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The Rio Puerco Valley was my introduction to fossils. For many years now, I have scoured its Late Cretaceous shales and sandstones in search of ammonites. Somewhere along the way, my fascination with the ornament grew into an investigation of its environment. Last week at the New Mexico Geologic Society's Spring meeting, I made my first venture into the world of paleontological science. With the help of Dr. Spencer Lucas of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, I presented a poster/abstract (Foley & Lucas 2017.pdf) exhibiting my ideas. I received some criticism for incorporating ammonite ornament and caught some grief for including a labeled map...otherwise, this was an amazing learning experience and I am ready to move forward. Back to the rocks!...I have a paper to write. Blue Hill Shale: Spathites puercoensis: Prionocyclys hyatti: Coilopoceras springeri:

Here's a few more images from my Thursday-Friday Southeast Utah desert fossil hunting excursion. I had pinned a number of spots to check out and realized...again...the map scale vs reality are slightly different. I entered from the north and traveled southerly making quick pit stops during the late afternoon Thursday. Drive to a Google Map pin, jump out, scout the area, take a few pics, surface hunt for weathered out fossils, go to the next spot. Finally arriving for the night at the first place I hunted two weeks ago. And the aim was then to hunt from South to North as I spent the next day. Some scenery, some fossils found, some flora and fauna along the way. Several antelope wandered ahead of me and I whistled for them to stop, they did but were still too far for a decent pic. Local hunters call them speed goats. I think this was the first ammonite found...Prionocyclus hyatii, I believe. Many are poorly preserved like large brown sugar crystals in the shape of an ammonite. Moving on to another map pin. The edge of a cuesta, the front of the slope, about 60 feet down. And a local, a desert spiny lizard sunning on a weathered concretion. And some more lichen which I do find interesting. The orange lichen was about 4 inches in diameter. After exploring the cliff I hiked back up to the road to find a gentler slope to get further down where the concretions were. Right at the crest I saw this on the ground. Not a fossil but a calcite crystal cluster which came home with me. Pretty cool to me and the partial coating on the crystals glow orange under UV light. Moving along I find a safe passage down to the bench before the cliff lip. Concretions were everywhere...but there was a catch. They were all over a meter in diameter. 1,000 to 1500 KG in guesstimated weight. So big you can see them from the google maps satellite. The big one protruding from the cliff slope above me gives a whole new meaning to keeping an eye out for falling rock. This one is about 5 feet in diameter. My drink cup is 8 inches tall. It will weather out and roll...eventually. I kept an eye on it and out of its path. A seismic tremor big enough could dislodge it. There is a famous wall of this type of concretion known as the Buried Forest. Back in 1900 or so some scientists declared this to be petrified trees sheared off at the cliff face. Lots of press, became a tourist site and later study discerned them to not be growth rings but concretion layers with a fossil inside sometimes. The name stuck and you can google the Buried Forest in Utah for yourself. It does look kind of "tree-ish", right? This particular one isn't in the famous section. Had those early folks seen this one first, they would be seeing the other half of the sphere laying on the ground in front of the embedded half. Uuhh...yepper... these here would be your large stone balls stuck in a cliff with some of them split in half. Ain't no trees here, folks, move along. I did find a few fossils in the washes. Mostly bivalves which species are currently unknown to me. ...and the ubiquitous gastropods...this specimen was probably split then weathered many moons ago. Maybe centuries. Moving on...townsendia icana - the Easter Daisy Moving along ...much further south. This location is reputed to hold many fossil ammonites in particular Prionocylus hyatti. What surprised me was that another ammo would be revealed. That Placenticeras pseudoplacneta, which I was hoping to find. You can see my old Chevy cop car from where I'm standing at the base of what you see in the photo. The one I'm at was the smallest and therefore a shorter distance to circumnavigate. I started at the closest point to my vehicle with just a drink and a hammer. These formations were easy to find on google maps and in reality. When I drove up the layout was instantly recognizable. Yay! So counterclockwise I went from the bottom of the clock at 6 around towards 12 and back to 6 and to the car and the next locations. Several minutes later...nothing from 7, 6, 5 or 4 on the clock face. But 3 had something. A bug! Desert stink beetle,,,biggest one I've seen. Just had to pick it up. Yup...got me some perfume on my fingers. Gave the beetle a drink of water and took a few pics and sent it on its way. The next find was something familiar. Previous fossil hunters' remains. Oops! No, not those remains. Nothing to see here. Next pic, please. These remains! Yeah, where previous hammer work was performed. The tell that most likely the easy surface concretions have been found and opened. Again and again...but it gave me hope that since they were finding, then so should I. Moving along towards 2, 1 and 12 I started to see some differences in the debris field. More rocks weathered out, more concretions split open. And this another sign of Placenticeras pseudoplacneta. An imprint of a big one. But only this section. I turn past 12 heading back towards 6 o'clock and my car when I found more broken and intact concretions. These are all the cantelope sized ones. The boulders are just bigger concretions but Paul Bunyan or Thor would need to do the breaking open on the 500 pounders. I found one with a little ammonite protruding from the center but snapped it during a retrieval effort. The rest was locked in tight. And then the magic happened. I scored three times in a row as I mentioned in the first thread. Had to leave gear and finds behind while I returned to my vehicle to get it closer, refill the drink cup and get the Bigger hammer. One hit with the 6# sledge does the trick. Before...after. One whack, it cracks. Next! Okay, I'm not Thor and this ain't Mjolnir. I left it on this rock while ferrying finds back to the car about 150 yards distant from me. That about wraps it up folks. Last shot...a bucket of gifts from Mother Earth. And back to the highway with a slightly heavier car and a big smile both from the rewarding hunt and staying hydrated for the most part. Stopped at the first store and got one for the road. That would be a Diet Dew. The adrenaline of two days and lack of sleep from a full moon night left me with too much blood in my caffeine stream. Normally, just two sodas a day are my limit but weekends I might have a third each day if I burn the candle late. Just got to figure out how to free that Placenticeras psudoplacneta ammonite from its matrix prison. I posed a question about trying the freeze thaw method because hitting it isn't an option for me. And a jumbo air scribe is yet to be in my kit. Oh, and a fellow forumite is getting a box of rocks if he's still interested. You know who you are. There's a few extra not in this bucket. Steve

