. After we finished up at DSR, we decided to move onto another site which I was told not to mention, so I will honor that request.

Richard Fortey on the Trilobite Chronometer Geology Bites • Nov 06, 2021 The ‘trident’ trilobites of Morocco Dr Kendal Martyn (UK), Deposits Magazine Yours, Paul H.

Well took a trip about a week ago ran in to another member of TFF we both did well. I’m holding up on prepping until I get some new bits in. However here is a preview of what I collected think I even scored a whole one time will tell.

Hello to the Fossil Forum, I am an independent paleo worker from Ottawa, Ontario who first became involved as a recreational collector at a young age. My father Dimitri was a mining geologist and my mother Polly was an economist who created artworks from gems and rocks. Rock hounding was a favorite family pastime and as children we searched among the rocky breakwaters of the Quebec City shore for quartz crystals which Polly would use in jewelry and collages. On these limestone boulders were also trilobites of Ordovician age that became imprinted on my young mind and fueled an interest in fossils. Later in life with skills and knowledge acquired over the years I began working for museums as a paleo technician. One of these jobs was at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History where I was employed by the Dept. of Vertebrate Paleontology to boost their casting program, mainly reproductions of Dunkleosteus, the giant predatory arthrodire that dominated the Devonian seas. This led to field work, lab preparation and collaboration on research. After returning to Canada I tried to fashion an independent career in paleo that would allow me to support work on the family farm. The most convenient path was to build a fossil preparation lab for contract work that would also make it possible to earn money from selling fossils on the commercial market. I remained committed to the science of paleontology and continued working collaborations with researchers and museums across the world. While deeply gratifying, contributions to science rarely create a living income outside of a museum or university. In this respect, a healthy commercial market for fossils was very helpful, both in supporting myself and subsidizing the research projects through donations o f material and field data. It is no secret that this economic model is marginal at best. In 2013 I made the discovery of rich fossil beds at a Tomlinson quarry near Brechin, Ontario that were significant enough to attract research collaborators and might produce fossils in an abundance that would cover the cost of developing the site as scientific resource. The occurrence consisted of reef communities of marine invertebrates, mainly echinoderms, that established themselves on hardgrounds and were subjected to repeated burial events. Some of these were catastrophic in scale and preserved entire faunas at the moment when disaster struck. I hoped to find collaborators at Canadian universities but was unsuccessful in attracting interest. Instead, I was able to persuade Carlton Brett of the University of Cincinnati to become lead investigator on a project that would involve graduate students as well. Dr. Brett had begun his career in paleontology with some post doc work on the same fauna of the Kirkfield formation. At the time I was a research associate at the Cincinnati Museum and the connection seemed natural. The project lasted some ten years and generated multiple abstracts, a PhD thesis for Tim Paton at UC and a subsequent paper (Paton et al 2019) that described the occurrence. A second paper formally revised the stratigraphic record of the quarries in the Lake Simcoe area. Among the goals of the project was to generate a collection of material that would become part of a Canadian museum collection. Happily, this coincided with a project by the Royal Ontario Museum to build a new invertebrate gallery. The present curator of Invert paleo, Jean Bernard Caron became a valuable collaborator and now the collection cabinets are and exhibit spaces of the ROM are well stocked with important material from this research site. Recently we published a paper (Moysiuk et al 2022) describing a new arthropod, a marellomorph named Tomlinsonus dimitrii (after the quarry company and my father respectively) showing exceptional soft tissue preservation. The specimen itself was collected by Marc Haensel (pictured on my profile page in the background photo) who made important contributions to site work since 2019. In the end it is important to note that the project was very costly to undertake and even the acquisition of a collection of material by the ROM was only made possible by a personal subsidy of my own. There are few ways to make a decent living in the world of paleontology. Competition for jobs is extreme and markets are also very competitive as well as complicated by the specialized nature of fossil collecting. To conclude this introduction I would like to express my gratitude for the support received from academic colleagues and individual collectors. I have not yet visited the ROM to see the specimens I excavated and prepared on display but hope to soon. I would encourage anyone passing through Toronto to stop at the ROM to see the new gallery and marvel at the work of so many individuals brought together to show the fossil heritage of Ontario. Images show representative fossils from the site George E. Kampouris

