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Awesome day in New Mexico! Two beautiful Turrilites acutus out of the Dakota Formation in Sandoval County, New Mexico

I live out in west Texas and the collecting locations out here are almost exclusively Lower to Middle Cretaceous in age. Recently I have identified a particular layer in which the ammonite Oxytropidoceras (expealydocious ) can be found. Aside from the very first specimen (6.5 inches in diameter), every other individual has fallen victim to the freeze/thaw cycles over MANY years. The layer is flat-lying and found within inches of the surface. So far, the innermost whorls of the ammonites (especially the larger ones) are completely disintegrated and the rest of the specimen is highly fractured. For my fellow TEXANS in particular....is this a common experience in north and central Texas areas? I would also be interested in hearing about your finds and any possible "tricks" in the collection of these specimens. THANKS! Dave

Cold day in the desert but a ton of fun with some great finds! Thank you @PFOOLEY for the wisdom. These all were found in the Carlile formation in Sandoval County, New Mexico.

Hello. A friend of mine was out collecting near Cibolo Creek in Texas and he thinks he found some nautiloids. I'm not sure about that identification. Can I get some opinions on if these are fossils or rocks. Thanks very much.

Im not sure this is in the right place, but here goes. First I want to wish everyone a very merry Xmas, a happy holidays or what ever suits your fancy. I had ordered a very large ammonite from madagascar quite awhile ago, but being that we lost a family member I didnt have it in me to post anything. Life throws some purty big curve balls and I will never get past this one but still trying to make a good christmas. The big ammo on the bottom left is a 65 lbs Monster! Got a few others there too but have had those for quite awhile. The big Placenticeras is one my youngest son gave me. A few more of these big rocks and I wont be able to get to the wood stove?! Everybody be good and stay out of trouble. RB

I said that I would send some images of the material I found on my fall pilgrimage. But about 2 weeks later I was laid low with both COVID19 and influenza A. I just got out of the hospital yesterday after 21 days (with 8 in the ICU). But I've got a couple of questions about some material I found, including a sweet Nautiloid from the Finis shale. Stay tuned I'll be back.

Went out to Windmill Site in the Rio Puerco Valley today(11/27). It was very cold but very worth it. Found some ammonite pieces, a few oyster shells, and a lot of teeth. We are unsure who the teeth belonged to. Can anyone help us identify these finds? Thank you in advance. Beautiful day in New Mexico.

Last winter, on an otherwise poor outing at Big Brook, N.J. in the cold, I found a partial ammonite body chamber- Trachyscaphites pulcherrimus with nice details. I showed it to Ralph Johnson, who curates the MAPS collection (Monmouth Amateur Paleontological Society). I agreed to donate this rare specimen to what is the largest collection of Upper Cretaceous marine fossils from the Atlantic Coastal Plain (New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland). The fossil ended up in the MAPS collection's educational display. I finally got to see it today, prepared by Ralph, in the display case and photograph it.

Hello everyone. I'm sorry to bother you. I have a few ammonites and ammonite impressions from a trip. I was wondering if you have any suggestions in how to clean them. I'm afraid of destroying them in the process. Thank you.

Hello all, My since we just went through Hurricane Sally, my wife said I need to get out and go collecting. Who am I to argue! So I'm planning a trip to north Texas to collect. I would appreciate and help from y'all to point me in the right direction. I have been to Lake Texoma and the Jacksboro once, briefly, in the past and really had a great time there. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hello. A friend of mine showed me this fossil. He received it as a gift, so he doesn't know its origin. It seems to me to be an ammonite. Could you help me identify the species and its approximate age? Thank you.

I have a nice selection of various species of Ammonite from cowboy pass, Utah. I’ve been sitting on them for a year as I have no clue how to prepare the ones that have the very hard encrustations. Wire wheels had little effect. I’m thinking something more aggressive on the bench grinder... last year I saw some prepped on here, but was no info on technique. And I cannot seem to find that thread now... will post photos when not on mobile!

Here are some pictures from my latest trip to the NSR. Nothing special this trip but I was wondering what the last two pictures are of. Seems like a more recent fossil possible a tooth of a mammal?