Recently, a box of rocks arrived in the mail from Hull, England. The rocks are specifically Ammonites in matrix. The species all seem to be Dactylioceras based on what is exposed but that ID could also change once they are prepped. I’ve just barely started fossil prepping with an electric engraver and in previous years of casual collecting the rock hammer was the only tool used. CRACK! Oh, look at that! A fossil trilobite! Prepping done. Yeah, that was it. The Dremel 290 engraver is a “gateway” tool and only with proper tungsten carbide tips replacing the original stylus does the engraver become a lot more capable at removing matrix. Off to a good start, IMO, on the first Ammonite and I’ve already discovered some of what I’ve seen in videos ...i.e. - sticky matrix, pyritic matrix, hard veins of calcite and other fun stuff. The Dremel has its place but I can see the need for an air pen/scribe already. Like I said, it’s a “gateway” tool. Surprisingly, a number of Brits in the preparation discipline/hobby have also tried out the engravers and most say it works, just slower than air tools. So when the Zoic crew get back from their vacay I’ll be placing an order with them. I did buy the 3 pack styli kit from them and like what they offer. There’s an air compressor in the garage ready and waiting. Here’s the contents of my ‘box of rocks’ and a second is en route from across the pond already. This one looked like the low hanging fruit so I’m starting with it. The Dremel with the Zoic stylus chewed right into it with chips flying. The dome reduced nicely until about halfway and I’ve run into pyritic hard stuff. Slow going. So I grabbed another tool and cut some shallow grooves to allow the stylus some chipping purchase. It really helped. Once again the chips are flying and the ribbed whorls are appearing. I’m keeping the sessions under an hour each to avoid overheating the engraver. Thus far it’s not even getting very warm. Fossil prepping technique is new to me and plowing through harder shale is not a bull in a china shop job. More like finesse work. Find the right angle, the right contact point and touch the matrix. At times it seems that the only pressure of the tool is next to nothing. Make contact, pull back to the lightest touch and Pop! Off goes the chip. Fingers crossed! So far I've only done some rough matrix removal. The higher magnification, dental tools and needle work plus air abrasion is to come. Any tips, critique, advice, comments, whatever are welcome. Steve

