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I’ve been busy hunting, but I got behind on posting..I’ll try to get back in the habit. Yesterday I made quite the trek around various parts of DFW. I’m a semi-professional drummer, so I had a gig at 11:30am, which gave me a short amount of time beforehand to swing by an eagle ford exposure around highway 360 (Tarrant County). The recent rains adequately eroded the ground, revealing a nice 15 inch petrified log. I suspect this is the coal zone that I find nearby at other locales, because the log has some parts that appear burned. I should have grabbed an initial in situ pic, because the end piece (not pictured) was broken but in place just an inch or two away from the larger piece, you could just tell it had been broken for a long time. I’ve had issues with previous pet wood pieces from this zone warping or disintegrating after a few weeks, so while this piece is solid and heavy, I might coat it with a polyurethane spray, since that has worked well on my other pieces. After my gig, I went to a Fort Worth formation construction spot, finding a few big macrasters but this one had been picked over like bugs off the back of a gorilla (I’m always looking for new analogies), so almost no ammonites. I then went to a nearby Paw paw spot that my accompanying friend knew about, finding my first micro fossils, some nice echinoids, gastropods, and over 100 little ammonites, I believe the mantelliceras species. My friend found a shark tooth, which I seem to not be able to find as easily. lastly, we swung by a nearby Goodland formation spot in northwest Tarrant county, with the usual broken oxytropidoceras ammos, plentiful heteraster and hemiaster echinoids, and a few nice gastropods and one perfect clam. I am including a nice big Goodland formation bivalve fossil I found a few days ago, just to show it off and keep it in the same category. We are expecting a lot of rain this week, so I’ll be resting my back and planning my next targets!

Today I was supposed to go Fossilhunting in the Silurian Rochester Shale, but plans got changed. All of the people I was supposed to go with came down with one of the many illnesses going around CNY. One of my friends, Tim, was going to my favorite Devonian site so I decided to go with him. My friend Tim is also a member of my local club and I have known him about 20 years. We met up at one of the thruway exits and he followed me to the site. The day was great, without a cloud in the sky. It was still a bit chilly until the sun got higher. Eventually i was able to take my long-sleeved shirts off and put on my t-shirt. Another club member named Sue, who lives only about 5 minutes from the site showed up unexpectedly after about an hour or so. So the 3 of us chatted it up for a couple hours. The finds were pretty typical of the site and many of the usual suspects showed up. I was very happy to find a complete Eldredgeops roller, which has a disarticulated pygidium, right of the bat. I was even more happy when just a short time later I found another Dipluera which looks so similar to the one I found last week. It was partially covered exactly like last week's that at first I thought it was the negative of that one. After a closer look I realized it was a different one all together. I also found a couple Greenops, that might turn out ok as well. All in all it was another great day with good company. I am really liking how 2024 is turning out for me fossil wise and I hope this streak continues. I hope everyone is doing well.

Large limestone outcrops along trails . Beautiful park and views.

Today was a totally awesome day for fossilhunting here in Central New York! The weather was great for March and I had great company. And I haven't even mentioned the fossils yet. I had made plans to get out on a Devonian dig with my friends Stephen( @Buffalopterus ), Trevor, and Gary. I got to the site around 8am and was delighted that it was nice and Sunny. I was surprised when another car showed up and it turned out to be Eric, ( I can't remember forum name). The other guys showed up around 10, followed by Eric's friend Cassie. I really enjoyed everyone's company we all were joking around and laughing the entire day. As the sun got higher it kept getting warmer. And it seemed that everyone was finding stuff. Trilobites were very abundant today. Everyone found multiples I think 5 mostly complete Dipluera's were found today even though they were all small. I lost track of how many Greenops were found, but it was alot, and there were a couple Eldredgeops in the mix. I will say the the Greenops that were found by Trevor were the biggest and nicest ones that I have ever seen from there. He probably found the most Trilos out of everyone today. Lots of nice Brachs, Bivalves, and Gastros, as well. Just a great day all around. Here are my finds. And yes I got another Dipluera!

