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Hi guys; I have recently been treated to a nice week down the Isle of Wight and having spent the first day down in Yaverland today I though I would share some of my finds. 1) these both appear to be Vertebra, I'm assuming they are dinosaur as I'm preatty sure I've read somewhere that crocodiles have concave and convex ends to their Vertebra but may be totally of base with that assumption.

Hi fossils friends, Here are some of my last preparations : Lower Triassic Flemingites lidacensis (Welter 1922) - 19 cm

I set off this morning on my first excursion since my return from Canada. Now that I'm settled back in at home again, I was starting to twiddle my thumbs, so I figured it was about time to get back to the Callovian hillside sites in the woods of the Wutach Valley area. Rain was being forecast, but that didn't deter me. Just threw my raincoat, rubber overalls and boots into the car along with my equipment and off I went. I decided to check out a spot I'd already worked several times with varying results. This time it really payed off, since I managed to find a section in a familiar horizon which started giving up some well-preserved ammonites. It's often the case that they just come out in bits or are not in very good condition, but this time I hit paydirt. The best one, although there are quite a few nice ones, is a Macrocephalites with a diameter of 20cm. which should prep out quite nicely. This really was my lucky day. It didn't even rain! As usual I didn't think to take along my camera , which would have made for some nice in situ shots, but at least I've made a couple of pics of the finds in the raw. I'll be starting the prep work tomorrow, so I'll be posting them one after the other here as they're done.

I walked upon a shale bed covered with these along other things I have not trained my eyes for.

Greetings from Oklahoma! I am so excited to find this forum, although the avenue in which I discovered it was purely out of mourning and needing a place to meet other enthusiasts. I discovered this evening that a treasured hunting spot from my childhood and adulthood has been bulldozed and carted away. (In southern Oklahoma near Lake Texoma.) My father has taken me here, and I have taken my kids here for years. Hoping to go back when the rattlesnakes are not out, but also hoping to meet any other fossil hunting enthusiasts from Oklahoma and and surrounding areas! Thank you!

Like did Ammonite shoot ink back then? please tell me.

I recently acquired quite a few boxes of fossils from an old collection. Lots of fun stuff from all over! I need some help identifying some of the holzmaden ammonites. I want to try myself first, so I will skip pictures for now, but a paper in English would be really nice! Maybe.... @doushantuo @Fruitbat Anyone else?

Hello everyone! I found this ammonite yesterday in Valencia, Spain (as far as I know the strata in that mountain are Jurassic/Cretaceous). I would appreciate any help on identifying what kind of ammonite it is and if anyone could tell me what's the mineral shown on its surface. Thanks for your help!

Hi, Some of you may have seen my post yesterday about unexpectedly stumbling across some ammonites here in the Lower Cretaceous sandstones (Lower Greensand) on the SE Isle Of Wight, on a beach I would never have thought to look. Last night I headed back down there with the intention of properly collecting and testing how abundant this new site was. I was not disappointed. I scrambled along the rocks from Bonchurch and got down there around 7pm, (just a 10 minute walk from my house) and began to systematically scan the beach. Within about an hour I'd picked up more than 50 phragmocones and fragments of ammonites, some of which were a decent size. Phragmocones are by far the most common find, although why this is I'm not sure, possibly due to environmental energy breaking up the ammonites? As far as I can tell the ammonites are parts of nodules which are originating from a hard, glauconite rich bed at the base of the cliff meaning they seem to be from the upper most parts of the Sandrock fm. Some however also seem to come from the Monk's Bay Sandstone fm. (Carstone fm.) which overlays the Sandrock. These were laid down in a shallow sub-tropical shelf sea during the Albian stage (100-113mya), other formations of the Lower Greensand are estuarine/mud flats showing a cycle of sea level rise before the final marine incursion laid down in the Gault (which is also present here on top of the Lower Greensand). As far as species, most of the fragments seem to be members of the Hoplitidae, I've identified one as being Hoplites maritimus, although I think I'll post some up in the ID section as my ammonite knowledge isn't that great. There seems to be much larger ammonites present at the site too, as at the base of the cliff some large moulds could be seen (although the ammonites themselves were gone). There is also an abundance of large pieces of fossilised driftwood, which would likely have originated from land to NE. Needless to say it was a very productive trip (unfortunately the seal didn't return), and it's definitely rekindled my interest in the cretaceous strata here on the island and the fantastic finds it has to offer (I might even start pursuing the dinosaurs again!). If the weather holds I'll head back again this evening to continue investigating the site and the strata, I've also attached images of the finds below (including the larger moulds). The entire haul from the trip, lots of phragmocones An example of the phragmocones Some larger sections of ammonite, although I'm not sure on their ID's