Just like the title says, right now, as I type this, I'm out and about in southeast Utah under the rising moon and for real am hunting fossils. Gotta be so far out of the box that my sanity may be in question...again. Naahh...this is better than TV, which we turned off in '06 or '07. From April to October I'm out under the stars during the new Moon phase enjoying a little astrophotography and solitude in the desert. But the moon is huge and bright so no Astro tonight. I busted my rear all week at work and my wife hearing me whine offered some cheese to go with it. Actually, she said take Friday off and go have fun. You deserve it! You never take time off! Work will be there Monday! Do it! I checked with the department head today around noon to see if I could cut out early today and take off Friday . Being said Dept Head...I said to myself go boy you deserve it. I did. And I'm lichen it. Say... is that a fossil concretion on top of that boulder? You betcha! And there's more where that came from. Earlier today I drove past the road cut known for its " abundant gar fishes" fossils. I arrived around 4:30 and drove through the Mounds Reef for a dozen or so miles of groomed BLM gravel roads checking out some pinned spots along the way. A few were scenic cliffs with the concretions 60 feet below. Some of the concretions were over a meter in diameter. I kept driving to the next pin in Google maps to see where I wanted to stop and put boots on the ground. One promising spot already has boot prints on the ground ahead of me. Fresh, too. Sigh...another has prints and smashed concretions laying about. Okay, fair enough . This isn't some big secret honey hole. More like the wide open desert with plenty to go around. I found one not busted open and was rewarded with a small Ammonite. Yay! I found a couple more Ammos before sunset but was focusing on finding a productive concretion spot. On to the next and final spot. The exact same location as two weeks ago. I learned from a wise charter boat captain years ago...you don't leave fish to go look for fish. So here I am. Break is over moonlight is wasting. Crazy how bright the desert is right now. I hope I can sleep later. Stay tuned for tomorrow's episode...when Steve stays hydrated all day despite the fossil fever in full swing.

I’ll start off my collection with the most common ammonite you can find on the Yorkshire coastline in England. Dactylioceras Commune Lower Jurassic, Upper Lias. Roughly 180myo You can find these ammonites in abundance in Whitby. No exaggerations when I say iv seen thousands over the years. You can find them in plenty of other locations all over Europe, though they’re most known as the Whitby Dac. Now, while they maybe common, size comes into play with mine. You’re usual dac, will probably be between 2-3 inches. If you’re lucky, you can get a 4 inch one, though uncommon. map imagine my shock, when I found a monster with its keel poking out. It takes something special to get me excited about one these days, and this one did just that. After prep, I measure from mouth to keel, and it came in at 5inches to the dot. With the mouth hood preserved, and as good a middle as you’ll get, it’s safe to say you don’t get better. Iv asked around and have yet to see one bigger, though I can guarantee, I’d say this may be the largest Dactylioceras Commune to come from Whitby to date. I hope you enjoy my collection as I post them, as much as I do. Thanks for reading. Dan

The Biggest Ammonite Fossil Ever Found Was A Whopping 1.8 Meters That means the largest ammonites were similar in size to giant sunfish when they were alive Rachael Funnell, IFL Science, June 9, 2023 Parapuzosia seppenradensis - Wikipedia A related article is: Tohoku University Exhibits Rare Giant Ammonite Fossil By Iednewsdesk On Aug 29, 2023 Yours, Paul H.

Since we had a little rain for the first time in months in Tarrant and Johnson counties in Texas, I’ve been revisiting my usual spots to see what’s new. In this case, I went a bit deeper into unexplored areas of a local creek bed. I was not disappointed! I’m not an expert on identification, so some of you can help me learn, but mostly I found mortoniceras ammonites and a few nice sized macraster echinoids. I’m just now learning how to professionally clean them up thanks to a very kind friend named Mercer, so that’s the next step with this group of ammos. Probably my best *quality* haul since I started hunting late 2022. The single photo is the ammonite on the lower right of the zoomed out group photo, for size comparison. The top left specimen is a huge oyster.