A little over a week ago I flew to Memphis and then drove down to Tupelo, Mississippi to spend two days collecting at the nearby Blue Springs fossil site, Upper Cretaceous, Ripley Formation, Coon Creek Member. It was my fourth trip there in the past two years. Weather was decent- 65 degrees the first day, 55 the second., a mix of sun and clouds both days. The site was very mucky the first day there, but it dried up for the most part by the second. The first time I visited there, the surface collecting was excellent. Not so much the last three times and this time was exceptionally poor. So, as you can see from the photo, I did a lot of digging. The softer material near the top did have fossils, but normally they crumpled as soon as they were exposed. One particular small nautiloid that was original shell material and mostly gold color was especially heart breaking. As I dug deeper, more intact fossils appeared in the now tougher marl, mostly mollusks with at least some shell material though much of it came off when the rock split.

A couple weeks ago I was on a fossilunt with my friend Stephen to a Devonian locale near Canandaigua Lake. This was a new spot to me, but is a known spot located on private property. This area is known for crinoids and large Eldredgeops, some up to 3 inches. I went with Stephen and his friend Gary. We arrived shortly after 9am. We parked in the owner's drive way and had a fairly long walk across to cow pastures to get to a creek located in the treeline at the back of the 2nd pasture. This is a Hamilton Group Moscow Formation Middle Devonian site. Crinoid pieces were very abundant in certain layers as well as trilobites in other layers. I found a fewtrilos mostly complete but covered in matrix. Gary found a decent roller. Some rather large corals were found by Stephen. I enjoyed collecting some Naticocema lineata gastrops as these were new to me. I didn't bring a ton of finds home but I was happy with my haul. I am posting pics of my finds, but will post more when I have a chance to take other pics. Some of my finds do not photo well.

I was wondering if anyone has done any fossil prep with material from Fossil Hill Nevada?

It's been several years since I've last posted. Had a bit of run-in with a medical issue that took me offline for awhile. I seem to be doing better and have been able to complete a daylong ramble in the local hills albeit at 70% of my former capacity. This trip is in the Sacramento Mountains and covers the hike into the Mississippian Lake Valley (MLV) Formation, specifically the Nunn Formation for collecting. The MLV is the last of the formations in the Mississippian locally. After that I ascended into the lower Pennsylvanian known as the Gobbler Formation here. The two Covid years + my own medical issue brought about a lot of negative trailhead access issues. The detours around these now restricted areas add to the hike length sometimes quite measureably. Once into the distant hills away from humanity things look much brighter. The following is a shot back into town and the White Sands National Park (thin white strip in the distance). I'm standing on the Nunn Formation of the Mississippian Lake Valley Formation. If you can't find a crinoid, horn coral or spirifer here you simply are not trying. A couple of crinoid hash slabs picked off the ground. There are plentiful root and stem pieces but intact calyxes are difficult to find and usually quite small (15mm).

I mapped out a quick trip to recover some pet wood I identified last week but failed to initially remove due to having too many ammonites (I know, a real problem!), taking me initially by a Fort Worth formation spot. I found a few huge macraster echinoids (currently being cleaned a little) in tarrant county, a few smaller mortoniceras ammonites, and a nice bivalve. Then I swung by the eagle ford shale where it starts after the woodbine and found 2 conlinoceras and some nice pet wood in addition to my target specimens from last week. Also a bone, currently awaiting ID. Tarrant to dallas counties, TX

Some of the highlights from my last trip to Abbey Wood, an Early Eocene site on the border between London and Kent. Mostly sand tiger teeth, but a few angel shark teeth as well, along with some bivalves and gastropods. Some of the rarer stuff includes a sand tiger vertebra and a vertebra from an unidentified bony fish (the two items in the top left).