Hello all, I have been gone for a year or so due to a number of lengthy expeditions for work, and of course the pandemic. However, I am finally back home at the labs, and have nearly two years worth of fossils to process from all over the U.S. Sure, I hunt worms no one cares about for a living when I am not yelling at undergrads to clean up after themselves and chewing out grad students for wearing flip-flops, but I enjoy a good fossil hunting trip. I am still working through my specimens from Cowboy Pass and the Wheeler Shale in Utah from 2019, and have nearly half of my Green River Formation specimens finished up. For 2020, I procured permits and a small grant that allowed me to go hunting for specimens in places I would normally only be able to take pictures as we build up our collection here at the university. On that note, the Uni still hasn't given me a critter room or a museum space, but they did spring for proper storage for the new collections I am building for them. I was supposed to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip with actual paleontologists to a famous non-US site, but the pandemic put the clamps on that for now. All that has really changed is that my employer now outfits me with a company van for my excursions, so I am able to haul more gear to even more places than I would in a rental or my death-trap VW. Well, that and I have new cameras and some other equipment that have made for significantly better expeditions. As a taste of things to come- I was lucky enough to connect with a rancher near the famous Norden Bridge and was allowed to keep a few samples! (though I found some really, really good stuff for the rancher too, who has a collection that made me lightheaded) There are from a new cut he had just made through a sandhill to build a new cattle trough for his stock. I spent hours sifting through the scree. I knew this was the place to stop first as the first photo was clearly visible as I was driving through to another site on the property he asked me to check out for him. He's an older fellow and it was HOT out so he was very amenable to letting me hunt on his land as long as he was allowed to keep the "real good stuff" as he put it. I actually had a better time sucking down a few cold ones with him after the hunt as we sorted the finds and traded fossil hunting stories. I obviously cant provide locations or names, but I was invited back anytime and can actually camp out when I do, which makes it a bonanza for me! No certain what the first is, as more research is needed, but the second is a fragment of one of the 3-toed horses found in that formation.

Dear members, here I want to present my latest hunting trip, in the south east of France. This region has been known for decades to geologists for the vas amount of outcrops of Cretaceous age. In fact, there's even a GSSP and a stratotype section. Since most of these areas are protected, I checked where I could collect fossils freely. A famous spot for collectors is Carniol, located 125 km (77 mi) north of Marseille. Here, Aptian (Early Cretaceous) clays crop out and fossils can be easily collected by hand or with a small tool. A view of the outcrop: Fossils are extremely abundant. You don't need to excavate, you can easily pick those exposed on the surface. Because of these, many are too fragmented or fragile, but there's no shortage of well preserved specimen! Ammonoids are the most common specimens. I have not been able to ID them yet, because of the lack of specific papers on Carniol. Here's two of the largest and best preserved specimen that I found: Belemnites are extremely common as well, but complete specimens much more rare. Here's a complete specimen: And here a large one! And now, all my finds together: you can see ammonoids, belemnites, gastropods and bivalves. The best-preserved fossils after a cleaning process: Finally, I'm not sure about these: Here's all! I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my post. I'd love to hear your comments and hopefully IDs. Besides, if you have any reading suggestion, they are more than welcome. Thanks, Fabio

The fall hunting season has arrived in Alaska and I had an epic trip last week through the 40 Mile River country and on to the north slope of the Brooks Range. This will be a multiple post picture essay as the pictures show better than words what Alaska has to offer when the weather is nice. The first picture shows where I ended up for several days between the Saddlerochit Mountains to the north and the pictured Shublik Mountains to the south. This was a hunting trip that turned more into a camping trip with a rifle and then paleo adventure as I started to recognize the unique geologic features which are very evident from the air with little cover vegetation. Upon returning home researched where I was and this location has one of the best exposures of Middle Jurassic rocks in northern Alaska. I was camped 7 miles from the Ignek Mesa and hiked in the area several days without seeing a single person. This is the Katakturuk River that cuts through the Saddleochit Mountains and demonstrates that there must have been a slow uplift of the mountain as the mountains are over 5,000' in elevation on either side of the river cut. To the north is the Arctic Ocean about 30 miles from the picture. First advice for going with a pack dog is don't put anything you want to keep dry in the dog pack. The weather was really warm for the arctic and Kobuk was in every creek to his belly even if it meant he had to lay down. This exposure is Early Bajocian and assigned Kignak Shale. I want to be abundantly clear this was a catch and release trip as NO collecting is allowed without a permit in all the areas I travel this trip. ALL pictured fossils were left laying where they were sighted with these being on the top of this shale. Heading back to camp after the first day of hiking. The following day we got up early and went over to the head of the valley by a mesa and saw beautiful scenery and a few more fossils as well as the first sheep tracks of the trip. We came a cross several caribou each day and they all still had velvet on their antlers. This was the first evidence of a fossil I saw on this hike and stopped looking for sheep and more at the geology. Within 20 feet saw an amazing sight and it was a wonder I saw it at all due to how small it was. The ammonite is .8 centimetres in diameter and my eye caught the mold with ammonite right beside it. These belemnite pieces were farther up the hill. These tracks are from Dall sheep which had been in the area recently which was interesting as this hill was just that not steep at all. Unfortunately here is one of the two sheep I saw on that hill. Both were winter kill and likely due to the warm winters we have been having with deep snow and thaw/freeze cycles. The sheep starve as not able to paw through more than 30 cm of accumulated snow. If the snow crusts from melting and then freezes the wind does not clear the snow and the sheep starve. The fossils were all within arms reach of these sheep bones. Kobuk in a recently occupied sheep bed. This was seen on the hike back down the hill. Interesting concretions of this formation. Similar fossils from farther down the valley from the previous days hike. I saw this fossil and suspect it may be crinoids but are new to me so not sure. Shows where the Jurassic age ammonite was seen.

Prehistoric fossils discovered in Gia Lai (Vietnam) Suspected 200-million-year-old ammonite fossilsappear in Vietnam's Central Highlands Yours, Paul H.