This trip was planned for last weekend but my wife was scheduled to fly home and the kiddos were working or busy so I get the pleasure of picking her up. The foul weather extended the flight plans from mid morning to 5 pm. I could have had my cake and eaten it too. Oh well, I picked the better choice . So this morning I got up at 5 AM, grabbed my gear and nutritive goodies and hit the road. South by South East to Price, UT- 129 miles/207 km from home. A beautiful day was forecast, but I was quite surprised at the temperature drop as I went over Solider Summit pass. 32F read the dash light. Enough about the weather...it did indeed bloom into a beautiful late summer day. Blue skies, 80F. I flubbed a few turns onto BLM land and had to U-turn it back 2 miles to get to one of my Google Maps pinned favorites. In reality, it wouldn't have made a difference. I checked the map with my destination pins and one fav was 22 miles from the first one and the last one was 50 miles from the first. It looks way smaller online than in reality. duhh! My favorite new Spanish word is "Cuesta" . pronounced coo-esta. Wiki says-A cuesta (from Spanish cuesta "slope") is a hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side, and a steep slope on the other. To me it looks like a perfect surfing wave, nice face in the front and lot of water behind it to power it along. Here's one in the distance. Imagine 50 miles of these beautiful land waves spitting out lovely fossil filled concretions right down the the face of the wave. Kinda like the shores of England. You can see the two lines. It's the cuesta in the distance, not the gully wash below my car on the left foreground. I parked there and hiked down the gully across the wash keeping an eye on the banks and wash debris. Nothing. Then about 200 meters to the base of the closest cuesta for some scouting. That took about Five Minutes. First brown concretion I came upon at the cuesta base got a taste of hammer. Bam! Fossil Bomb! Bivalves, Gastropods and my target fossil Ammonites! Double bivalve is number one find of the day. Same concretion rewards me with my first ammo. The two species reputed to be in these concretions and stratigraphy are prionocyclus hyatti and prionocyclus wyomingensis. This one is the former in robust form. I actually kissed this one I was so stoked. lol. After that I started scouting for concretions and well...let's just say there is no shortage. I then surveyed the immediate landscape and decided to go south first to walk the base and ridge of this rather short cuesta and try to determine the best source. After too long of a hike I found the distribution to about the same. So instead of north I hiked up the face of the slope and checked out the layers. The top had no particular showing of concretions eroding out so that put them coming out a little lower down. The top had shale or sandstone looking material all over the edge. Nothing was showing so I flipped a few of the larger layered slabs. Sure enough the underside had something completely different. So please throw in your best ID names at will. There was a shaley patch on top of these things like smashed potato chips/crisps which brushed off easily revealing the forest of something unfamiliar to me. Crinoids? maybe, IDK. A marine coral? maybe, IDK. Something else? Well I should do my homework. The slab panel and a closeup of the left section. Any ideas? Or expert ID? Cretaceous is the period. Here's the result of one concretion revealing its innards. At least 5 species. And a little friend/distraction. Bottom of the card. Closeup of previous concretion contents. The concretions were sometimes extremely crumbly with most every fossil breaking with the exception mostly with the bivalves. Ammos broke about the same ratio as the gastropods. A small pile of concretions to break open. There were a few other side adventures while scouting the cuesta but I'll end with the very last concretion I struck open. It made my day! One hit on the widest circumference. CRACK! It split open just as you see it. To wind up the commentary, I had Pete and Repeat in the boat with me again. Just like my second trip to Kemmerer, WY, fossil quarry. If you're not familiar with Pete and Repeat, it's a simple annoying joke. I say: Pete and Repeat were in a boat, Pete fell overboard. Who was left? You say: Repeat. I say: Pete and Repeat were in a boat, Pete fell overboard. Who was left? You: either say Repeat again and I repeat the joke or you get it and roll your eyes. Connect the joke to my two fossil hunting trips. Higher altitude, warming sun, dehydration, too much fossil enthusiasm = I gas out by 1:30 PM and running on stubborn and will power, I make it back to the car. Same this trip as the 2nd Kemmerer trip. Except there was an audience at Kemmerer. Just me and lizards this trip. My intention was to fill a bucket or milk crate with fossils; reality-a partial fill. Left the mystery marine fossil above my base camp. Will need to go back with cooler weather and carrying more H2O with electrolytes and not one Diet Dew with Pineapple juice mixed to carry to the digging site...NOT in the vehicle which may as well had been on Mars. I had 3 gallons of ice water, two Capri Suns, a 16 oz water bottle and another Diet Dew or three for the ride home. Plus lunch. Barely made it to the vehicle with a couple stops to cover the 300 yards. Two pounds lighter than yesterday. More pics if interested. PS -Roger (Ludwigia) pack your bags, book a flight. This destination is at 6,000'ASL, flat ground for the most part, multiple trips to the vehicle with the finds, free transportation from the airport & fossil site plus room and board! I'll be going back a number of times this season and post winter snow melt which is usually minimal down south in Utah. The name of the area is Mounds Reef if anyone is curious about it. Not the specific hunting sites, just a big chunk of desert real estate. Approx. 100 sq miles of not much but cuestas, yeah!