Hello Everyone! I managed to get out to hunt for fossils twice this week with today being absolutely awesome. Tuesday I went out with my friend Mike, in hopes of finding Trilobites. Had a great time even though I didn't find any whole Trilos. Mostly Cephalons and Pygidiums. I found a few decent brachiopods. Even though I didn't have much luck it was nice to get out with a friend and enjoy the day. And I was happy for Mike as he found 2 Greenops that I believe are both whole. He has only found 1 complete Eldredgeops in the past so this will be a nice edition to his collection. But today was a whole different story. I invited a few people to come with me today, but they all backed out. So I ended up going by myself. I left the house about 5:30 am. I was not happy when it started raining especially because the forecast didn't call for it. Thankfully when I got there it was just sprinkling and it stayed that way for the 5 and a half hours that I was there. I started my hunt finding alot of decent bivalves, which are not my favorite but were decent enough that I kept them.every once and awhile I would find a trilo head or tail but nothing special. Then eventually I found what appears to be a disarticulated Dipluera, though it might be whole and is mostly under the surface of the matrix. A little while later I find a roller which I believe is complete. Then I lift up a slab and find Dipluera cephalon and part of the thorax stuck to the bottom upside down. I looked down and saw the negative which was complete but the rest of the trilo had fallen off disintegrated. Oh what a Heartbreaker! But I kept going and then I found another roller that is whole except for a portion of the tail came off. Then I found a thorax and pygidium and I am not sure if the cephalon it buried in the matrix or not. Shortly after that I found a negative of a different Dipluera thorax and pygidium, but no matter how much I searched I couldn't find the positive. Also in the mix is a complete Greenops and a partial. I found a huge bivalve, probably the biggest that I have ever seen. I will have to post it in the id section when I get a chance. I should mention that all of the Dipluera's are small and they all need to be prepped, including the Greenops. But what a day! I definitely left there satisfied. Without further adoo here are pics for your viewing pleasure!

Set out yesterday morning to dig up seedling blue bonnets in area by a gulley I hunt, haven't been there for a year so thought I'd check it out before it started raining. I think this is an outcrop of Britton formation, Eagle Ford. Didn't get far before it started raining so basically filled my bag with globs of clay for most part then proceeded to clog up bathtub washing it all off. Pretty happy with results, wish I could find whole ammonites the preservation is so good, was tickled with two Inoceramus that had some shell. So mystery #1, I'm stumped and afraid to chip at any more not knowing the rest of shape. #2, not sure if the piece of shell is related, looks an awful lot like a ptychodus tooth but I'm sure it's something boring Threw in last one just curious what it could be.