I spent a good part of several mornings in the past three weekends doing a honeydew project, repairing our rock wall. (It got too hot in the afternoons). Here is the reason for the project. The problem... the wall is falling apart, and it contains no fossils, as seen above. I had to look up how to do this on the interwebs. But it was pretty simple in the end. Below is a piece of Dungenanoceras from just down the road. (OK, about an hour and half down the road). below, a piece of rock from Oklahoma with a trilobite tail and a brachiopod. To the right, a local baculite in matrix. Below, a local beryl crystal in matrix, a piece of Blue Forest wood (western Wyoming), another local ammonite (Prionocyclus) and a marble my wife found. She was weeding the garden while I worked on the wall. The cornerstone is a pretty nice ammonite from France. To prove that I am no professional, I made no effort to fix the lid on this portion. Thanks for looking.

Hi I've been gifted a plate with different ammonites in it. As it comes from a second hand store, there's no record for provenance,age and all other infos. I'd appreciate any help with the identification. Thanks Back of plate:

Summer vacation fossil hunting week. Like each summer Natalie and I spend 1 week of our holiday for a fossil hunting trip. Usually the destination for this is the Isle of Wight, but due to the current covid situations we had to choose another location. So we went for 1 week to the French coast altering between late Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits.. Although there were no big tide or storms we still got our fair share of fossils in the boulders on the beaches and we even had a few spots of gault clay exposed where we found some nice phosphate ammonites and crustaceans. I’ll let you all enjoy the holiday pictures: Natalie found this exqusite little lobster in situ on the beach on the 1st day: ( Hoploparia longimana, Albian ( Gault clay ) ) soon joined by another specimen. Ichthyosaur vert from the Kimmeridgian: more beach: jurassic ripplemarks: Chalky ammonites in the loose boulders: Mantelliceras sp. : lower Cenomanian Cunningtoniceras inerme Mid. Cenomanian And a large one found by a local collector that we got to take back home ( Thx a lot Luc ) ( Lewesiceras peramplum, Turonian ) And a few pieces after cleanup and prepwork: Albian Ammonites from the gault clay: Gault clay crabs: a few of the chalky ammonites: a nice rare heteromorph: Turrilites scheuchzerianus mid. Cenomanian before and after prep:

McNamara, K., 1987-1988. Australian Ammonites. Australian Natural History. 22(7), Summer 1987-88, pp. 332-336. Index and PDF links to Australian Natural History (1962-1995) Yours, Paul H.

So for the last two and a half weeks I’ve been camping in the Ardèche region in southern France. After a long, exhausting trip of 13 hours we finally arrived. We put up the tent, read a book and went to sleep so we would be fit for our first real day of our vacation. At the first day, we did visit the museum I showed in this topic: After that, the real work started. This big pile of rock was just dumped at the edge of the road. After a few minutes we found our first complete ammonite. Spot the ammonite The whole region is filled with these small piles of rocks, so as long as you just keep walking, you’ll find them… The region itself is beautiful too. Anyway, except two beautiful little ammonites, the first day didn’t really work out. The next day I walked a little further from the camping (like little as in 10km). Totally worth it! I found an amazing spot were marls eroded away and just left tiny ammonites. When I found them I immediately thought of an old topic by @Max-fossils who went to Carniol some time ago. At first, I thought it was identical, except this spot was a lot smaller, not as rich and with a couple of different species. I think I spent about 40 hours at this spot, and I think I found about 150 tiny ammonites, from at least 8-9 different species (but I’m far from an ammonite expert). I think these are lower Cretaceous, but I am not sure on a more precise date. How most of the place looks. Covered with tiny ammonites that resurface after heavy rains (which occurred three times during my stay, so I could keep searching at the same spot) The spot, kind a steep wall (me for scale). Anyways, time for some of the finds (my good camera broke down so I do this with my phone): I think these are Aconeceras nisus, the most common species.

I made a trip to the Lake Texoma area yesterday, to hunt a Duck Creek outcropping on a bluff. This was one of those trips that turned into more of an adventure than I bargained for. The hike from where I had to park was a lot longer and more arduous than I anticipated (it always looks easy on a satellite image, doesn't it?), and it ended up being one of those situations where I just couldn't come back the way I went in. So, I ended up getting lost, and hiking a much further distance on the return, with a heavy backpack. I should have taken a moment to mark on gps where I parked the van, and didn't do it. I won't make that mistake again. Even when you don't have wifi or cell coverage (and I didn't), gps works, and I'll use it better from now on. I wouldn't have been able to make anything close to a straight line hike back to the van, but would have done a lot better than I did. When you end up making an unexpectedly long hike with a heavy backpack on a humid ninety something degree day in July in Oklahoma, you run out of water. That iced tea in my lunch ice chest in the van was very welcome when I finally got back to it. This is a great fossil hunting spot, but I think I'm putting it on my list of spots for milder weather times of the year. Once I reached the bluff, I couldn't believe how many large ammonite fragments there were. Every five steps I took, I saw another, and took over thirty photos in short order. Here are a few representative photos. Keep in mind that chisel is 12 inches (30 cm) long.