Fossils: Boy finds 200-million-year-old ammonite on beach By David Grundy, BBC News, United Kingdpm, March 30, 2023 Yours, Paul H.

'Like swallowing a dinner plate': 180 million-year-old fish may have choked to death on its supersized supper, Ethan Freedman, LiveScience, August 14, 2023 Death By Ammonite" Shows Jurassic Fish's Fatal Last Meal 180 Million Years On Racheal Funnell, IFLscience, August 2, 2023 The open access paper is: Cooper, S.L. and Maxwell, E.E., 2023. Death by ammonite: fatal ingestion of an ammonoid shell by an Early Jurassic bony fish. Geological Magazine, 160(7), pp.1254-1261. Yours, Paul H.

Found these ammonites (spiecies?) And also a few of the "flipper" looking one, last picture. I'm wondering what that could be. Part of something or trace of something? Found in svalbard, ymerbukta. Between middle jurassic and early cretaceous.

The Ammonite Wall of Digne-Les-Bains: A Closer Look at This Geological Marvel, The Rockseeker Dalle à ammonites - Wikipedia - lots of pictures Another URL A paper is: Bert, D., Bousquet, V., Guiomar, M., Bariani, F., Hippolyte, J.C., Bromblet, P., Garciaz, J.L., Fleury, J., Mathieu, P., Pagès, J.S. and Tardieu, P., 2022. The Geotouristic Project “the Geological Adventure” to the Rescue of an Iconic World Heritage Geosite, the Ammonites Slab of Digne-les-Bains (National Geological Nature Reserve of Haute-Provence and Unesco Global Geopark, France). Geoheritage, 14(3), p.101. PDF of preprint of Bousquet et al. (2022) - Sorry, no figures Abstract and paywalled paper A field trip guidebook that includes the "ammonite slab" is: Livret-Guide d'excursion géologique, congrès de l'Association des paléontologues français, 3-5 Mai 2007 Yours, Paul H.

One of the really best websites about cretaceous and jurassic ammonites has been removed from the net, www.ammonites.fr This was always an inspiration to compare own finds and determine them. I do not really know why, have heard some stories but did not talk to Herve Chatelier, the owner And, when you look with the waybackmachine it is not possible to open former versions... I will miss the website