Hello everyone! I've hardly had downtime this November, between work and my fossil hobbies! I've been from one end of the state to another, from doing a display with my fellow club members towards the Appalachian mountains, to hunting by the coastal plains with others. It's fun, but also a bit tiring! I've got just a little more planned before the holidays get into full swing, but for now I'll just show off a little of what I've been doing. It'll kind of be all over the place, much like I have been! I don't want to focus on it too much, as I'm mostly just showing off my finds, but this is a shot of my display I did for a club event in Hickory, NC early in the month. It was mostly comprised of my best finds from the past two years with a few fossils I received from fellow collectors, and I think people enjoyed it! I met a few new friends and got acquainted better some some others, and I was able to snag a sweet piece of literature, which I'll mention again later. Ultimately, it was a great event, and being in the western side of the state for it had put me in a good position to swing out and hit an unusual Triassic spot I've been checking out on my way home. On to the Triassic Troubles; I've, unfortunately, hit a snag with finding a good local spot. Some of the ones recorded in literature are either inaccessible or in a risky location, and the two more well-known areas have been a no-go with the landowners. I got really close on one, but I was cut from contact at the last minute for unknown reasons. It's unfortunate, but I'm not giving up yet! I might try one more time to reach out after the new year, and I still have one potential site near home that I might be able to access once deer hunting season has passed, though it seems to be mostly a conglomerate based off of geological reports, so there may not be much. I'm also heavily considering trying out kayaking, as there may be river exposures as well. I did, however, achieve one goal I was aiming for with local Triassic fossils, in a roundabout way. A fellow club member gave away some of her old Otozamites specimens from the Pekin Formation, so I was able to give it to the local historical museum for their collection. However, I did find a different kind of Triassic spot, which is the one I hit on my return trip! The Triassic spot I have been able to visit, which is from the Cow Branch Formation, is just a small exposure of brown to black shale off of a road in the northern part of the state. It isn't very big, and so far I haven't found much of anything specific, just a lot of little "somethings". It could just be odd minerals, but I think some of it could be random loose plant remains. However, the first one pictured I have I've been told by several people may be fish scales, so it's probably the best contender yet. The rest are just examples of the random little "somethings" I've found in the shale. Now on to the Waccamaw Winnings; I joined a few friends and some new acquaintances on a trip to a former pit in the southeastern part of the state only a week after the first event. It's a spot I've previously been to back in the spring, but like most first time trips I was plagued with stomach issues and was mostly getting familiar with the site's contents. And much like other trips, it seems like the second time is the charm! I found a lot of really cool things, including my third North Carolina Echinoid species. The whole cleanup took almost two weeks, which took a lot of my free time up (and is also why sharing the highlights has taken so long). Unlike my previous trips, I've better identified a lot of the finds from this site, in part due to a book that was recently published, the Photographic Atlas of Waccamaw Formation Mollusca by Timothy David Campbell. I picked it up from him at our fossil even in Hickory, NC, and It's been a really neat little guide for the things you can find in the formation, as far as mollusks go. Here are some of the specimens I had after cleaning, where I left them to dry overnight and sort the next day. There are microfossils in two of the compartments of this box. Here are some assorted microfossils in a different box, while I was trying to sort them. These are super fragile, and I have to be careful how I pick them up with the tweezers to avoid crushing them. There are bivalves, gastropods, barnacles, bryozoan colonies formed around grains of sand, crab dactyls, echinoid spines, and a couple of scaphopods. Here are some bagged microfossil bivalves and gastropods. I currently don't have them sorted down to genus / species, but I'm hoping one day I'll find the time to do it. They can get quite small, and I've found some that were around .635 to 1.27 mm (.025 to .05 inches) in size. Now onto some specific finds. The first specific things I have are the Lirophora varicosa athleta, also known as Imperial Venus clams. I really enjoy the variable ridges on these clams, and in a way they remind me of Ecphora in regards to their structure. These are exceptionally plentiful in the site we were at, and I ended up snagging perhaps a few too many specimens, haha. I did have a good reason for, which I'll get to later. Most are loose valves, but I did find a few nice intact specimens as well. I had more that I didn't photograph, but this is a good representation of the ones I did collect. These little shells can hold a surprising amount of microfossils to boot! I did also find an unusual, pathological specimen, with some unusual curvature to the valve, and flattened ridges. Onto another plentiful bivalve in the site, Glycymeris americana, also known as the American Bittersweet. These are very fun to collect, because they