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Long time no see guys! Thought I’d come back with a bang. A few months back I headed out, just after recovering from covid, so of course, not back at 100%, but well enough to get some exercise. Of course, the first thing I stumble on, is a rather large nodule. Now, these nodules don’t normally contain anything, and are usually filled with a calcite core, but always fun to hit regardless. After one tap with the hammer, it revealed a cross section of a rather large ammonite known as Harpoceras (falciferum). Not a super rare Ammonite by any means, but definitely uncommon. I lost my head. The thing weighed A LOT. So it was bagged up, and on I had to walk for almost two miles. A rough walk back to say the least. Had to weigh the bag when I got home. The block alone weighed over 5 stone (33kgs). That excludes hammers and chisels etc, thanks @LiamL for carrying the rest of my fossils for me haha. Time to prep. There was a lot of matrix to remove, so some cuts were made with the angle grinder to shorten the time of prep down . Then pen down. Until I finally reveal the first large ammonite seems I knew where it was sat. After a few more angle grinder cuts to the other half of the nodule, I actually found a 2nd large Harpoceras. Missing it by about 2mm. VERY LUCKY. Also very happy of course. Though now prep time was increased more so, plus it was sat at the most awkward angle possible, but we persevere. Easily my most challenging prep to date. I have also been filming the prep, every last step of the way to document it. I took a few weeks off recently to concentrate on some customer prep, and to give my hands rest from the thing. So here’s where it sits currently. Both ammonites are fully exposed. The second needs the middle finishing, though saving the for last as it’s incredibly sticky and that awkward angle makes it all the more difficult. I’ll be sure to update in the comments once it’s finished. So yeah, hope you all enjoyed that long winded post. It’s certainly a labour of love, and I hope I don’t find another one again soon (liar). Dan

For whatever reason, I used to completely dismiss the Austin chalk as a formation of any interest. I viewed it almost through the same lens that I view the Edwards formation, as if it was some barren uninteresting hinderance that gets in the way of cooler formations. Accidentally finding a large Parapuzosia ammonite in it once changed that a bit, but for the most part I still ignored it... Turns out I was just looking in the wrong places, and had very little understanding of its members. @LSCHNELLE recently explained a lot of it better to me, and so equipped with new knowledge I decided to try and discover a member of the Austin Chalk I've been wondering about for a while now, which I always falsely assumed was its own formation. I found myself deep in a Travis county creek, following very specific instructions I had read on an old thesis from the 80's I found online. To avoid being too long winded - nothing stood out to me as different in the geology, so I think that the vertebrate rich member I was seeking still eludes me. Yet, I wouldn't say I was skunked, because I found some very interesting invertebrates that even a simpleton like myself can appreciate My first find had me cheering and jumping, partly because of how just picture perfect the insitu was, but mostly because it was just an aesthetic looking echinoid I haven't seen before. Here it sat below, as I originally saw it: Fortunately, what's left in the matrix I believe is still in great detail. It's just on a smaller-than-it-looks exposed portion where the wear took a toll, as you will see at the end when I show more photos. For another hour and half beyond this, I was just sloshing my way through the water, very slowly, admiring the highly fossiliferous limestone as I went. Usually when I scout a new spot, it ends up being more exploring than actual hunting, and yesterday was no different. Close to my turn around spot, I for whatever reason took strong notice of inconspicuous looking pebble lying loose on its own. Picking it upon a whim, I was surprised to see it was another echinoid of the same type I found earlier, albeit in worse condition. Pictures all at the end. Walking back was a serene vibe with few fossils - I was distracted by the new greenery that's been blooming lately. When I got back to where I found the first echinoid, I decided to poke around a bit more, and was surprised to find two ammonites - one large (Mortoniceras?) which I removed, and a much smaller ammonite as well. Results below! No vertebrates but these were well worth it! @JamieLynn put together a phenomenal guide of the inverts by formation that we can find in our central texas stratas, but I wasn't able to find these echinoids in it. I'm aware they need prep, but if you know what they are already please chip in! Results below: Echinoid #1: Echinoid #2 - While it's in worse shape than even the first, I think the substantial attached matrix has protected a lot of it. We'll find out when it preps! Larger ammonite I removed - glue will come to the rescue here. I'm rather sure that the inner coils are preserved under that! Smaller ammonite below: This was just one day sandwiched into what is so far a very busy weekend for me on the paleo front - lots of exploring, and also some good work brewing on two interesting, older vertebrate finds. I'll update this post when i eventually manage to get these echinoids cleaned - the hard limestone they're in will be tough for hand tools - perhaps this is my signal to finally buy a scribe