I recently stumbled upon this informative gem of an html article discussing modern trilobite lookalikes. Being a trilobite-cephalon myself, I found it fascinating, so I wanted to share it with you all! The article: Trilobite imposters

On my eighth trip to the locality, I collected fossils at the famous St. Leon roadcut. Exposed were the Waynesville and Liberty formations, which date to the immense coral reefs of the upper Ordovician, or 450 ±5 MYA. The site was heavily picked, its erosive forces slowed during Indiana's summer heat. My drops of sweat evaporated on the sun-tempered limestone faster than I could count to ten. Despite the setbacks, acquisitions were generous. Best for last. Behold my brachiopods. The top row is Strophomena sp., the top-left sample demonstrating encrusting bryozoan. The second row is Vinlandostrophia ponderosa. The third and fourth rows are Lepidocyclus/Hiscobeccus, though I am of the opinion the genera are synonymous and are just sexual dimorphs given their identical ages, appearances, and regional occurrences. I am curious what other brachiopod enthusiasts think of this similarity. (Four boxes on the grid is 25 millimeters.) I continue with the bivalves. The top row is Caritodens sp, the top-left sample being a particularly well-preserved example. The bottom-left sample is Anomaladonta sp., and the bottom-right sample is a near-perfect Ambonychia sp. Life is incomplete without the gastropods! I didn't take French in high school for nothing! The top sample is unknown to me, despite being the second I have found of its type. The middle-left sample is too buried. The remaining four are all Paupospira sp., the middle sample being a good example. Interestingly, the bottommost Paupospira has a partial Flexicalymene sp. trilobite cephalon on it, which makes me question if the trilobite was consuming the calcium to augment its own development. However, considering the sample is a messy storm deposit, it is likely pure luck. I have to mention the numerous Isotelus maximus fragments at the site. When looking for fossils at St. Leon, one must wonder how many beautiful I. maximus lie under the surface, only to crumble down the slopes of the roadcut and into my hands. Of interest is the long, delicate genal spine on the top right. Now to the more interesting fossils. I follow with three of six total straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopods. The middle sample is a rare, (calcified) Anaspyroceras sp., and the right sample is also calcified. The beautiful, ancient calcite crystals within the dull-appearing right sample: Now to the next three. The left orthocone is all associated and is very large. The middle sample is also quite large. Species-level identification of orthocones can be difficult even with a clear cross-section of the siphuncle, so "straight-shelled nautiloid cephalopod" will have to suffice. However, I suspect these three samples are likely Treptoceras sp. Excellent samples to say the least. I kept saying "straight-shelled," so perhaps some of you guessed it: I found a coiled nautiloid cephalopod! These are very rare. I have found only a handful of these. Behold the curved Beloitoceras sp., a member of Oncocerida, to which the modern nautilus owes its existence to! It's unbelievable how this rock from half a billion years ago directly led to the existence of modern nautiloids! The continuity of life is incredible. The penultimate is a bryozoan fan. Yes, a fan! The bryozoan tapers off at the upper edges. I have never seen anything like it! It is 8x4 cm. And finally... ...a giant bryozoan! This is my biggest single fossil find ever! The caliper on the left is set all the way out to 15.00 cm! It is easily 15 inches in diameter and four inches thick! After crashing my bicycle a few weeks ago, this immense find could be my new wheel! Hear me out. In ten years of collecting, I have found many rare trilobites, behemoth cephalopods, and more, but this colony of tens of thousands of individual animals takes the cake for the most interesting fossil I've ever had the privilege to collect. On top of being huge and complete, it's riddled with trypanites (trace burrows for you bone hunters out there) from all a manner of creatures that used to reside in the Ordovician. I'm sure my fellow amateur paleontologists appreciate that this isn't just a fossil coral, it's an entire ecosystem! It's literally a window into life 450 million years ago! It's riddled with traces left by crinoid stems, scolecodonts (boring worms), parasitic encrusting bryozoans, brachiopods, bivalves, and so much else! I'm considering donating it to a museum. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed.