Hi, I haven't been able to get out to the north coast this weekend to collect as I would normally do, so unfortunately I've got no croc teeth and mammal bones to show. However last night whilst doing some landscape photography along the coast been Bonchurch and Luccombe on the south coast of the Island, I made some pretty nice finds and had a really lucky wildlife encounter! The local bedrock here at Bonchurch are the upper formations of Lower Greensand group, including the Sandrock and Monk's Bay Sandstone Fm. (named after the beach at Bonchurch). I've always presumed the Lower Greensand on this side of the Island is fairly unfossilferous, and being an addict for the tertiary beds up north I've never really taken the time to look so close to home. But last night whilst photographing the sunset in the rockpools, I thought I'd take a little look around, and was really surprised. I searched for about 15 minutes (light was fading) and picked up 5 ammonite phragmocone casts (sorry if that's wrong I haven't properly collected ammonites for years) and 3 fragments of ammonites, one of which I've tentatively ID'd as being Euhoplites. I was pretty pleased with this I've collected ammonites before from around Ventnor but never thought of looking for them here in Bonchurch. The best 'find' of the evening however was a little bit more alive and 'mammaly'. I was picking up the ammonite fragments when I heard a loud breathing sound coming from the water, having done marine mammal surveys and been up close and personal to loads of cetaceans in the wild, I thought it sounded almost identical to a cetacean, I looked up and found myself eye to eye with a Grey Seal instead. Seals, and especially Grey Seals, are not common on the Island so seeing one on our coasts was really lucky! I only had my wide angle lens so the photos are pretty (very) bad quality, but I'm planning on heading down there again this evening with my telephoto, to collect more ammonites, and see if he's still in the area. Overall not a bad trip aha! The ammonite finds, phragmocones and fragments. Euhoplites s.p? The Grey Seal, watching me suspiciously.

Just got back from a weeklong trip to Southern Germany in pursuit of ammonites and other Jurassic marine fossil fauna. Accompanied by my fellow collector, Ralph and his friend, Aza we arrived at the Zurich airport and headed straight to Lake Constance and the home of TFF member Roger (Ludwigia) to observe his incredible collection and receive advice about collecting spots in southern Germany. Fortunately, I'm fluent in Canadian. This is Aza, Roger, and Ralph at Roger's home:

One night during our trip to Texas, most of the family wanted to be bums, so my daughter and I went for a hike at Lake Texoma to look for this ammonite beach that we had read about. We parked west of the bridge between Texas and Oklahoma where there is a boat dock and trails. We followed the shoreline west, and most of the ground is broken limestone for a beach. We hiked for a good hour+ before we started really seeing any ammonites. There were many fossil oysters to be had along the way, which can be seen in the car charger picture. I was beginning to wonder if this ammonite beach really existed when we finally started finding some pieces. When we finally got to the location, it was by a bay, and the ammonites were plentiful. The problem is, trying to get a whole one of these guys out, and then carry it all the way back to the car was a no go. We took back a few fragments, but there was no way I was hauling one of these bad boys all the way back as they weigh probably 50-100lbs easily. Luckily we had found the big ammonites a couple days before with Bob from here, so I didn't feel the need to go all out. Here are some pictures of our "catch and release" in situ adventure as well as a few things we took out with us. "

This is all the fossils I got from holzmaden fossil trip and it was very worth it, every single thing here is a fossil.