have the potential to contain a lot of microfossils inside their shells if they are covered in the dirty matrix, especially the larger ones. These are found intact as well occasionally. Now for an unusual one, this one has small little bumps all over the interior surface. I'm not sure if it's some sort of pathology, a bunch of blisters, or something else. However, this particular specimen had something neat inside the matrix that once filled it; a small shark tooth! These are fairly uncommon in the formation, so it was a nice surprise to find while cleaning it out. This was not the first shark tooth I found, though. I found this slightly larger tooth in the dirt while I was hunting the site, as well as this fish skull of unknown species. Unfortunately, the skull was once more intact and pristine, but some unfortunate accidents while showing it off to relatives and transporting it caused it to fracture into four pieces. I was able to reform it with three, but the last one was permanently lost. I believe both shark teeth are from a Mako, but I'm still not the best at identifying them. One friend managed to find a sizable shark vertebrae in the site as well. While on the topic of surprise finds, arguably my best find and the biggest surprise was my first "whole" echinoid of the formation, and my third North Carolina species found! This Mellita caroliniana was hiding inside of a matrix-filled Dinocardium robustum also known as the Atlantic Giant Cockle. I had to have the shark-vetrebra friend help me retrieve this shell, as it was up on the side of a dirt wall I couldn't quite alone fully reach. I was jumping with joy when I discovered this thing hiding inside it! It was a bit of a good twist of fate as well that I had to change my cleaning method for this trip as well; we only have well water where I live and we were in severe drought conditions, so I was forced to clean my specimens with a spray bottle rather than a water hose (which is also why it took so long). I think if I had been using a hose it would have destroyed the specimen. The aboral surface is crushed in and the petaloids are a little fractured due to this, but I still think it's a great specimen! It's currently sitting in a cabinet until I can get the wisdom of my fellow fossil club friends on how to best preserve it with consolidant, as I'm worried it'll fall apart if I'm not careful. It's likely going to stay in this cockle as well, which I think makes for a good pairing, as well as a demonstration as to how things get buried together in the formation. I did find what I believe was an intact microfossil echinoid as well, likely a juvenile Mellita. However, I unfortunately have nothing to go off of other than my words, as it tragically broke apart after it had dried and I attempted to move it to a coin case. It was probably less than 6mm (.236 inches) in diameter, and I believe I had misidentified it as one of the small bryozoan colonies at a first glance. Now that I know it's a possibility to find them, however, I'll try to be even gentle while cleaning out my finds, so I'm likely to stick with my current bottle method for the foreseeable future. On a brighter note, while it isn't a whole specimen I did find most of the oral surface of a Rhyncholampas sabistonensis. It's enough of a specimen that I feel good displaying it in a case! Back to mollusks now, the site has a fair number of these Arcinella cornuta, also known as Florida Spiny Jewelboxes. The ones from the Waccamaw Formation seem to have much larger spines. I was fortunate enough to find two intact specimens of these this trip! One did come apart while washing, but I kept the pair together after cleaning the microfossils out from inside. These shells hold a lot of microfossils as well, both on the interior and between spines. They often have barnacles as well, though, which fall off easily if care isn't taken while cleaning. Next are some of the Americoliva carolinensis gastropods I found. They're extremely similar to the living Oliva sayana, also know as the Lettered Olive. These seem to have the best odds of holding up the best out of all the different mollusks from the site, which suffer from deteriorating aragonite. Two very pristine and large specimens I found have quite a sheen to them still! They're both exactly 6.1 cm (2.401 inches) long. Here are some Chionopsis cribraria valves, an extinct species of Lady-In-Waiting clam, from the site. The slightly frilly ribbing on these makes them quite attractive, but the sediment that settles between them is often times difficult to remove without damaging them. Next is a scallop of the Argopecten genus, which contains the modern Atlantic Calico Scallop (Argopecten gibbus). There are several species present in the formation, and many have very subtle differences, so I'm having difficulty differentiating them. This one specimen is fairly interesting due to the outer layer being almost entirely covered with a type of bryozoan. Here are few slipper snails, mainly Crepidula fornicata, a common slipper snail from the formation. They're really "arched", and can curve strangely when they're larger. The upper right specimen is likely a different species, but I was having trouble identifying it. In addition to the standard slipper snails, I found a Crepidula plana (on the right), which is a flat slipper snail, and two Bostrycapulus aculeatus (on the left), a type of spiny slipper snail. I have a soft spot for slipper snails, as an older gentleman at the beach gave me some really cool modern specimens and explained to me what they were when I was younger. Here were two neat oysters I have yet to identify. One has a lot of different