Recent finds from Texas! Ammonites from the Goodland limestone, petrified wood and ice age stuff bank gravel of the Brazos river, either Beaumont or Lissie formations, or from a terrace deposit. The rib is mammoth/mastodon, the vertebra and hoof core bison, the antler is likely whitetail deer, and the teeth are horse and bison, with the small one I think a 3-toed horse based on the images I looked up.

Hello all... I want to invite everyone here to the second in this year's Tate Museum Spring Lecture Series. Next Thursday, March 31, the Tate Geological Museum will be doing the second in the year's Spring Lecture series via Zoom. Dr. Josh Slattery, from the University of South Florida, will speak on ecology of Cretaceous ammonites found in our part of the country: "The Ecological Role of Ammonites in Late Cretaceous Seas of North America" The presentation starts at 7PM, Mountain Time. We will open the zoom at 6:30 for anyone who wants to socialize (or just say hello and then not socialize). : ) And... here is the link: https://caspercollege.zoom.us/j/83611694009 which is also on the museum's website and Facebook page. Hope to see a few of you there. Cheers, JPC

I got the chance to go to the Oxford Clay twice over the last few days. I'm always looking for echinoderms at this site, and I prefer this one in winter when the vegetation has died back and I can spot lots of small, delicate detail. These are some if my favourite finds from the last few days.

I'm trying to get to one Oxford Clay site pretty frequently, and it did not disappoint. I found my best gastropods from the site this weekend. I thought I had found two pieces of crinoid, but when I got home found it was four. More ammonite as well. Even better, I managed to not bring home any living creatures. Last time I had a caterpillar clinging to an ammonite.

While 2021 was an extremely difficult year with coivd and the loss of my mother we were able to make it out to Richmond in NW Queensland for 2 fossil digs. The conditions out here can very harsh 40c plus days so we did a bit of night time digging under lanterns to avoid the heat. The material here is marine cretaceous sediments from the Toolebuc formation. Our goals this year was to finally find a large ichthyosaur bone (I have found 2x isolated teeth in the past) and find a NW Queensland ammonite. Below are some of best finds from the two digs. While the ichthyosaur bone eluded us for another year while going through our material we brought home we found what has been ID as a Pterosaur digit bone which we were very excited about as these are rare in Australia as is by far my most exciting find to date the fossil is approx 8cm long. Another rare fossil from the site is Johnlongia shark tooth we have found average condition teeth in the past but this year we found a very well preserved one. While turtle fossils are very common on this site we did find our first almost complete one however it was very fragile so decided the best option was to leave it in the location we found it . (Sorry these pictures were taken at night so are not very good) Another very common fossil is fish remains however we found our best fish jaw to date this took quite a few hours to prep. Lastly I was determined to find at least one Ammonite these are not found in our usual site so after been given some guidance and contacting land owners we were given permission to hunt on a station which was well known for ammonites and it didn't disappoint we made some nice finds. The best part of the fossil hunting this year was spending quality time with my son who loves doing it too, thanks for reading my run down of this year collecting I hope everyone has a great 2022. Cheers

Happy Fossil Friday everyone! In today's video offering, I sneak across the border into Texas to hunt for those Texas-sized ammonites, and I met another YouTuber on the way.