For Spring break we headed down to Texas for a vacation. My daughter has a love of ammonites and prehistoric marine reptiles, so I thought Texas would be a great place to hunt some fossils as well as do some general vacationing. We spent our first 5 days in Sherman as it seemed most centrally located to many of the hunting locales we wanted to do as well as not far from Dallas. I'm glad we stayed there versus Dallas as I had originally planned as the traffic was a lot less on the days we weren't traveling through the Dallas area. The first day we went, we headed to NSR and in the first 10 minutes my wife and one of my kids were knee deep stuck in mud, and the wife said no more NSR for that trip, so we gave up on the marine reptiles and went for the ammonites the next day. I had messaged @BobWill some time ago and again right before our trip as I had seen his posts before about ammonites. We headed over to his place before going out hunting, and he had a wide range of fossils he showed me and my family. He and his wife were very nice people, and spending the day with them was the best day of the trip in my opinion. I can't thank Bob enough for making our dream of finding our own ammonites a reality. We also went to Jacksboro later in the day, but that post will have to wait until another day when I have more time to take pictures of the fossils we collected there. We got to the site with Bob, and it was literally less than 100 feet to the creek. There were quite a few pieces of ammonites, as well as plenty in the matrix in the creek. We spent less than an hour there and came out with a half dozen intact good sized ammonites. I will need to clean more of the matrix off of most of them at some point, but just don't have the time right now for that. Please use caulk tube as reference for size lol. One of these days I will try to get something nicer for size references.

Had to work in Austin the last couple of days so on the way home, I decided to check out the Waco research site. The site is exposed Del Rio formation. I have never hunted here before. First I stopped and got my permit at the Corp of Engineers office. They were very friendly and pointed me in the right direction. I asked if they had many permits out and they mentioned they only receive about one a week but a week ago had someone sign up for a group. I thanked them for their time and headed to the site only to find that the permit was for a group from the community college and they were meeting there just as I arrived. I spent a few few minutes talking to the professor who explained they were an environmental science class from WCC and it was their first trip out there. I wished them luck and headed down the hill for my first trip ever. I only had about an hour or so so hit it hard. My goal was to find a shark tooth, horn coral and an echinoid but would be happy to find anything. My first find was indeed a piece of horn coral which turned out to be the only one I would find. There are tons of broken shells and around but teeth and echinoids were top of my list. I had no idea the variety of items there. I found gastropods, oysters and small ammonites. All are pyritized and beautiful. I finally spotted the familiar shine of a tooth and to my surprise right next to it was the tip of a larger tooth. I spent one and a half hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. Can wait to get back when i have more time, (which has become less and less lately.) attached are some of my finds.

Well the show is over and the displays have been judged. I won the President's Choice Award!!! Out of 30 display exhibits, due to the vast variety and educational presentation of labeling. I want to sencerly thank all the FF members that engaged in trades with me and made this collection display possible. I am sharing my congratulations with you. caldigger aka: Doren

Here it is, the tail end of winter and I find myself composing a "trip report" from way back in May!!!! Please excuse the tardiness, but it took 9 months for me to pick away at the concretions I collected and extract the fossils within. It was a learning process and I must admit, I DESTROYED the nicest ammonites that I had found. Instead of learning techniques on my lesser specimens, I jumped in and "prepped" the biggest and best first. What I ended up with were many bits and pieces of crumbled ammonites. And super glue did NOT fix the problem. The issue at hand: the matrix is very hard and the ammonite very delicate. Not a good combination for not knowing how and hastily prepping something. It was Memorial Day weekend, time for an extended road trip after a long winter. My wife and I had never been west of Minnesota in the 30 some years since departing Ohio for the Gopher State. So we thought the time was right to experience what our next door neighbor, South Dakota, had to offer. I must say, we were thoroughly impressed with the state's variety of landscapes and great people. Our excursion actually extended into a bit of Wyoming. From Devil's Tower, we worked back through the Black Hills/ Mount Rushmore/Black Hills Institute and the Badlands National Park, each with it's unique topography. I recommend visiting these sites to anyone that has not. Well worth the trip!!! As our vacation was drawing to a close, we again crossed the grassy plains (though we envisioned amber waves of grain, not grass) and overnighted in the town of Mobridge. The next morning, I was to meet up with Grady (gradycraft on the Fossil Forum) for a little fossil hunting in the Fox River Formation while my wife relaxes with her books at the motel. Though I was totally impressed with the state of South Dakota, I was not impressed with Mobridge's accommodations. Here is a view from our hotel room!!! Nothing to see but a large car wash out your window. Now I was going to leave my wife to this, while I was off enjoying myself. I did honestly feel guilty, but not guilty enough to stay behind! Grady met me in Timber Lake and from here, our adventure began. Shortly after exiting Timber Lake, the vastness of this landscape became apparent again. One could honestly feel what it was like for the indigenous Indians before European settlers arrived. One could envision herds of buffalo taking advantage of the lush grasslands around the area. A spectacular place!!! Here I am following Grady on the way to who knows where. Fifteen miles on gravel roads and we turn onto a "path" leading through a few rickety wire gates. Then off we were again. Still flat as a pancake, NO rocks in sight. Where are these fossils I kept asking myself. If it wasn't for the great scenery, I might have worried more that we were on some "wild goose chase". Another 10 miles off the beaten path and I was really beginning to wonder about Grady!!! Finally, a little variety in the landscape showed up and then we dropped into a small valley with a stream running through it. I was ecstatic when I saw Grady's brake lights. We must be there.