coral growths all over the outer surface. These are a whole bunch of intact Plicatula marginata, a type of Kitten's Paw Clam. Out of all the intact bivalves in the site, these are by far the most common, and they tend to have a lot of "personality". I've seen some with some crazy ridge variation, and I've seen some with only one or two large ridges (Timothy Cambell had a really interesting one that was basically one giant "U" Shape) Here is a Gemophos basidentatus, an extinct Cantharus snail. This is probably one of the larger ones I've found, most of the ones I've found are microfossils. Some more interesting gastropods. The top two are Ilyanassa irrorata (Extinct nassa mud snails), the bottom Left is a Cinctura evergladesensis (An extinct banded tulip snail), and the bottom right is a Ilyanassa scalaspira (A larger, extinct nassa mud snail with some cool ridges). Some small predatory gastropods. From Left to right: Strictispira ? acurugata (An extinct turrid snail), Turritella virginica (An extinct turrited snail), Turritella beaufortensis (Another extinct turreted snail), a pathological Turritella beaufortensis with an unusual curve, Neoterebra dislocata (Eastern Auger Snail), Neoterebra protexta (Fine-ribbed auger snail), and another Neoterebra dislocata. Here are two Neverita duplicata (Shark eye moon snails). These can sometimes be really well preserved as well, but in other cases they're some of the most deteriorated mollusks. This is a Naticarius plicatella, an extinct species of moon snail with an interesting spiral groove pattern. I, for the life of me, cannot nail down the murexes very well for some reason! The bottom three are members of the Urosalpinx genus (All three may be Urosalpinx miamiensis?), the top right is a Eupleura caudata, and the top left is currently unknown. Several whelk and other gastropod species from the site. The top row are all Busycon contrarium contrarium (A left hand, or sinistral, whelk), middle left is a Busycotypus amoenus (A knobby, or nodose, whelk), middle right is a Heilprinia carolinensis (An extinct gastropod related to the tulip and spindle snails), the bottom left is a Fulguropsis floridana (A type of whelk with a recessed canal on the top spiral), and the bottom right is a Ficus papyratia (A fig snail) with a broken tail. And finally, the cone snails. The top one in the first picture might be a Conus anabathrum, but the rest are some species of Conasprella, (Mostly Conasprella oniscus?). These are also some gastropods that have been particularly tricky for me to differentiate. However, the two in the second picture are a couple of rarer Conasprella adversaria, which are a species of left hand, or sinistral, cone snails. Their left hand morphology makes them easy to identify, and I'm heard someone say that they can get quite large at times. I picked up a lot of the cone snails, too, but most of them went unpictured. And just as a fun bonus, while we were cleaning up and getting ready to depart I discovered this interesting shell under a sheet of metal! It's not a fossil, but rather a shell from a Euglandina rosea snail, also known as the Rosy Wolfsnail or the Cannibal Snail. These land snails are native to our forests, but they're a particularly nasty invasive species elsewhere, especially in Hawaii, where they've wiped out at least eight native species of gastropod. It's probably the largest land snail I've seen myself around here! And with that the Waccamaw trip is all wrapped up. As I said before, the cleanup took nearly two weeks, and was quite exhausting, but absolutely worth it. As for the hundreds of spare Imperial Venus valves and dozens of other species, I took a look back through all of my recent finds and my finds from April, and have separated out the specimens I wanted to hold on to. The rest have been donated to the Aurora Fossil Museum in Aurora, NC, where they'll hopefully find some good uses for them! It helps keep my collection at reasonable quantities, while also helping them out and hopefully giving others the opportunity to obtain some things they wouldn't normally be able to easily find. It also gave me a good excuse to spend the day relaxing while digging in the pits there, which contain a variety of cool fossils from many different formations, including the Yorktown Formation. I'm definitely a invertebrate kind of guy, but I like a good shark tooth hunt once in a while too! These were some of the more interesting finds I had that day, including an unidentified cone snail, two nice Hemipristis serra upper teeth, and a broken Otodus chubutensis tooth measuring about 5.969 cm (2.35 inches) long. And that's all my adventures I've had the past month! I still have one trip left planned for this year, which is combination return to the Waccamaw site, as well as a trip out to Holden Beach for one last go at the Hardouinia mortonis echinoids this year. Beyond that, I think I'll spend the rest of the holidays at home, spending time with family and working on some important projects. I might check out the one Triassic spot if the gentleman gives me permission, since it's only a short drive away, but I don't know if I'll go on any more "long trip" hunts until closer to the Spring. There are also some club friends from central and western North Carolina that may want to check out some different spots this winter, whom I may make an exception and try to tag along with, but there's nothing solid planned yet. I do have one potential beach trip that I really want to try come February depending on work holidays and the weather as well, but the focus would be on finding modern echinoids, particularly the elusive Rhynobrissus cuneus.