During the Christmas holiday we had the opportunity to go on 2 field trips to the north of France. 1st one was just after Christmas when we visited the Turonian part of the cliffs. Here we found a couple of nice ammonites ( Mammites nodosoides and a realy nice Fagesia catinus ) and a big flint echinoid. (with @Natalie81 and @Euhoplites) The second trip was last weekend, but we had no luck with the weather this time and we had heavy rainfall for most of the day. Also lots of competition that day. Not a lot of fossils to be found that day: a small flint echinoid, a big Mariella sp. but not the best preservation and an Acanthoceras, but this one is still completely in the matrix, I don’t know how this one will turn out. pic's from the 1st day: The echinoids from the construction site: Fagesia catinus all cleaned up the 2nd field trip: a wel hidden Acanthoceras rhotomagense: Rain, rain, rain,.. I almost forgot, Best wishes for 2022 to all the forum members

Hey All During my prep of another ammonite I found these two small guys. Are they infant ammonites or gastropods? Planko

Fossil Friday once again! This is the last of the South Dakota exploration trip, hunting the Pierre shale for cephalopods and hopefully a mosasaur. Although the first half of the Pierre shale exploration went pretty slow, it wasnt without a few nice finds. The second part, we were extremely fortunate in that we got to meet Neal Larson and hear a short talk about the local Pierre shale formation, and then he took us out to his personal hunting site.

J find this ammonite in the oxfordien stage near from Buis les Baronnies in south east of France,2 pictures before and after;

Hello! I’m back from a trip to Texas, and while there I did quite a lot of fossil hunting. I’m not going to be uploading everything here (because I found quite a bit and I feel a bit bad putting so many), but I figured I’d post the ones I’m most stumped on. I’d really appreciate any help. I’m on mobile, so I’m not sure if these will upload in order (they should, but if not I’ll fix it on PC soon). 1: Not sure what this is, but I really like how it’s intact on both sides. Found at Benbrook Lake, Fort Worth to the left of the marina. 2: My dad is mostly interested in this one. Maybe it’s just a rock, but I do think its formation and little cracks are interesting. Also from Benbrook. 3. Looks pretty cool (though I’m not confident in any guesses I could have). Benbrook Lake. 4. I actually got this one identified before at a museum, but I want to hear everyone’s thoughts without influence (because it ended up being pretty cool and I’d like to know for sure). Found in Paluxy by a river that another fossil hunter recommended. 5. This has a teeny little imprint, if you can see that. Maybe some little wormy thing? Not sure! Found in Benbrook. Again, I’d be so thankful for any help and I had lots of fun collecting everything. Will probably upload all the rest at some point.

Hello everyone. Proposing a trade of NSR miscellaneous stuff for trade for ammonites. I have mosy verts, gastropods, calcite covered gastropods, calcite covered clams, couplebfish verts, one more tylosaurus tooth, sharks teeth, etc.. Tell me what you want and I'll see if I have it.

Last Saturday, Natalie and I went for a trip to the chalk cliffs in Northern France. We got there early and we were surprised at the parking by a friend who happened to have the same idea as us . @Euhoplites So now we were 3 to hit the beach. We were quite lucky with the weather, at least dry, and not to cold for this time of the year. We did get a decent haul to, a few ammonites, a se urchin, a realy nice nautiloid. Natalie also found some pretty shark teeth. The best find for me that day was a rare and very well preserved ammonite Hyphoplites falcatus. Enjoy the pictures Some of the teeth found by Natalie The Cymatoceras sp. : And finaly the fossil that made my day : a rare Hyphoplites falcatus:

Hi everyone These two pieces were collected by my boyfriends father and his family about 60 years ago on the Jurassic coast of Charmouth/Lyme Regis. A little while ago he brought them out to show me and said I could keep the ones I liked. I chose these two, but not to keep. My idea was to prep them, reveal the fossils inside and give them to him at Christmas. I used a Dremel with specialised tips and a sewing needle in a pin vice under a microscope. Overall I'm quite happy with how they turned out, not perfect, but I can see my own improvement. The larger single ammonite (Promicroceras sp. I think) had significant pyrite rot on the matrix on the reverse side. I removed it with the Dremel and will coat the ammonite and the reverse side with Paraloid. As you can see, the matrix split beside the ammonite whilst I was Dremelling. It would be great to hear opinions on whether you think the piece looks better with the matrix glued back on, or left alone? I would love to hear any advice and critical feedback. Before: The reverse side After an hour or so on the Dremel: The reverse side, after removing the pyrite rot: All finished after a bit more Dremel work and about 2 hours with a needle (no Paraloid yet though): With the excess matrix: Without the excess matrix: The second piece, before: After an hour or two with a needle: After about 40 mins with the Dremel: All finished after a few more hours with a needle and some Paraloid to glue back the broken pieces and stabilise:

Today @PFOOLEY and I went behind the scenes at the NMMNH&S. Thanks to Dr. Spencer G. Lucas for letting us in and showing us some amazing specimens. We started with some heteromorphs... ....donated from Utah There were other ammonites... We then ventured into the other room full of goodies... ...this Parasaurolophus.. See it? Some plant fossils... I am super thrilled to have had this opportunity to see these amazing specimens up close. I wish I could share all of the photos but there are a lot! I hope you enjoy... Dr. Lucas was also kind enough to give me these bulletins...I have a lot of reading to do! Salúd!

Today I stopped by a local auction house, about 1 hour from home, that usually has Native American artifacts and fossils, today was no different. I picked up this nice mounted display piece of 3 pyritized Jurassic ammonites from Russia. When I arrived at home, I showed it to my wife and she stated that it was the prettiest fossil that she has ever seen me buy- Lol. Here are some pics of some of the other pieces that they had, some of these pieces went for prices that regular fossil collectors would never pay, it was insane. I am glad only one other person bid against me and I got it for $40.00. Horse cannon bones Trilobite- Isotelus (?) Madagascar ammonites 13” Woolly Rhino jaw- I had to tell the guy who paid a lot of money for it that it did not come from Nevada as the auctioneer said it did. Moroccan shark teeth South Dakota Oreodont skull and Stylemys turtle. There were bones that were supposed to be Dino and could very well be, with restoration, but I could not tell.

Hey everyone. Thought I would give this a go. If this goes well I can probably put together a couple more like this and maybe a couple packages of other items from the NSR. These are all from the North Texas River in Northeast Texas. Unprepped as I found them. Well, maybe a soft toothbrush and water. Two mosy vertebrae, calcite covered clam (Incoceramus barabini) with some shell still there covered, red clam steinkern (Incoceramus barabini) , red ammonite piece, 2 gastropod (Gyrodes major) steinkerns, clam steinkern (Anomia argentaria), one black and 2 red baculite pieces (nice sutures on two, Baculites aquilaensis), mosy tooth (thinking Clidastes propython but could be wrong), gastropod (Anchura substriata), gastrpod (not sure of species. needs prep work), ammonite piece (Trachyscaphites spiniger) and one button coral (Micrabracia rotilia). Some will think that the coral is coprolite but the NSR guidebook has them listed as button coral. As you can with the variance of the NSR fossils can vary widely in color due to the matrix they come out of. Plus, you can beat them out of concrete like rocks like the unidentified gastropod. Wanting to trade for ammonite/s. Prefer whole but willing to consider others. Lets see what you might be willing to offer. Continental US please.

Hello everyone! Been almost 2 years since I last visited that site and left in situ a nice multiblock. I was thinking again and again @taj reply and tried to correct that mistake. However, every year the site seems to be less accessible and there are rumors that it's forbidden to search there for fossils due to the proximity of the archeological site of the theater, regardless the fact the outcrop is located within private land. Nevertheless, last Saturday 13/11 we visited the place with a friend. Visited 3 possible outcrops without much results. 1. Carnian exposure with partially pyritized ammonites - overexploited, zero finds. 2. Ammonitico Rosso quarry, no finds but for some slices on marble blocks. 3. Around the theater, near that private place. One nice slice of the Rosso early Jurassic quarry. 100kgs of boulders collected in order to be cleaned. This outcrop has very high density of fossils, due to the absent of sediments, leading in amazing multiblocks full of ammonites, nautiloids and orthoconics. The obvious characteristic of this formation is th presence of Mn oxide, which gives this lovely dark brown/rusty color. Smaller blocks were also collected. Presence of fossils indicate high possibility to find more after abrasion. Before leaving, we visited the museum and bought some prepared ones. You can see how packed are. I tried to find another exposure of Hallstatt facies so I had to find a map, which does not exist online. Found a governmental library and bought it! Next Saturday 20/11 we visited again Epidaurus area. Using a ruler, I put all possible outcrops on my phone, so we were prepared. Unfortunately, all these outcrops were not accessible or altered due to agriculture, buildings and so on. Out of 13 visited locations, none gave fossils. We found another Ammonitico Rosso, but the quality was poor due to tectonic dynamics and extreme deformation. Sunday 21/10, a third visit to the place with another friend. We started locating an outcrop with Miocene gastropods. Near that place, we found another site with some Cretaceous imprints of Pectenoids Then we joined with another guy and headed to search again in that overexploited locality. My friend found a partial Carnian ammonite replaced by jasper and gave it to me. I don't keep partials anymore, but this is really beautiful and rare. The same guy found a nice 4-5cm Johannites sp laying on the ground. It was steinkern but still lovely! Moved further to explore the place a little more and we found something like stromatolites, composed of Mn oxide, limestone of the same fossiliferous site around the theater and possibly, ammonites with complete replacement with Mn oxide.