Has anyone on here had a good experience with fossil preparation services? I’m not asking for specific companies (as I know this might be a breach of TFF community rules), just wanting to know if anyone has had good results with fossil prep companies in general. I’ve got a couple of nice-ish Devonian trilobite partials in need of prep and am too impatient to prep them myself. Also full air scribe setups are extremely expensive, this isn’t even taking into account that there are no spare rooms in my house for a fossil prep workshop. Meaning, I would either have to build onto the house or build a shed for my prep equipment. I apologize for rambling on a bit here, just wanted to make it clear that I really don’t have any other options.

Just started searching for fossils since moving to central New York. These are some finds from Madison County. I was hoping for some help, I know they are trilobites, but not the species. There were also some shells I was curious about. Thanks.

FINALLY getting around to posting about my first time ever fossil hunting in Oklahoma! Went on an extended weekend with the Paleontological Society of Austin to a variety of locales in Central OK - places I have heard about, read about and dreamed about going! I finally made it! And it was so very worth the drive, even if I did end up with a stupid cold the last two days (the drive home was a little....weird. Cold "fugue" makes for interesting driving- I really don't remember much of it, which is either good or bad....) But the FOSSILS! I've never hunted the Ordovician and Silurian so it was a real treat to find some new fauna. Of course I also brought home some micro matrix to extend my "hunting" fun. I was happy to find what I most wanted - a decent flat trilo and some good rollers. The rollers still need to be prepped a bit, but that is not my forte, so I have to find someone to get it done for me. But I also found some great stuff I wasn't expecting to find! I got there a day early and had scouted out some places to check - a lovely creek which supposedly had lots of species of trilobites, but all I found were some brachiopods and such. It was HOT. 98 degrees and humid, just like I had left behind in Central Texas. It was much greener though! Beautiful rolling hills and a lovely creek, but I didn't stay there long. I had another spot which I was pretty sure would be a winner. And yep, it was. Turned out some of the Society was there also, so I joined a half dozen of them already hunting. I was hoping to find an echinoderm called Oklahomacystis. The group had already found a half dozen or so, so I asked to see what they looked like. I had seen pictures, but it's always good to see something in the field to know what you are looking for. I was super happy to find a nice big one, fairly well preserved. I wasn't there very long, so I didn't find a lot, but I found a few nice things. Some cool Bryozoans and lovely Brachiopod with nice color: A Gastropod: The next morning was our first "official" PSoA site - Yellow Bluff. The weather took a dramatic turn overnight and we woke up to cold and drizzle! We hoped the drizzle would stay just that or quit altogether. It turned out perfect...the occasional drizzle but a wonderfully cool mid 60's day!! Apparently last time the Society had been out there it was in the 90s and miserable. So we lucked out. Yellow Bluff is on private land and we had made arrangements ahead of time. What I was NOT expecting was the scramble up a creek bank ravine followed by having to hop a barbed wire fence (which other members assured me had NOT been there before) and then found out the other group had found a much easier way up..... ah well. It was an adventure. This place is BIG...I didn't even really get to explore the Silurian stuff up above. I stayed mostly in the flat area and found wonderful crinoid parts, the occasional trilo bit, some great brachiopods and bryozoans. And FINALLY, after getting a little frustrated because all around me I hear "I found a Trilo!" (not everyone, but it seemed like it...) I finally found a whole trilobite and I have to say, it's pretty nice. cleaned up as much as I could A few more finds: A desegmented crinoid cup: a really neat little curled crinoid arm a little floating crinoid We were all looking for a newly described species of starfish that one of the PSoA members had found last time they were there - about 3 years ago. Alas, none were found. His is still the only one. I was hoping maybe this was one, but I think it's crinoid. A Gastropod Platyceras and some cool little tiny things from my micro matrix We finished out the day with some good food and conversation and got ready for the next day which I was most excited about - Black Cat Mountain! I had made arrangements to go to this amazing site and boy did it exceed my expectations. I found 49 Trilos -some just bits, but most whole! The place is enormous. Some of the group went off to hammer away at the stone to get the fossils- I prefer surface collecting. I just put my nose to the ground and found all kinds of great finds! Granted, they may not be the best finds, but I was super happy with what I found. I wasn't looking for the fancy stuff, I just wanted a couple of good rollers. I love the eyes!! And these aren't even cleaned up....just washed a nice big pygidium A Huntoniatonia impression with the part of the tail visible And of course there were some other really cool finds, like these button bryozoans: and of course a plethora of brachiopods: plus some nice size Cephalopods Oh, and last but not least, this cute tarantula and his little house: I was warned about rattlesnakes and was all prepared with my snake shin guards, but I think the temp was too cool for them so no sign of them this trip! Which was just fine with me. I'll stick with bugs and spiders, thanks so much!