My annual excursion to visit my family which migrated to Kentucky years ago took place at the end of October into November, lasting two weeks. Of course, the planned trip took me in the vicinity of some excellent fossil bearing sediments and though quality time with family was the primary purpose, I did hope to add to my collection. All of the spots I visited were ones I've been to before; however, the first stop was a new one for me- Paulding, well known and documented on the Forum for its Middle Devonian marine fauna. I drove from the suburbs of New York City for almost eleven hours, raining most of the way, arriving at and spending the night at a hotel in Defiance, Ohio. Paulding was about fifteen minutes away. Drove there the following morning, It was a brisk forty degrees, mostly cloudy, but sunny at times. A TFF member I was supposed to hook up with there unfortunately had to bail last minute. A nearby quarry which exposes the famed Devonian Silica Shale had, years ago, stopped allowing collectors to hunt there. There was a big outcry and the quarry set up a fossil park dumping fossiliferous rock onto a property they owned which the public were free to collect from. Much of it is now overgrown and much of the rock has been reduced to gravel. However, there are still many fossiliferous chunks out there if one is willing to look.

It has been quite a while since I have written a trip report and I thought I'd share the results of some of my most recent fossiling adventures. Before diving into the fossils, this past weekend I had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage of the east coast. The Appalachians, usually quite unassuming hills that are nothing near the grandeur of the mountains to the north and west, were quite a sight to behold. The fall foliage was clearly quite popular, as I did not expect the entrance to Shenandoah National Park to be quite as backed up as it was. I made it up to the overlook as the sun was setting, as it is said that the colors are most impressive under the light of the westering sun. Unfortunately, the sun was mostly obscured by clouds, but the views were breathtaking nonetheless. Now, for what I am sure everyone has come here to see: the fossils! Over the past couple of months, I have acquired a renewed interest in the fossils of the Maastrichtian Severn formation of Maryland. As any who are familiar with this formation know, it is quite elusive and its most famous exposures were temporary construction sites in decades past. Several weeks ago, I visited a small creek that I had heard exposed the fossiliferous shell layer of the Severn. Initially, exploration of the creek did not seem promising and I only managed to locate only one poor exposure of the Severn at creek level. After some searching and many shell fragments later, I was rewarded with two relatively complete specimens: Crassatella vadosa Cyprimeria alta Although the yields had not been high, I was quite satisfied with these specimens due to the relative rarity of sites containing original-shell mollusks. A huge thanks to @historianmichael for identifying these specimens and for the preparation tips (unfortunately the shells have begun to crack but I am hoping they may remain salvageable). Inspired by my recent success and hoping for some vertebrate remains, I headed out to a new site. After taking quite a circuitous route through some woods and tall grass I made it to the exposure. The invertebrate fauna at this locality was not incredibly diverse, consisting almost wholly of the oyster Exogyra costata. A handful of Exogyra costata A more complete specimen of Exogyra costata with both valves intact. After encountering these first few Exogyra, I was left with a few hours to devote to searching for vertebrate remains. With my lack of experience with these fossils and their notoriously poor preservation, I only managed to recover a small selection of possible fragments. The entire haul of possible vertebrate remains. If any members have any insight on whether these are identifiable vertebrate remains, it would be greatly appreciated . Below are isolated photographs of some of the more intriguing finds of the day. This fragment bears some resemblance to a partial mosasaur tooth. However, it may be too fragmentary to assign a confident ID. Scapanorhynchus texanus I cannot say what this is, though I am hopeful that it might be bone. I believe that mosasaur and turtle remains can be found at this site. I am very grateful for any opinions. With the weather cooling I do not anticipate that I will be able to get out as often as I would like, but I hope to make a few more forays into the Severn before the year's end. Thanks for taking a look and happy hunting!

Help I can't figure out what this is or what matrix it formed in?