Hello everyone. Bought these from Ron. Thank you Ron. Seems I have several species from what he recalls as being Aveyron France and Toarcian in age. I have one more species I think but any help on these would be appreciated. Also, any information on how to preserve pryitized fossil would be appreciated.

Last sunday October 24th I decided to visit the old Andil clay quarry at Liesberg in Switzerland, just over two hours driving from where I live, to see what fossils I might find there. Now a nature reserve where collecting is tolerated as long as the natural parts are not disturbed, the deposits at this quarry, mined for cement production between 1934 and 1980, date to the Upper Callovian and Lower to Middle Oxfordian (source). It is thus stratigraphically - though not petrologically - comparable to the geology of Vaches Noires in Normandy, with which I'm much more familiar, albeit with the interesting variation that the bedding planes at this site have been uplifted and verticalised. The latter makes for an unusual experience working the mudstone layers in the middle of the quarry, and means that the oldest layers are to be found along the quarry's south wall (to the left if facing the quarry's back wall), whereas the youngest layers - most notably the Liesberg-layer, which geological limestone composition and embedded fauna of shells, sea urchins and crinoids is strikingly comparable to the Middle Oxfordian Coral Raq at Vaches Noires - are to be found on the north wall (to your right). A situational satellite map from Google Maps A commercial example of a beautiful Kosmoceras annulatum ammonite found in the quarry's Callovian layers Seen from the parking spot at the quarry entrance near the top of the mountain The buildings of the old quarry when you walk down from the parking spot to the quarry along a road with restricted access Entrance to the quarry with an informational sign explaining the geological significance of the locality, as well as tells you not to get your hopes up, as most fossils you're likely to find will be steinkern-fossils Spill heaps along the north wall, with the back wall in the distance, and a sign explaining the importance of the locality as a nature reserve The path to the back wall of the quarry can be extremely muddy, and searching for fossils along the quarry's steep slopes is an activity undertaken at your own risk Due to circumstances I arrived quite late in the day and only had a number of hours to search. However, I quickly concluded that the south wall (Callovian layers) and even the mudstone in the middle of the quarry (Lower Oxfordian) were not particularly fossiliferous, with a couple of hours of work only resulting in a corroded pyritised ammonite and a tiny fossil that may either be a crustacean or part of a sea urchin spine (if you know, please let me know). I did not find any fossils on the south wall, although the information sign at the entrance to the quarry had already forewarned that most of the fossils encountered would be steinkern fossils. I later picked up from a discussion between a solitary fossil hunter and another group of collectors, however, that this solitary hunter had found an ammonite towards the top of the Callovian slope two weeks earlier and had returned to collect it, only to find it gone. He hadn't found any new specimens, however. Interestingly, while the quarry was quite calm with only one or two other collectors for most of my time there, by the time I got ready to leave (around 17:30), the place all of a sudden became abuzz with groups of other fossil hunters. Vertical bedding planes at the quarry and the two finds I made in the Renggeri clays: a heavily corroded pyritised ammonite and an unidentified fossil that may be either a bit of crinoid, or may be crustacean? Following my lack of results (did I give up too early?) in the older layers of the quarry, one of my fellow fossil hunters suggested I check the quarry's northern slopes/spoil heaps, as there were plenty of smaller fossils to be found there. And, indeed, as soon as I stepped on these slopes I was able to pick up spine after sea urchin spine, stems and branches or crinoids, serpulids and even the occasional shell. The slopes were steep and it was hard to find a foothold, but at least I didn't have to return home empty handed. Looking back through the quarry from the spill heaps along the north wall Can you spot the fossils amongst the limestone blocks from (presumably) the Liesberg-layer? Looking at the south wall from the spill heaps Beautiful lighting when returning back to the car towards the end of the day Here are some of my finds of that day. Paracidaris florigemma echinoid/sea urchin spines; much more common and of better quality than I've found at Vaches Noires Millecrinus horridus crinoid/sea lily stem (left) and arm (right) segments Millecrinus horridus holdfast/root system (a special find for me) that I entered into Find of the Month contest Serpulid worm tubes (left) and evidence for parasitism on crinoids (right) Echinoids/sea urchins: a partial in matrix on the left and crushed and silicified specimens on the right Shells, from left to right: fragment of trigoniidae indet. (?Myophorella sp.), Galliennithyris galliennei brachiopod and a piece of an unidentified clam Section of horn coral