I cast yesterday bronze ammonites. Nothing serious, just for fun. I use true ammonites for the shells,the head and tentacles were modeled in wax.

I just find some time to post some other finds from my last tour ... Besides this: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/72771-new-finds-from-mistelgau/#comment-766199 http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/72434-a-very-beautiful-quarry I was also in a quarry near Buttenheim (at the same day). As many of you know its a very famous quarry where you can find nice white ammonites (mostly Pleuroceras) from the lower Jurassic. I didnt spend much time there so my finds arent spectacular ... Here are some of them: The smaller ones: I think nearly all of them are Pleuroceras sp. ... And some detailed pictures: A nice 5 cm big one: Another smaller one (3 cm): A nice 6 cm big spinal

After this post: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/72434-a-very-beautiful-quarry/#comment-762636 I want to show you other finds from the same day but from another quarry ! After my visit in Ludwag i spend two hours in a quarry near Mistelgau. I already posted a hunt there a while ago: http://www.thefossilforum.com/index.php?/topic/69816-a-visit-in-mistelgau/#comment-732319 Sorry but i dont have in-situ pictures (it was simply too dark). However the quarry didnt change a lot I mostly found again small ammonites which come from the "Jurensismergel formation", so about 182.7 Ma till 174.1 Ma (Toarcian). Here is a picture of all finds: (Not spectacular ) Some detailed pictures of those ammonites: A nice 3.5 cm long Pleydellia sp.: Another Pleydellia from another perspective : The biggest one with a length of 5 cm: (Cotteswoldia ?) Two medium sized (3 cm) ammonites with a nice preservation. I think they are also Cotteswoldia ... And i want to show another nice find: This nice gastropod is one of the best Costatrochus i have found until now ! Its 1.5 cm long and well preserved .... Thanks for viewing ! Hope you enjoy

Hey all, Had the honor of being taken fossil hunting with Pfooley recently. Found my first ammonites! I'd been wanting to find some for a long time. Was a great experience and I look forward to more trips soon. Checked out the famous "Windmill Site" first. The drive there was amazing in early morning. I busted open my first nodules... Poor quality picture of the Windmill Site finds. Nice variety in there. Far left is a large bivalve and there's a large gastropod on the far right. We moved on to find some other ammonites. My best find of the day was this large whole Spathites. Had a blast and can't stop thinking about the next time I'll find myself out there... Thanks again Mike!

I recently had the opportunity to do some butt scootin in the gravel banks along the Bear Creek washes looking for crabies and artifacts. Yeah, I found a couple of whathca-ma-call-em artifacts but there are fossils to be found as well. Croc scute, Ammonites Calycoceras Tarrentense & Metengonoceras Dumbli, Gastropod sp. ? Artifacts and my first shark tooth from that location. The other items are just some peculiar stones that strike me as take me home specimens. John, these were found directly below the area that I took you to. It was the same area I found that other crab you are interested in. BTW: I will be getting it back soon.

It was suggested to me to post this also... As I had posted it in a previous thread...