Found these in mid June 2022 in broken up shale on the bank of Nowadaga Creek in east-central New York. The cephalon head was found 1 foot away from that body. To make the image “pop”, I doused a rag with a few drops of mineral oil and gently rubbed it on the shale. Unsure what the actual trilobite species is. Triarthrus eatoni, beckii, other?

Well, since moving to Ottawa, I haven't had the chance to go out fossil hunting. There wasn't a whole lot of info on the web about the geology here. So my wife and I decided to buckle up and find a spot ourselves (without any hammers or chisels). We tend to be very lucky people, but I was surprised by the THOUSANDS of trilobites we came across in a matter of 20 minutes. We were on the shoreline of the Ottawa river, we found a certain type of shale that was just crawling with them. If any lucky soul goes to the spot where we left all the remnants of our hunt, they will sure be having a good day. I'm especially excited that I was able to find trilos. Coming from Kansas, we don't really have them (although I've found a few). I'm excited to traverse the Canadian wilderness collecting fossils and upsetting my wife with all of the rocks I bring home. None of the bugs we found were complete, although we did our darnedest to find some. But here are a few pictures of our trip! (This is an extremely small fraction of what we found) What a beautiful time immersing ourselves inthe beauty of mother earth. Cheers! Dylan http://cubeupload.com/im/p9S7Pq.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/fK7zCw.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/FEPxWk.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/oe0G9h.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/UkGZgh.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/XM2CcW.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/CYZbv7.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/uCxGoB.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/hdg0G2.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/hQhHyo.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/EbMeHi.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/HcPfNe.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/m1mxaX.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/MvHYCg.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/ckSAYq.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/cFeL7a.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/xGyceQ.jpg http://cubeupload.com/im/9E62H7.jpg

Hello, i’ve just recently found out about the possible trilobites that can be found near Hoppin Hill Massachusetts, does anybody have any information on where exactly these are and if they are available to the public?

I was wondering if anyone had a good list on different species found in the Conasauga Formation? I've found a few references to trilobites, but I was especially curious about non-trilobite species such as brachiopods, sponges, non-trilobite arhtropods, etc.

My grandson sent me photos of his little haul from today on his beach He is nearly 8 and loves checking his local beach. He has compared what he found with photos in his kid’s books of fossils. He’s wondered if these are trilobites and crinoids all- the last 2 photos are the same find. He has been asked to show some of his fossils in a special exhibition in the Laing Art gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne called “These are Our Treasures “ which will coincide with the display of the Lindisfarne Gospels. He feels quite excited by this!