Hi Everyone! A couple of days ago I returned from a fieldtrip to the Solnhofen region in Germany. The trip was organized by my fossilclub the BVP as well as my friend and professional paleontologist Jonathan Wallaard who led the trip. During our 4 day stay we visited 3 different quarries and the Burgermeister-Müller-Museum in Solnhofen. The Solnhofen Limestone is probably one of the most famous Konservat-Lagerstätte in the World. Dating back to the late Jurassic, Tithonian around 152 - 150 million years ago. During this time this area was a tropical archipelago in the Tethys Sea with many small islands and shallow lagoons. Due to its exceptional preservation we have an extensive record of the marine fauna as well a some knowledge of terrestrial species which inhabited the islands (which should have been located around 30 km from the mainland if I heard correctly from one of the quarry owners.) These seas were home to multiple species of ammonites, belemnites and squids; crinoïds like the free-floating Saccocoma; Echinoïds and Starfish; Horseshoe crabs, lobsters, crabs and schrimps; as well as sponges, corals, jellyfish, bivalves, gastropods and brachiopods (which are relatively rare finds.) But also a large diversity of bony fish (some of which could reach multiple meters in length), Hybodont sharks, Chimaera's as well as marine reptiles like the Ichthyosaur "Aegirosaurus", marine crocodiles, turtles and Pleurosaurus. The islands were home to Cycads and Araucariaceae trees, but also by many insects like dragonflies and beetles, reptiles like Sphenodonts and Squamates. Though the most famous of its inhabitants must have been the pterosaurs like Pterodactylus and Rhamphorhynchus as well as some dinosaurs like Compsognathus, Juravenator, Sciurumimus, Archaeopteryx and Alcmonavis. Our first day of digging was on friday (may 19th) at the BGM hobbysteinbruch in Solnhofen which is part of the Mörnsheim Formation (150,8 - 150 mya). https://www.solnhofen-fossilienatlas.de/siteinfo.php?section=sites&siteid=75&sitename=Solnhofen Hobbybruch The main fossils that could be found in this quarry were ammonites, aptychi, coprolites as well as fish. Our group of around 30 people assembled at the quarry at 10 o'clock and after a few words from the quarry owner and Jonathan we set of to dig. An overview of the quarry before we started digging. A couple of minutes later... Jonathan pointed me and my good friend Tom to a good place to dig and so we started cleaning debri so we could start digging. Since the Plattenkalk is layered it is always a good stategy to find some plateaus where so can hack away chunks which you can later split (which I suppose most of you already know). Pic of my hole in which I was working Unfortunately it turns out that the spot I picked must have been a public toilet as pretty much everything I found the first half of the day where coprolites, which turned into a running joke that day I was lucky enough to find a fish early one, though still entirely entombed in the rock but Jonathan warned us to look for bones into the cracked stones and that's how I managed to find it. Will require quite some prep work though. Later that day I started finding multiple Aptychi, Ammonites as well as a rare Bivalve. A plate with 3 ammonites (probably Neochetoceras steraspis) An ammonite with the Aptychus still in place which was found by one of the other members. Our club founder Luc, found this large piece of decorative slab which almost looked like it is petrified wooden dining table. Not a fossil but still cool as heck. And Tinneke managed to find a lovely fish jaw which was excavated by the help of Jonathan. While I didn't take pictures of the following, quite some members found fossil fish (some around 40 cm in lenght) and crustaceans like schrimp.

The Biggest Ammonite Fossil Ever Found Was A Whopping 1.8 Meters Rachel Funnel. IFL Science, June 9, 2023 Parapuzosia seppenradensis An open access paper is: Ifrim, C., Stinnesbeck, W., González González, A.H., Schorndorf, N. and Gale, A.S., 2021. Ontogeny, evolution and palaeogeographic distribution of the world’s largest ammonite Parapuzosia (P.) seppenradensis (Landois, 1895). Plos one, 16(11), p.e0258510. Another paper is: Scott, G. and Moore, M.H., 1928. Ammonites of enormous size from the Texas Cretaceous. Journal of Paleontology, pp.273-279. Yours, Paul H.

