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Winter is the best time of the year for fossil hunting near the cliffs at the french coast. So like every year Natalie and I spend a few days at the "Côte d'opale" in northern France to prospect. The storms and tides cleaned up a lot of the boulders from the last cliff fals. The weather conditions were a bit harsh but we managed a few good prospections and we scored a few large ammonites.

I have three cephalopod fossils in my collection with little to no background information. The first two photos are of a specimen collected in Kentucky by a family member (presumably near Berea). The smaller cephalopods on the upper right and left in Photo 1 compare very favorably with Gomphoceras images. The larger samples in Photo 2 show middle indentations with reduced chambers and septa; possibly indicative of hard times in the paleozoic. Photos 3 and 4 are of specimens acquired from the liquidation of the former Emerald Rock Shop in Deer Park, Ohio (the owners had passed on). There is no background information on these specimens but they do compare favorably with Ceratites based on the shapes of the "ribs' near the keel and the thinness of the specimens. Photo 5 is a specimen that was mislabeled as a brachiopod. It compares favorable with images of imported Acanthoceras specimens from Morocco. I would greatly appreciate constructive comments and/or suggestions concerning these specimens. Sincerely, Nick Loux Gomphoceras1.pdf Gomphoceras2.pdf Ceratite1.pdf Ceratite2.pdf Acanthoceras.pdf

Recently I received from my girlfriend a supposed Acanthoceras Ammonite. We both would love to know if it's faked in some way or real. We are already very grateful.

On our last fieldtrip to France this weekend we found a chalk-boulder with a quite large ammonite in it. The chalk was realy hard, but I was able to reduce it in size to take it back home. At the start of the prep with chislle and hammer I got a lucky split where the boulder opened to reveal most of the ammonite. The airscribe then did a quick job to remove the last bits. Sadly the center of the ammonite wasn't preserved, I tried to sculpt the center as well as I could and coloured it to match the fossil. As for the determination we had a little doubt between Cunningtoniceras inerme and Acanthoceras rothomagense as both species can look a lot alike and this specimen was slightly deformed in the chalk whitch made determination a bit harder, but most of the sings point towards A. rhotomagense .( the whorls here being higher than wide ) As found: the end result: A. rhotomagense mid. Cenomanian Cap-Blanc-Nez ( France )

On our Christmas fossil hunting trip Natalie found a nice Acanthoceras rothamagense in a loose boulder on the beach, All we had to do is reduce the size of the boulder to make it fit in the backpack. A few days ago I removed a large chunk of exces matrix with a powertool. Today I took the time to prepp the whole ammonite. this is the result after 4 to 5 hours of prepwork: The final result: Acanthoceras rothamagense Upper Cenomanian Cap-Blanc-Nez ( France ) 20cm in diameter