Last month my boyfriend and I went on our first ever trip to the Isle of Wight. We stayed for four full days and managed to squeeze in a fossil trip each day. On the first day we met up with one of my friends who was staying on the island with her boyfriend who is an 'islander'. We decided to visit the popular Compton Bay, an interesting and well known cretaceous site famous for dinosaur remains. When we arrived the tide was quite high and I didn't realise just how long it takes to go down (several hours, for future reference), but we were able to get onto the beach and walk a somewhat narrow strip of sand. After less than 10 minutes I picked up the first fossil! To me it looks like bone, but it has been loosely suggested to me it might be plant. It has a lot of iron rich matrix still attached to it which has unfortunately stained all my other fossils from this location as I desalinated them all in the same container (I would be glad to hear any advice for removing this staining?). Not 10 minutes after that I made the next find of the day, a small chunk of rolled bone. The tide was still very high so we decided to wander about the island and came back later that evening. Our lunch spot. The tide was lower in the evening and we had a wonderful time pointing out the dinosaur footprints, the trackway and finding pebbles full of shells, a pebbly full of bony fish bits and one more bit of bone for me and finally one for my friend as well (don't have pic of that though). Not sure how well the photos demonstrate this, but I think this may be a broken bit of a caudal vertebra. On day two we tried, and failed to get to Rocken End for some lovely ammonites. We couldn't find the right spot, so planned to try again the next day. In the afternoon we went to Bouldnor in search of some Oligocene turtles, crocodiles, mammals and whatever else we might find. However we were unlucky again and only found four chunks of Emys turtle shell. I am pleased with them though, as three of the four are really rather nice. It was a muddy but pleasant evening. Once again we had to wait a while (though 30 mins or so) for the tide to retreat. The first two pieces on the left were found within about 1m of each other. I'm not sure what to make of the 'stripe' on the top side of the third chunk. The next morning we found the correct access point and made our way to Rocken End, it's a fairly long walk down a steep hill(/mountain??) but wasn't as bad as it looked from the car park, there are steps carved into the mud at regular points. Soon enough we were scrambling over boulders of cretaceous upper greensand and pointing out ammonites that were poking out. Extracting the ammonites proved a significant challenge. They are incredibly delicate and soft. You could reach up and snap the ends out the rock very easily and practically all of the ammonites we attempted to extract came out in pieces, or broke irreperably. I did find two lovely little shark teeth sticking out, I believe these are somewhat uncommon here so I feel lucky. Just as we were leaving, my boyfriend found three ammonites practically lying on the ground in front him. They were by far the best ammonites we collected, he was very pleased with himself considering I had spent the previous two hours chiselling away whilst he sat and read his book... Prep in progress from the other side. The third one as found, just peeking out... ... and after some prep, it's still in the big block though, will (try to) cut a little pedestal out of the rock. Unfortunately the centre is missing. I also found a few beautiful brachiopods, bivalves and worm tubes - and also an echinoid! I have yet to ID any of these, but I think I actually prefer them over the ammonites, I wish I collected a few more.