Search the Community

Hi, I have this mystery piece of what appears to be anomalocarid appendage of sorts. The problem is I did not receive any information with it and it came out of an old collection from Maine, Usa. I'm not to sure what else it could be from the appearance but I am also very uncertain of the exact species. The piece of a very laminated sparkly shale If I had to guess it could've came from either Burgess Shale, Utah, or Nevada but I not sure what locality it could be from so if anyone if familiar with these shales and can tell from the preservation it would be a huge help, thank you and looking forward to seeing peoples opinions, and if anyone can recommend an expert to show that would also help.

When faced with a radiodont appendage fossil; How does one effectively determine which slab contains the "part" or "counterpart" ? For reference, here's the holotype Pseudoangustidontus appendage. The first pic, Figure A, is apparently the positive(?) "part" of the fossil. Whilst the second pic, Figure C, is apparently the negative(?) "counterpart". Like it's easy to tell the difference between an impression/cast, or the actual fossilised remains for hard-bodied specimens like shells, exoskeletons and bone. But for some soft-bodied organisms, it's especially difficult when both slabs seem to preserve both the impressions and the fossilised remains of the organism, as in the case with the Pseudoangustidontus holotype. I've also heard that concavity of the matrix usually helps in identification; but thin and soft-bodied specimens often just leaves a planar imprint, so judging by relief might not be too reliable either. Any thoughts on this matter?

Does anyone have any fossils of, or with anomalocaris BODIES? I'm interested in seeing what they look like. I did searches for them and they all look so random, without any features except for the overlapping ends. Even the beautiful full-animal fossils have bodies like that. Did they always fossilize so unimpressively?

Hi! I was searching my backyard for fossils (even though I knew I probably wouldn't find anything), when I came across a piece of shale that was splitting. I used my pick to split it, and I found these "fossils". I'm not sure if this is even a fossil, but it looks like some kind of carbon film. They were so small that I couldn't take any good pictures of them. Each of these "fossils" are ~2 cm long. The rocks I found these in were there when I moved into the house, so I don't know if they were already there, or if they were imported. The first one resembles the possible anomalocaridid relative Pambdelurion, or at least that's what it resembles the most. The second "fossil" is what looks to be some kind of Arthropod with overlapping swimming fins. The last one looks to be some kind of frond (possibly algae?). Any help would be much appreciated, even though I doubt they are even fossils.

I have been researching a fossil "Anomalocaris sp" from the Wheeler Shale. Its from a collector who thought it was his "worst" Anomalocaris fossil and he was clearing his collection to make room for more. I collect Anomalocaridids so bought it from him for less than a $100. I thought the feeding appendage was a little strange as it was so straight, the spines were strange and small, and I couldn't see the podomeres (segments). I love the papers from Dr Allison Daley of Oxford who is an expert on Anomalocaridids and in a paper "New Anomalocaridid appendages from the Burgess Shale, Canada", (A.C. Daley & G.E. Budd, Palaeontology vol53, part 4, pp 721-738, 2009) I read about a very rare and enigmatic Anomalocaridid, the Caryosyntrips serratus. Only 11 or so specimens of this critter have been found and all at Burgess. I realized I was looking at my "anomalous" Wheeler Shale Anomalocaris. But how can this be? The Caryosyntrips has never been found outside of Burgess. Wheeler is also substantially younger. I was sufficiently convinced that I sent an email to Dr Allison Daley and she responded quite fast. She's very excited about this fossil! She also believes it to be a Caryosyntrips serratus and couldn't believe I have one from Wheeler Shale! The greatly increases the temporal and geographic range of this genus and is very important to study. She is writing a new paper on the Anomalocaridids of the US and this is a massive new discovery which will feature in her paper. Of course, I am sending her the fossil to study. After that she recommends I donate it to the Museum of my choice, and suggested the Smithsonian as they already have a large Wheeler Shale collection. Being an Aussie, I'd love it to end up at an Aussie museum, but this Caryosyntrips was "born in the USA" so I believe that's where it belongs. So the Smithsonian it is. Great lesson to everyone on researching your fossils! Sometimes a seemingly impossible fossil can actually be a new discovery. And communicate with the experts, this fossil could have ended up in a private collection as a "low quality Anomalocaris sp." Finally, I could sell this for a huge price to a private collector, but its much better off being studied and residing in a Museum. That's where it belongs. On Monday I will send the fossil off to Oxford for Dr Daley to study. Can't wait to read her new paper!

Instead it is now classified as the frontal appendage of the anomalocaridid: Stanleycaris sp. Pates, S., Daley, A.C., & Ortega-Hernández, J. (2017) Aysheaia prolata from the Utah Wheeler Formation (Drumian, Cambrian) is a frontal appendage of the radiodontan Stanleycaris. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 62:1-7 PDF LINK Paper establishing Stanleycaris hirpex as a new genus and species: Caron, J.B., Gaines, R.R., Mángano, M.G., Streng, M., & Daley, A.C. (2010) A new Burgess Shale–type assemblage from the “thin” Stephen Formation of the southern Canadian Rockies. Geological Society of America, Geology, 38(9):811-814 PDF LINK SUPPLEMENTAL PDF LINK

Hi I would like to have your help to identify this fossil that i think is a part of an anomalocaridid fossil. The size of this section is about 50cm and it was found in a cambrian site with trilobites. Thank you.