Well, this year we did not battle the gods of snow and mud. The temperatures were also not scorching this year, with a nice breeze and a hint of a drizzle coming into the area instead. This Baculite Mesa location is always a (WIPS) Western Interior Palentological Society favorite led by our respected leader Malcolm Bedell. Several experts on the site were in attendance, so good advice and information was graciously provided as always ... Looking toward the mesa. The helpers are READY ! .. they did a good job this time. The hike there and back took a good three hours of time. Exercising their little muscles for a dad win. Only have a few of those so they are treasured. Comon' dad, I wanna climb ! Ok, first, we must stop off and smell the flowers blooming in the desert this time of year. This is the typical presentation of the Baculites, usually as casts. Or eroding quickly out of the formation. We have had tons of rain and snow this year, so their scattered skeletons were everywhere. Generally I pick up a few as giveaways. Still some of the original shell on this one. A good example of what you will usually find in the area. I was most interested in exploring the Tepee Buttes this year. These carbonate deposits were created by cold methane seeps. These seeps, in turn, colonized by microbes that fix the chemical energy, supporting a vibrant marine community. There are at least half-a-dozen surrounding the local area. Inoceramus sp. are common at the vent sites. I believe these bivalves are Nymphalucina occidentalis and are common on the buttes. They often are filled with calcite crystals. A bit of Inoceramus sp. shell You can also find traces of the baculites in these formations as well. The climbing was the best part for the kids. Several of the baculite fossils found that day had these large round concretions attached. Our local resident expert indicated that these concretions hid crab predation marks. Large predation entry points created when the crab popped open the shell like a tin can, to feed on the baculites, as they came to rest on the sea floor. The second site was better this year. My daughter was the first to flip what she thought was a stone. Low and behold ! ... a male ammonite fossil. Dad found the female. Lying in a wash, an arroyo, at the second collection location. A few more finds .. nothing to write home about, but they will be great for schools and to give away to those future fossil hunters. Cheers, Brett

Hello to all. Some photos from a recent trip.

Would like to see other members Pawpaw fm engonoceras ammonites for comparison. I have been prepping out ones with nice colors and would love to see others out there.

Hello all. I have these two ammonite halves in my and they are two different specimens, Can anyone confirm the are authentic. The one with blue background looks normal but the other looks odd and I'm concerned they are fake. Thank you

Coming up pretty soon, I'll find myself traveling through Glendive and would absolutely love to get my hands dirty looking for some good fossils. Nothing too crazy: ammos, baculites, belemnites and the like (although I certainly wouldn't turn down legal dino bits, if anyone is really willing to give a spot like that up ). I have a secret spot closer to Great Falls, lots of ammos and belemnites, that I'm willing to trade for some insider knowledge out near Glendive! Thanks all, happy hunting!

Hello everyone! I am new to the world of fossils and even more so to the preparation. Since I'm doing this by myself, I still don't know how to recognize each type of rock, so it makes it more difficult for me to figure out what type of motodo to use for preparation. In the pictures they look grey/greenish but in person they look whiter. Also, the cloth on the bottom is clear white while in the picture it looks blueish... So, let's take these 4 fossils as examples: 1)Is there a way to know if when preparing them I will find more parts of the fossil inside the rock or it is only the outer part that has that shape and inside both the fossil and the matrix are one single thing? 2) This other case is very similar to the previous one, so I think the answer would be the same. In any case, I would like to know how they would approach each case: 3) In this case, in my opinion, there is a belemnite on an ammonite that is covered by sediment. Anyway you can see a part of the ammonite where the sediment has been lost. Again, what do you think would look good to do to this one? 4) Finally we see an ammonite discovered on the surface of a rock. I don't know if there is almost anything to do in this one, but any suggestion will be good to take into account. Also, what are your thought on the Dremel 290? I cannot afford any better tool. What other tools would you recommend? Many thanks in advance to all who are interested. Greetings, Alfred

It has been a while since I've posted anything. Not a lot of finds recently. But I've done some prepwork: 1st a little cenomanian ammonite from the chalk: Shloenbachia varians Cap-Blanc-Nez and an other ammonite, from the Kimmeridgian deposits on the French coast: probably Pectinatites sp. I had to consolidate the back, the fossil started to crack during the prep.

I've read all kinds of articles and posts about MIXING Paraloid, but having never used it, I don't know how much TOTAL VOLUME to mix. I'm planning on preparing some brachiopods (some are broken) and a couple of medium (9-10") ammonites, which are fragile. I'll start with a 5% solution, since it seems best to start with a minimal amount, and work up if needed.